.png)
When Girls Talk Books
Are you ready for story time? When Girls Talks Books is a podcast with two best friends bonding between the pages. They give comprehensive reviews of books where even if you haven't read the book, you can still enjoy the story. Brace yourselves for a tornado of laughter and literary love! When Girls Talk Books is here.
When Girls Talk Books
Book Bites Reading vs Listening: The Great Book Debate
Ever found yourself debating whether listening to an audiobook "counts" as reading? You're not alone. Our latest Book Bites episode dives deep into the fascinating divide between audiobooks and physical reading, revealing how our brains process information in surprisingly different ways.
Susie and Kylee sit on opposite ends of the reading spectrum – one connects more deeply through audiobooks, while the other needs the physical page to truly absorb a story. This fundamental difference leads to a fascinating conversation about how we each uniquely process information.
The discussion covers everything from narrators who make or break audiobooks (with strong opinions on certain Irish accents!), to which genres work better in audio format versus text. Non-fiction and books with extensive character lists often shine as audiobooks, while complex fantasy with intricate worldbuilding might benefit from the ability to flip back pages for reference. Speed listeners will appreciate the debate on whether 1.5x or 2x is the sweet spot for audiobook consumption.
What emerges most clearly? There's no wrong way to enjoy literature. So tell us – are you Team Audiobook, Team Physical Book, or happily enjoying both worlds? Your brain might just be wired for one more than the other!
Editing done by Connor Luther @clfilms.co
Music by @thundercatlouis
Merch Here
Hi everybody, welcome back to Book Bites. I'm Susie, I'm Kylee and Book Bites is our mini like series. So we do a little bit of a different theme every time, and this one is about listening versus reading books. And is there difference? Because there is there is a huge difference, especially now that she has shown me audiobooks so I'll start off here.
Speaker 2:Susie and I are on different ends of the spectrum here. Susie loves an audiobook. I'm more of a physical or a kindle reader, so I thought it'd be kind of nice to like different sides, different opinions. I have done audiobooks. It's not like opinions. I have done audiobooks. It's not like I don't do audiobooks, but I'm definitely just more of a physical reader. Okay, so I don't know, I thought it'd be fun, um, okay. So in your opinion, do you think you connect with the story the same way if you're listening to an audiobook versus physical? And? And if you don't think so, what are the difference?
Speaker 1:I think I can connect more to a book when I'm listening to it. Really, yeah, I don't know what it's called, but when I'm reading a book, stuff is moving and I will jump. So I actually have to read it aloud alone or I will not remember anything. I am reading Nothing. I mean you could, you could hand me anything, I'll gone, but I have to say it, write it or listen, and then it'll stick.
Speaker 2:So in our last book did you read it out loud? I'm just curious, yeah.
Speaker 1:I had to sit there and read it out loud, and then, when Eric was home, I would get self-conscious and have to go, like I'd go downstairs and I read to my dogs. So I'm like come on, girls, it's story time. And when I was little I would do that too. I would read to our dogs. That's kind of cute.
Speaker 1:I kind of love that. I would do it when the dogs were scared because I was like, oh well, this makes me feel better and I'd sit there and read the book. Tell no one that I'm sweet and vulnerable. So anyway, we don't.
Speaker 2:Hey, we don't. I think I'm kind of the opposite. Okay, I think I connect way more when I'm reading, like because it's so in my head and I'm making everything happen and the characters are how I want them to be or they sound how I want them to be.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I will say it. There's been a couple times I've been betrayed by an audio listener.
Speaker 2:I'm like, pardon, yeah, you sound like a nine-year-old boy like what you're not, this big burly man, no, no, no, like, yeah, um, so how they sound, like the way that they do things like like you're just so, which I'm not. I skim read sometimes, but I'm like so in my head when I'm reading where I can see it.
Speaker 1:I can see you, and I have talked about this before. Yeah, we have the brain where you can like literally see the movie going.
Speaker 2:I can see it happening.
