Is it a Book if You Don't Read It?

The Bonesetter's Daughter.  Freakonomics.  Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  Room.  Secrets of Droon.  The Lady and the Unicorn.  Mary Poppins.  Shakespeare: The World as Stage.  The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.  Reading Lolita in Tehran. Nuture Shock. 101 Dalmatians. Fight Club.


What do these have in common?

They are all audiobooks that we have listened to recently.  We have all become aficionados of the media:  Mama listens to books almost two hours a day during her commute, the first to embrace audiobooks and the one to choose all the ones we hear; the kids, who almost can't ride in the car without their recent book; and now me, the last to embrace them, who listens while I walk on my treadmill for 45 minutes everyday.  I had heard Mama's stories when she drove me to various appointments or the kids' when we all went somewhere together, and all of them talk about what they were listening to.  But I've never much been one for really enjoying audio, beyond music--I don't listen to NPR, I read it.  But I had to find some way to pass the time on the treadmill and it was too much to read sometimes (with my head bent); music alone is never enough and I can't always find someone to talk to on the phone).  So, I'm listening to my first book, The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracey Chevalier.  I don't follow every word and find myself wishing I could see a name, a phrase on the page, or wishing I could re-read or skip sections.  I can't control the pacing, the emphasis, or the inflection, which is determined by the acting of the readers.  Audiobooks are somewhere between reading and performance (movies, theater, tv) for me; neither fully literary nor fully dramatic, neither fully within my control (i.e. my interpretation of the written word) or fully beyond it (where I am a passive recipient of another's vision).  I know none of the research on hearing vs. reading a book and am not sure I much care at this point.  But I feel, for me, that it's certainly not the same, though I'll be curious to see what the cumulative effects are--will I remember audiobooks better or not, will I uncover the literary value if I hear it instead of see it?  Of course, originally, all stories were transmitted this way; but we are now much more a literate society (okay, yes, some would say we are not as literate as we once were, but overall we are less oral).  Still I'm glad of my audiobook so far, enjoying the story about medieval artists and weavers and a real work of art more than I would a similar hour of tv.   But I can tell I haven't embraced audiobooks altogether . . . because I still plan to read the book someday.