Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Woody Allen on audiobooks

Woody Allen has committed some of his work to audiobooks. As an admitted luddite, he has interesting things to say about the process. 'The discovery I made was that any number of stories are really meant to work, and only work, in the mind’s ear and hearing them out loud diminishes their effectiveness...There is no substitute for reading, and there never will be. Hearing something aloud is its own experience, but it’s hard to beat sitting in bed or in a comfortable chair turning the pages of a book, putting it down, and eagerly awaiting the chance to get back to it.' More...

For the record, I agree and disagree. I love reading books, but with over an hour a day in my car commuting, I also love listening to a good performance of a good audiobook. In other words, you can have both.

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