Speaker 1:We're married to people that thought we were insane. They're like you, you see things and I'm like that's not no I'm not saying yes, and I also see things when I read.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so I I definitely have my own world going where I feel like with an audiobook, I'm more of just like listening to it, but I'm not, I'm not absorbing it. So I have like polar opposite, where you absorb it more when you're listening versus reading. It's very weird. What do you think about emotionally?
Speaker 1:I try to avoid my emotions. Okay, boy reading suzy. Oh sorry, what do you what?
Speaker 2:do you mean well, like okay, for when we were reading the Things we Leave Unfinished, okay, oh God Cried. Oh, I don't do that when I listen to an audiobook, I'm just connected differently.
Speaker 1:Okay, oh, I will. I get an emotional response equally like reading or listening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't don't wow. Yeah, that's wild because I feel like it's just being told to me which it is obviously, but like when I'm not absorbing yeah, huh, yeah, when we read the things we leave unfinished. Did you audio book it or did you physical copy? Pretty sure I audioed it. I'm pretty sure I audioed it, you were just crying Fair, fair enough.
Speaker 1:We also do tend to finish books like six days before my cycle, so I'm usually very emotionally charged. We'll have to test it.
Speaker 2:We'll have to read different parts of the book. See how you're feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, be like this will be extra fucking sad If you don't cry. You're a psychopath Like you're ovulating.
Speaker 2:There you go Narrators. They can make or break, yeah they will destroy a book. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Have you had like bad narration?
Speaker 1:Horrible, horrid, yes. In narration horrible, horrid yes. In my opinion, the butcher and blackbird guy can't take him fucking seriously, are you?
Speaker 2:kidding me like everything. Are you for real?
Speaker 1:I can't. He like literally made me withdraw when he would talk and when we get to nasty, something like oh god, no, please stop with the irish accent you were into that.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. I can't do that. That is crazy. He's like one of the top narrations. That's nuts. I didn't do nothing for them. To each their own.
Speaker 1:I don't. I'm like in such a state of shock. I'm not gonna lie. I you're the first person I've ever told that to, because everyone's losing their minds over it and I'm like because it's great and I feel like I do usually like accents, but just that guy in particular mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Well, I suppose you're entitled to your wrong opinions. Literally, um, mine a lot of times isn't a male character. I feel like males. You know it's same like when you're playing sims, like you spend hours on your female and you're like here's a dude. Uh, I don't really care that much about it. It can't be bad, I'll say that, but I do think they all kind of sound the same. Okay, yeah, there are some that are better than others the irishman but uh, for the most part I don't think about it too much the girl.
Speaker 2:However, I hate it when they impersonate the guy that thank you, they do a horrible job yes, it's just I don't like it at all and I all I can think about is picturing them in a studio recording and doing these voice changes. I can't, however, if we got a tandem read of like a male and a female, like talk, as like there's dialogue, it's going between the male and the female love, love it, yep it, yep.
Speaker 2:Thank you, take that, okay, big fan of that. Now I think there are certain genres where an audiobook makes a lot of sense. Yeah, for instance, any nonfiction. Yeah, I am not Especially fantasy.
Speaker 1:So that that's fiction, duh, that's fiction, duh, that's fiction, duh. Susie, sorry, welcome everyone.
Speaker 2:We're just having a day. Yeah, it's just, we're both. We're both here. Okay, it's fine. I asked what that light was earlier, so give yourself a little bit of a break Anyway, anyway, nonfiction, biographies, things like that. I think audiobook is basically the only way to go. Okay, yeah, I can't agree, I can't, I, I don't like biographies anyway I don't like someone's fucking diary so I get it and I'm not gonna finish it.
Speaker 2:I don't care that much. Yeah, which I've. I don't think I've ever read a biography. I don't care about celebrities' lives that much. I don't know if I have either. Don't care.
Speaker 1:You would have to have one hell of a mother-hacking fucking story to convince me to like.
