Can I read a physical book when I'm running? Can I read a physical book when I'm doing house work? Or throwing pots in my studio? Or knitting? Or cooking? Or driving?

Can I stay focused if I'm just sitting and listening instead of reading? Absolutely not.

There's no 'vs' here. They occupy different spaces. All hail text, whatever form it takes.

Its not cheating, some books can only be read, while others are improved with audio.

I prefer reading books, there is something special about holding a book in your hands, insering a book mark or jotting down something illegible in the margins.

I have read a massive amount of books in my time as a psychotherapist for 25 years.

For me, it is far better to read books to fully understand and examine the theories, concepts and methods illustrated by the authors. Marginalia comes to its fore.

However, I do listen to my fair share of audiobook. My main gripe with audiobooks is the readers voice. I cannot stand the squeeky, high pitched, robotic, nasally, sounds like AI, might well be AI, especially american female voices. Being British, just one paragraph and I am immediately put off and turn them off.

I have recently tried to listen to "Into the Into the Deep Wood 01, The Witch by Polina Volkova". I had to stop listening after a few paragraphs. If only the reader had a british voice.

I find switching back and forth between pages to find something you remember reading a few days ago is too difficult with an audiobook. No marginalia with audiobooks.

Do authors select who reads their books. maybe they do not. They should have readers from different countries and different languages.

My favourite audiobook reader is David Thorpe. I have the entire series of Mark Dawson's; John Milton, Beatrix Rose, Isabella Rose, Group 15, plus the novellas and more recently the Charlie cooper series.

I do not experience the same excitement reading those books.

I feel we're in the golden age where the format matters so much less.

Taking "99% invisible" for instance, the content in the podcast, on the web or in a book are fundamentally the same level of quality and interest.

Then light novels are pushing the boundaries of what novel literature should look like and we get hundred page books formated as SMS conversations or with ASCII art like layout without much issues.

And on the other end interview and reporting shows are becoming way more researched than the bog standard columns in printed magazines.

Patreon is behind a lot of this change, allowing money to flow to creators whatever their medium, and I'm all for it.

I don't understand what's the debate unless you're assigning some higher value to the written form, like people who think reading makes you more disciplined or a better person than others in some way.

If you remove that and realize reading is a form of communication then it doesn't matter how you make it happen. There was a time when stories and knowledge was mostly shared verbally so it's not like reading is "the truest form".

Do what you like/works for you.

Amazon is trying hard with Audiobooks, but they seem to be extremely expensive to me, maybe that’s their way of making a lot more money than kindle format.

I spend my listening time just trying to catch up with podcasts.

What audio book formats are there, and services. Dare I say it are there any open source ones?

There are many podcast players, are the many audiobook players?

Is there anything really useful in an audiobook player? I guess going through chapters, maybe linking into the actual text.