I’m a big reader I love books and audiobooks but some people prefer one or the other so are books a hit or miss or are audiobooks, or do you like both?
Books
You can either buy books, new or pre-loved. I think a good quality pre-loved book saves both me money and a little bit of the planet too. Alternatively you can borrow them for free from your local library, if you can get to your library, if not some libraries do offer a home library service run by volunteers and in rural areas a mobile library service both things to make getting books accessible to more people. I personally feel it’s important to keep libraries open.
Some of the downsides to books is they’re less portable, for example to take on your commute to work or when travelling.
Books can also be difficult for some people such as the font could be too small, reading may be difficult if you have dyslexia or cognitive difficulties. Irlens Syndrome may also make reading difficult unless you use coloured lenses or overlays. I have dyslexia and Irlens myself and my M.E. can make it even harder to concentrate on the text and I get easily brain fogged and fatigued when reading at times. I love reading but sometimes I don’t have the cognitive ability to read.
E-books
A more tech version to books are e-readers like nook books and kindles. These are more portable than books and you can carry multiple books at once on them. The downside is the cost to buy an e-reader but e-books are often cheaper than the physical copy. You can also change the settings to make it more accessible such as to enlarge the text and change the font and line spacing. I use the kindle app on my iPad and I can even put a colour filter on my iPad settings for my Irlens. It still doesn’t feel like I’m reading a physical book though, I did enjoy my nook e-reader though.
Audiobooks
Another thing with audiobooks is the cost. Sometimes you have to pay a subscription to access audiobook libraries such as Audible and Scribd. These are cheaper however than the cost it used to be to buy audiobooks on CD or Daisy Players. Some audiobook libraries are free to those who are eligible such as the RNIB Reading Service, and often local libraries offer free online audiobook libraries too, mine is on the Libby App which Listening Books also uses and this fee can be wavered also. Some libraries also use Borrow Box for free audiobooks.
Audiobooks are also a lot more portable than anything else as you can commute to work with your mobile phone and have your audiobooks downloaded on there, or you can travel and take your books with you which is much easier than trying to pack three books in your bag. It’s also easier to listen with noise cancelling headphones to an audiobook when going places than trying to read with noise and distractions around you.
One big downside to audiobooks is that not all books are made into audiobooks, this is really frustrating I find especially when audiobooks are your main source of books. There’s this trilogy of books that I really want to access but only the first book has be made into an audiobook so I haven’t yet been able to access the second and third books. I personally believe under the Equality Act 2010 which covers disability that all books should be made into audiobooks.
Another downside to some audiobooks is the narration is a bit hit and miss, sometimes you can have great narration like Steven Fry’s narration of the Harry Potter series or just general good narration then you have books with bad narration. Good narration is really important as it helps bring the book to life I find.
A big pro for audiobooks is that they are a lot easier and more accessible for people like myself with dyslexia, or Irlens syndrome and those with a chronic illness/disability that affects a person cognitively or from being able to hold a book or affecting their vision etc. It means they can still access the vast majority of books with a lot more ease and independence without hindrance.