Audiobooks 👂🏻 or Reading 📕 a Book?

Reading a Book or Listening to a Book? Which is Better for You?

I had the opportunity to think and experiment for a long time about reading and listening to books. As someone who enjoys the classical reading experience, I wanted to give it a chance to listen to it 2 years ago.

In the classic way, I took the book in my hand, turned the pages, and read like that for years. Then I took advantage of the blessings of technology and enjoyed the experiences of both reading on my phone and reading on Kindle. I still like to read classics more, but I find it more comfortable to read with Kindle during travels and holidays. When I'm at home, I usually read classics.


The experience of listening to books is something much newer for me than other options. I've been experimenting with listening to books for 2 years and the thing is, I really like it. Several different platforms, applications, etc. After trying it, I decided to continue with 🎧 Storytel last year. The last book I listened to was Goethe's exquisite work, The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Reading or Listening to the Book?

Short answer for those with limited time: 

Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. Reading if the place and time are suitable, listening for all other conditions!

You need to determine which one is better for you based on your preferences.

Here's a comparison examining the differences between reading books and listening to books and the advantages of each:

📚 Reading Books

Language and Vocabulary Development: Reading books enriches vocabulary and improves language skills. Encountering new words and expressions in texts helps learn the subtleties of written language.

In-Depth Comprehension: While reading a book, you can examine the text at your own pace and go back and review the details. This helps to better understand complex topics.

Concentration and Attention Development: Reading books helps increase concentration and maintain long-term attention. Of course, for this to happen, environmental conditions must be sufficient.


Personal Connection: When reading a book, you can establish a deeper personal connection with the characters or the theme of the story. Listening makes you feel a little more like an outside eye.

1. Better Comprehension and Focus: Visually reading the text can sometimes offer better understanding and retention.
2. Control Over Pace: You can adjust your reading speed to suit your needs and preferences.
3. Ease of Note-Taking: Marking up the text, underlining, and taking margin notes is easier.
4. Enhances Visual Memory: Remembering words and sentence structures visually can strengthen visual memory.

🎧 Listening to Books

Multitasking Ability: While listening to a book, you have the opportunity to do other tasks. For example, listening to a book while exercising, doing household chores, or in traffic can help you use your time more effectively. Some of my friends say that they cannot focus enough on the books they listen to while doing something. You should give this a try.

Non-Visual Reading: For visually impaired people, listening to books is a great option. It also reduces the risk of visual fatigue for those who are visually impaired.

The Art of Voiceover: With a good voiceover, the experience of listening to books can become more attractive and impressive. With the correct emphasis in the text, there is an opportunity to perceive the meaning of the work more clearly. You have many successful voice actors and their voices are truly amazing.


Speed and Ease of Access: For speed readers, listening to books is a faster way to consume content. Additionally, there are options to voice the text faster or slower, which is a blessing for those like me who find it more efficient to listen at different speeds. For example, I finish easy texts faster if I listen to them at x2 or x2.5 speed. It may seem very fast to you, but after a while the brain finds anything below x2 too slow. This offers the opportunity to finish a book by listening to it in a shorter time than reading.

1. Multitasking: You can listen while doing other tasks (e.g., driving, cooking).
2. Portability and Accessibility: Easily accessible and portable on mobile devices.
3. Suitable for Visually Impaired: More accessible option for individuals with visual impairments.
4. Language Learning: Offers opportunities to improve language skills for learners of a foreign language.

To summarize briefly, reading books and listening to books have their own special advantages. Depending on your preferences and lifestyle, you can use both. The important thing is to make sure that both approaches bring you pleasure and knowledge. Perhaps the best way is to experience the books in different ways, using both methods. While you can improve your vocabulary by reading books, you can save time by listening to books. In the end, as long as you love books and consider them a part of your life, it doesn't really matter which way is better.

If it were me, I would use both depending on different conditions. Listening to a book and reading a book will open almost the same door.

As I do now…

Why Storytel?

The most important advantage of Storytel over its other competitors is that it has a very rich library and this library is constantly updated. I can summarize its other advantages and/or features that make me happy as follows:

• You can experience a work from more than one publishing house and more than one dubbing. Are you not satisfied with the voiceover you chose? Replace it with another!
• The annual price is very very cheap. You can access the entire library for the price of a few books. The monthly price is still affordable, but the yearly price is very advantageous. Especially if you are a student, there is a huge discount coming. It's not like you'll ever miss it.
• The voice-over quality is top notch. This way, your focus is not distracted and you can fully understand the text.
• There is also special content for children. With a single membership, you can have a delicious listening experience for both you and your child.
• There is an option to listen offline. This way, if you wish, you can download the book to your phone and listen to it even in a place where there is no internet connection.
• You can increase or decrease the vocalization speed from 0.25 to 3.5. Thanks to this, you can understand difficult texts better by listening slowly, or you have the chance to listen to easy texts faster.
• There are dozens of different works exclusive to Storytel and these works are truly classy.
• If you wish, you can read many works as e-books. Didn't listening to books make you happy? Jump right into your reading experience.

In the coming days, I will pay attention to the careful timing I take for listening and reading books. Since it is impossible to read during long walks I take for sports purposes, listening to a book will again be the best option in my bag.