Listening vs reading

OK, I admit it--although I've been the librarian in charge of the audiobook collection at the library where I work for over 8 years, I don't listen to them at all.

There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is primarily the time involved--I am a fast reader, and read much faster than normal human speech. Consequently it usually takes me a lot less time to read a book than it would take to listen to the audio equivalent. And I'm not above speed-reading or skimming when I get to any boring parts--over-long descriptions, or when the narrative has switched to the interior thoughts of a character I don't particularly like, or in some romances the mushy parts, that sort of thing. There is no equivalent of speed-reading or skimming available for audiobooks--even though most CDs are split into tracks every three minutes, if you jump to the start of the next track you don't hear what's in between.

Even though I don't listen to audiobooks--someone reading a book out loud--I do listen to, and am very fond of audio theater, full-cast productions with music and sound effects. The ones of which I am most fond are those produced by the folks over at ZBS.

They are a reseller of audio productions done by other folks, but they also offer several other series created and produced entirely in house. The two biggest series are the ones involving Jack Flanders and the science fiction series featuring Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe (I just ordered the latest installment in that series today). Both the Jack Flanders and Ruby series incorporate wonderful music and sneak in very interesting elements of magic, mystery, mysticism, philosophy, and social commentary.

I've been listening to these productions for decades. My first exposure to them came late one night over 30 years ago when I tuned in to the college radio station at the University of Puget Sound, where I was a student, into the middle of one of the episodes of "The 4th tower of Inverness" and was hooked. I had to call the station and find out what they were playing, and I think I made sure I tuned in and listened to the succeeding episodes. Many years later, after I had moved back to Portland, I was driving around one day and had tuned into the PBS station at a time I didn't usually do so and had no idea what they played that time of day anyway and caught an episode of "Moon over Morocco"--and had to pull over and listen to the rest of the episode.

Over the years I've collected each episode of both the Jack Flanders and Ruby series, and have listened to the entire cycle of each yearly.

I love them--they are wonderfully done, and manage to be a bit weird but very interesting, often thought provoking, and highly absorbing and entertaining. I love listening to them on head/earphones. (I admit it--although I've been listening to stereo almost all of my life, when I'm listening to really well done stereo on ear/headphones I often feel like looking around me to see where the noise is coming from.)

There are a few negative things I could say about the ZBS productions--side-effects of their interesting, entertaining, and absorbing qualities, if you will. When you're listening to them, especially if you're using ear/headphones, do not try to read or indeed do anything involving using language creatively like writing. You will not want to be interrupted while listening, so if you have family living with you tell them not to bother you until you tell them the episode is finished. If you try listening to them in a car with other people you'll find yourself asking everyone else to please shut up.

Listening while working out works very well. You might find yourself doing so for longer than usual, though, because you'll want to listen through to the end of an episode. I copy my CDs as CDs to my iPod through iTunes, and not just as the individual tracks. The CD-equivalent I was listening to today while using the treadmill has 2 episodes, each about 25 minutes long. I hadn't been on the treadmill for a while, and today I wasn't sure I'd make it to a half-hour; when I got to the end of the first episode at 25 minutes, I thought "Hmmmm....maybe I'll just keep walking until I get to the end of the CD"--and did, another 25 or so minutes later.

I highly recommend either of the two series.

ZBS


SMC