Speaker 2:I also probably don't really care. You're yeah, but if it's like um, that book I read recently, what happened to you like that was a non-fiction, talking about your brain and how it processes trauma and things like that, love ate it up, I don't think if I had the physical copy I would have finished it okay, because it's just like okay, like it's a lot of technical talk and things like that, where you're like boring. Exactly, but audiobook loved it. I finished the whole thing. I thought it was so good.
Speaker 1:It's kind of more podcast-y at that point. Just like certain podcasts I would never actually watch, and that's fine. Us, I like to think we're pretty funny like. You'll probably laugh even harder if you watch us on screen I think it's our facial expressions.
Speaker 2:Good god, we can't hide anything. The crying come on. I'm pointing to suzy. She cries all the time I do.
Speaker 1:It's because I, you know, suppress my emotions so much that once I get here, I'm like you should have saw me at her wedding giving my speech.
Speaker 2:You want to talk about suppressed emotions. I could barely get through it like. This is 16 years of friendship.
Speaker 1:I didn't think she had cried that hard until I watched my wedding video after we got it back and I was like oh, that poor thing it's embarrassing thinking back on it.
Speaker 2:Hey, I'm glad my speech was good, because I was it was. It was very well. That was rough back in the boat. Yep. Another thing I think is really great for audiobooks is when there's a lot of characters.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah I have a terrible memory. So, yeah, you know, keep, keep the family tree short and sweet, to the point, and if you're gonna have more than like eight characters, I'm gonna need a chart characters. There's a lot yeah yeah, that's a lot of people um magnolia parks if I didn't have an audiobook, I would have already given up. Fair, oh my god, there's a lot of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember you saying that that it makes it easier to keep it.
Speaker 1:Oh, all of a sudden, I enjoyed it. I understood that there was like brothers, but they're not necessarily brothers. I understood the accents just so much more. Oh my God, oh my.
Speaker 2:God, I audio booked Daisy Jones and the Six and I started the physical copy and it had it's all like interview style, but they're all kind of talking at the same time so it would be like whatever. I don't even remember anybody's name, but it'd be like Daisy and then Billy and duh and duh, and it was so hard to keep track of. But the audio book it was so easy, because they all had a voice and I started to pick up whose voice was whose and I could follow it easily, and so I infinitely better.
Speaker 1:Whoever voices in Magnolia Parks. What's his name? Julian, julian. Julian Got it. My man Got it. His voice the best one Best.
Speaker 2:If I get in there and it's some irish man, no shit, that's the best part, not just like dark enough, like ah, love his voice so I couldn't think of it earlier.
Speaker 1:There you go. I'll google it later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's great so now on a physical book. Okay, you're like, stay with me To refresh your memory. You can't like flip back in an audio book like you can. A physical book, true. Also, I'm a big Kindle reader, so if I don't remember what this place was, I can just type in whatever it is, press search and it'll bring me to whatever page it's mentioned. Wow, so that's really nice. And I don't think you get that with an audiobook. Nope, so that's like one of my thumbs down for an audiobook. Do you ever have to go back?
Speaker 1:I feel bad. I'm like I don't think I would ever care enough to try to go back and figure something out. I'm like, well, if I didn't remember, you didn't do a good enough job writing this book that I'd want to remember, so next, she doesn't read enough fantasy.
Speaker 2:You gotta, you gotta, go back. I would, I would kind of avoid them whenever I could.
Speaker 1:The temple of the what, because it's just like you know, my personal life and family life is complicated enough. I don't fucking need your shit.
Speaker 2:I don't need this info dump of the magical realm and when I was a kid I was pretty much only allowed to like anything like that.
