I've been in book publishing long enough to remember when audiobooks became an integral part of the publishing program, the forerunner, so to speak, of the ebook. While the number of physical products is dwindling, there are still a wide number of titles available in digital format—just peruse the audiobooks tab in the iTunes store. Even Stephen King's 1,110 page monster, Under the Dome is available—and unabridged! Audiobooks have been favored by commuters, but as the responses to the story on the NPR website reveal, listeners use them while doing a variety of activities. I still prefer reading to listening, believing (unscientifically of course) that I retain more through the act. But then again . . . I have often been entranced listening to NPR's Selected Shorts. Not only are the stories wonderful, but so are the readers. A great reader can make a great story sublime and a mediocre story entertaining. It's all in the telling.
Audiobooks tap into the great oral traditions of preliterate societies, when traveling bards would stop from place to place to share the stories that would then be remembered and passed on. Neil Gaiman recalls how oral storytelling was an essential part of his growing up. Some of my own fondest (and earliest) memories are of my mother, her lips pressed to my ear, sending me to sleep with Hickory Dickory Dock, Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, and other nursery rhymes that have been shared across decades and generations. Maybe that's where I first developed a love of words and language. I had a friend in a former writing group who admitted she had a hard time listening to stories; she couldn't retain what was being said. Hearing this confession was sad. I advised her to keep practicing, keep listening, keep trying.
Hopefully, parents out there are telling stories to their children as well as reading to them. Not only are they passing on the gift of language, they are helping their children become good listeners—a quality seemingly in short supply these days.
