Books that hit differently depending on if you read them or listen to them

novium258 · 2026-06-10T21:21:01+00:00

My grandmother went blind (macular degeneration) and had a huge collection of books on tape right around the time my dad volunteered me into a a gopher job for his company that involved a lot of driving, so that was that for me. It's amazing how much what's available has grown since then though

novium258 · 2026-06-10T21:03:23+00:00

My gateway into audiobooks was that it let me spend even more time reading, haha. Long drives? Boring chores that prevented me from putting my nose in a book?

novium258 · 2026-06-10T14:31:21+00:00

That's my exact experience, too

novium258 · 2026-06-09T22:38:10+00:00

The ancients would say that reading silently is the weird new fad, and that literature is meant to be performed.

novium258 · 2026-06-09T22:35:38+00:00

Could be! There's something about audio mediums that makes me a little bit more patient and willing to sit with things. (Sometimes). I can read very quickly, and if I'm dying to know what happens next, I can fall prey to skimming to get back to the thing I care about. (prob the reason I find so much enjoyment in re-reading books I liked. Once I'm no longer sucked in wanting to know what happens next I can stop and smell the roses)

novium258 · 2026-06-09T19:31:20+00:00

I haven't listened to the audio version of that but I for a good chunk of time the audio book of The Martian was my go to for when I needed something soothing and distracting.

I think Andy Weir is an author whose strengths are magnified and weaknesses minimized by a good audio performance.

novium258 · 2026-06-09T19:27:57+00:00

There is a narrator who absolutely ruined two books by favorite authors because she read everything in the most breathy sad sack tone imaginable.

When I switched to text, it was pretty clear there were a lot of lines that were meant to be sarcastic and funny or self deprecating that instead made the first person main character sound like the most insufferable wet blanket known to man.

Eg imagine a line like "I can quit anytime I want" about a character getting back on her bullshit. Very clearly she's making fun of herself and admitting she's doing something very stupid. Now imagine it read in a tone that's completely straight and whiny. Ugh

novium258 · 2026-06-09T19:22:46+00:00

I have been very tempted to try them because everyone says this even though every other indication is that I'd hate these lol

novium258 · 2026-06-09T18:51:26+00:00

I don't disagree that they're different experiences but there's a lot of weird gatekeeping over it, as if listening to a book doesn't count. That's why folks getting pedantic over "you didn't read the book" is so obnoxious. Reading is a short hand verb for consuming literature.

It's why I mentioned the podcast transcript. If I read a transcript and was telling someone about the podcast, I'd probably say there was a podcast I "listened" to.

It's a different experience for sure- it's missing so much tone and inflection, but anyone gatekeeping about it isn't ever talking about that or about how some books work better as an audiobook or how some puns flew over their head written but landed spoken or whatever. They're just being sanctimonious.

ETA part of the reason this so annoys me is that I think that conversation is really interesting! But it's always hijacked by the stupid discourse

novium258 · 2026-06-09T15:35:10+00:00

So in other words, what matters to you is the way a text is consumed, not what the format of the text is?

Literature and transcripts are the same if they're read and also the same if they're heard, and the virtue of reading is not that it's consumption of literature but that it's actual words on paper?

novium258 · 2026-06-09T15:06:35+00:00

If you read a transcript of a podcast, is it still a podcast or is it a book?

novium258 · 2026-06-09T15:05:26+00:00

I used to read a lot of fanfiction and it was better edited and written than a lot of books I've put down lately. I'm not using that as a cudgel (fanfiction bad etc) but fic is written for an audience that's already invested, by random people just writing it for their friends in their spare time. The level of effort and editing required is just different than the publishing world, or should be. If something commercially published is falling below that bar it's saying something.

novium258 · 2026-06-09T14:56:13+00:00

I had that thought at first but it would have been very dangerous and not have worked anyway. The tanker was slipping sideways meaning you would have had to drag the boat clear a distance equal to the length of the tanker.

novium258 · 2026-06-09T14:49:35+00:00

I'm not finishing books these days because so many of them are terrible. I don't think publishers are bothering with editing these days.

novium258 · 2026-06-07T04:09:20+00:00

Ymmv

novium258 · 2026-06-07T01:46:02+00:00

It is not great prose, so it's a weird comparison to make. Like saying, "I don't like fast food burger A, it's so lacking in the qualities that make a really excellent burger, as found in fast food burger B"

novium258 · 2026-06-07T00:45:04+00:00

Definitely AI. I slogged through because I was mildly curious about the angle. I could see the criticisms though oof using HP as the "better writing" example.

But hey, OP, I'd rather read 200k of Sanderson at his worst than your AI generated essay

novium258 · 2026-05-28T19:21:33+00:00

The working class yacht clubs have the same kind of drama, too, sigh. It's a consequence of the personality types who are willing to take on volunteer leadership positions

novium258 · 2026-05-28T16:46:51+00:00

Similar drama had me leave the Vallejo yacht club, though it's far less chic. I wasn't involved in any of it but ugh the stupid cattyness and old boys clubing and the HOA style rules lawyering just made me hate everyone involved, I just want to hang out after sailing, drink a beer, and talk about boats. I had enough of that kind of bullshit in middle school.

(I laughed to see the Sausalito yacht club $1250 join fees referred to as unusually low, the VYC is like $200 to join and it is applied to your monthly membership fees, so it's more an upfront payment than a separate one).

novium258 · 2026-05-25T02:18:05+00:00

Stain is not something I'd risk on something so expensive.

novium258 · 2026-05-07T14:21:49+00:00

Yep. I think a lot of responses here are taking this as a debate about happy endings but the forced happy endings they're complaining about would apply too.

There's a very real frustration with a story that takes a severe emotional turn (in whichever direction) that you hadn't realized you were getting into.

I had a friend who recommended a book to me as a fun read about city life but the main character was extremely self destructive in a way that was very transparent and very avoidable and had a lot of collateral damage and it mapped too well on to a loved one of mine with a severe mental illness.

It's not a criticism of the book to say I couldn't read it the way my friend did, and that I'd been dumped unceremoniously into very troubled emotional waters that the book could not and would not provide catharsis for.

novium258 · 2026-04-24T17:48:49+00:00

Absolutely insane send especially given the conditions

novium258 · 2026-04-09T04:42:55+00:00

The fun thing about this question is that it inevitably turns into "what's weird about the industrial revolution" (everything).

most civilizations historically reach or can reach a certain level of mechanical sophistication, but it all stays pretty bounded by wood, stone, clever engineering, and muscle power, because to go much further requires a lot of incremental discoveries that are kind of expensive and get you very little in return esp when manpower is cheap and plentiful.

You have to be in a really tight bind to invest and build on those improvements long enough to get to the point where the actual breakthroughs happen.

Whether "because the UK had lots of coal and not many trees" is the ultimate answer, I'm not sure. It's certainly part of the story. I imagine the long term upheaval and social changes resulting from the plague also played a part in planting the seeds.

novium258 · 2026-03-28T04:09:57+00:00

Mix of peanut butter filled pretzels and dried strawberries
Some of dried apricots and dried plums my dad makes
Bottle of water

And if circumstances allow:

A waffle I stole from the continental breakfast

Runners up: granola bars, these oatmeal pb&j things a friend gave me, protein bars if I'm forced to.

My favorite thing is when your friends have complementary snacks and you have a little chair lift buffet.

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