Speaker 1:But so much Lord of the Rings that I don't even want anything to do with fantasy anymore, because I'm so over it. That's like high fantasy yeah, yeah Over it, but this was a good like get myself back into it yeah um, and zodiac. Yeah, zodiac is also hard, all right, yep got burned out because there's just so much happening which is constantly. No problems not here to pick it apart, but I'm gonna need a long time before I'm ready to go back yeah, well, you've had about two years so yeah, we probably have to like I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot, it's a lot. The re-level we're doing right now is, like me, going on a fast run, so I can't imagine trying to add any more material. I can barely finish these books as it is even with audio, I read it this morning. Yeah, I'm like I cannot, yeah. Now I just read for podcasts, I cannot just read for pleasure.
Speaker 2:It was time. Well, in fairness, you weren't reading for pleasure beforehand. Really True, in all fairness, true, and we've opened a whole new world of smut. Yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:You're loving that yes. It's been great, the speed of your audiobooks. What do you have them?
Speaker 1:at 1.5. 1.5? Yeah, 2 is a little too, and I'm like, ah, hey, wait, slow down. Wow, whoa, whoa, whoa man, depending on what's happening, I can keep up with 2. But yeah, usually just 1.5.
Speaker 2:1.5. Do you skim read at all Like when you're reading physical.
Speaker 1:Uh, the one time I did, you asked me if I ever even actually read the book, so that I've never skim read a thing again, cause I was not going to be prepared Ghost adventures. I know, yeah, it was a ghost book.
Speaker 2:That was Also you. You said it, it, so you said it, it wasn't. You said, oh, here I am asking questions like I didn't even read the book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so yeah, I will never skim read again.
Speaker 2:I think there are certain books where it makes sense, you know, like, oh, romance, you can very easily skim, read it Like okay, I guess it also depends on your level of skim reading. If you're kind of like where you can all, you only really have to read like half of the word, like that kind of skim reading that's, that must be nice.
Speaker 2:So a word like when you look at a word, it just looks like what it's supposed to be, like the numbers and letters aren't jumping around like yes, oh my god, um, so when I'm reading like, I only really need to read the first part of a word, oh, and like you, just your brain knows what my brain gets it. It follows like patterns of stuff, so it just like oh yeah, what a breeze. I don't, I don't, respectfully, I don't have to read every single word.
Speaker 1:The dog went for a walk like the dog went for a walk.
Speaker 2:That's how my brain just works.
Speaker 1:That'd be amazing. I'd soar through books too. Oh fuck girl.
Speaker 2:Now I will say I read podcast books and my fun books way differently. Podcast books I have to pull my plot points and what I'm gonna write down to talk about that's like we're stopping to take notes or be like exactly he said, exactly like you have to stop and pull yourself out of it to like okay, I need to remember that or I need to do that now. If I'm just reading, reading, I can zoom through a book, no problem so it's just very.
Speaker 2:It's very different type of reading. We'll have to see like we'll test my dyslex book, no problem. So it's just very.
Speaker 1:It's very different type of reading we'll have to see like we'll test my dyslexia. Be like if it's just a book that you have no time limit on. Do you notice it? Does it flare up more because you're like nervous?
Speaker 2:because you're worried about it. Yeah, maybe. Um, so, just two very different types. And also I find myself like putting off reading the podcast books because I have to do the note-taking and the plot points and things like that yeah, I just want to enjoy it. I just want to read about my mafia man, like protecting her, and move on with my life like I don't want to care what page number this happened at.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so I get I get what you're the.
Speaker 2:Oh, I got the podcast book. Here we go, even though I read more obviously, but I still have that like.
Speaker 1:Okay, you gotta leg up. We gotta do this Like come on Holy.
Speaker 2:Spirit activate. Yeah, I do read my audio books at two times speed. Okay, I wonder Sometimes if I'm getting real into it. It's like two and a half, like I get so but I have, I also read. I read very simplistic stuff most of the time, so it's like I don't read a whole need, a whole lot of. You know that's true. If I'm reading something fantasy, there's no way I can't do that. But if I'm reading like a rom-com, yeah, I can go to two and a half. And also because, libby, if I'm getting to the end and I'm like I gotta finish this, then yeah, I'm gonna crank that up and test it and see. And sometimes, like I'll be like, okay, that's, we got places to be. I'm not understanding actually. So I'm gonna need to move that down half a percent. You know, hold on, hold on.
