Lately, I have been pressed for time. Well, let me be clear, I have always been short on time and though it looks like I am busy I am actually quite inefficient. But that is beside the point...I have been short on time. And as a result of my time shortage some things have fall off by the wayside. The most notable being my book reading time.
Well, to improve my time usage, and due to the fact that I enjoy books quite a bit, I have started getting into books on tape. Every day on my to and from work (or whenever I am in the car, really) I am listening to something, be it a novel, historical work, or some other non-fiction. I am finding the same level of engagement and appeal as I do with real books, but I wonder if the cognitive effects are as beneficial.
My dad always used to say that books were better than movies because your mind had to fill in the gaps not seen, heard, felt, smelled, or tasted in the book. You have to connect the dots, clothe the characters, and set the stage. It was your world to create. Additionally, I believe there is a cognitive exercise that happens when you decode text into those messages you take in to guide the construction of your little world.
What I wonder now is if I am getting the same benefit from listening to text. I realize the pace is slower, but I am still engaged and visualizing and internalizing. However, the reader’s tone, speech-patterns, character voices, and pacing all influence my experience with the work. As a result, I am less of an active participant. On the flip side, my engagement in the text goes up. I find my mind wandering less, which requires me to re-read (or re-listen in this case) less than I do with printed text.
If pressed, I would say the mental exercise of decoding words is more valuable to me as thinker, but the act of listening to books is still cognitively valuable...and definitely still entertaining, which is what it’s all about, right?
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