Speaker 1:You know, hold up hold on her sister was a witch, her sister. I'm listening okay. Okay, I've got one. What did people do before? Audiobooks just suffered um oh, yeah, they did storytelling. Does they read aloud and shared with others Storytelling has been around for a long time.
Speaker 2:They probably tried to read the physical books. I wonder when audiobooks came out? Well, they had books on tape.
Speaker 1:Audiobooks have been out forever. But just a general question. Yeah, those are all things I think about. If you had to choose one or the other, physical, okay, audio.
Speaker 2:Hey, we both knew what that answer was going to be, but I mean, everyone wanted to know. Just a cute little story Justin's mom recorded him when he was a kid reading stories and then he would put them and listen to them before bed at night. So he would listen to himself reading a story before bed at night. So he would listen to himself reading a story before bed at night.
Speaker 1:That's actually really cute, really cute, and I'm picturing little jesse little jesse so cute.
Speaker 2:Oh so the big question. Okay, do you think it makes a difference, audio or physical, or do you think audiobooks count as reading? That's a hot question.
Speaker 1:People ask whoa um wow, I don't know why I always want to tell that, because I'm like uh kylie and the lie detector determined yeah. Yeah, I think it just depends on the person. I feel like that's yeah, like everybody's going to feel differently about it. I do think it's still reading, because you're still listening to something.
Speaker 1:I think it's reading. Okay, yeah, because, like, you still have to participate, you have to listen, you have to remember and you're still. That'd be like trying to say something they can't see, can't read, like they're still feeling the words and putting them together. That's a good point. Yeah, so yeah, I just thought about it that way I, uh, I had somebody tell me okay.
Speaker 2:But so if that's not reading, but they're listening to and taking in every single word on that page, do you do the same thing when you're like physically reading no, hell, no, hell, no.
Speaker 2:And they do so like they're kind of taking in more than I am on a physical book, even though I relate differently when I'm listening or reading. But for somebody who enjoys audiobooks more, it's the opposite. They're taking in everything more than I do with a physical book. In their eyes, yeah, like fair, I think it counts. Yep, and I also think like reading's fun. Reading's supposed to be fun, and if you gotta audiobook it to enjoy, it hats off. Do it. Who?
Speaker 2:cares like whatever it takes and if somebody's telling you no, that doesn't count as reading, you can just like, like I'm sorry that your insecure nature is so deep rooted in how you like finish a story like yeah I. I just let people live how they would like to live practicing the let them theory.
Speaker 1:That's been a little rough for me, a hard time, but I'll keep trying well, I think something like that.
Speaker 2:Like people are enjoying it, they enjoy audiobooks. Just let them. They're not hurting anyone. It's not the end of the world if they say, oh, I read this book, and you go did you actually read it or did you audiobook it? Like, got it, yeah, I can't. I can't handle that. So that's my opinion on it. I like that okay thanks, guys.
Speaker 1:let us know what you guys think. Yeah, do you prefer audio or physical reading? Yeah, yeah, well, we want to know which side are you on. Are you a listener, are you a reader? Are you both?
Speaker 2:Are you a? We're a fan of white shoes.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you Well. Audio reader listener or a physical reader listener? Yes, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Let us know what you like, and if you like our short videos, you'll probably also like our other ones that we do. They're a little bit more long format, so if you have ADHD, like me, you gotta pause it and come back. That's fine, it's a story, yeah.
Speaker 2:We're telling the story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you did like this video, like it. Subscribe Follow.
Speaker 2:Share With all your friends. Please, yeah, thank you. Please, please, like my video. We're just a girl.
Speaker 1:Our production team does a lot to make all this happen. It's really good, so you'll probably really like it. Thank you, we'll be back next time. Bye.
