In a 1993 Wall Street Journal article on stagnating audiobook sales, one Random House executive lamented that “too many people still think audio books are only for the blind.” Listening to novels no longer seemed like a utopian fantasy at all. And yet, by the time portable cassette players became ubiquitous in the 1980s, the mood about listening to books had changed in a way that would have surprised 19th-century audio enthusiasts. It took a full century, but the technology finally did catch up to Nymanover’s vision of a world in which people could walk down the street listening to books. An 1885 essay in the influential British literary magazine The Nineteenth Century maintained that Nymanover’s whispering machine would be a “boon to our poor abused eyes,” and also that when we read print, “one half the power of literature is lost.” “The advantages of such books over those printed,” Edison wrote, “are too readily seen to need mention.” And Edison wasn’t the only one who thought listening to books would be obviously superior to reading. He hoped to open a publishing house in New York that would sell novels recorded on six-inch circular plates. After announcing the invention of the phonograph six years earlier, Thomas Edison turned almost immediately to the device’s implications for literature. Though mocked by some, Nymanover’s vision of a book recording in a hat wasn’t entirely far-fetched in 1883. Nymanover called the device a “whispering machine” and suggested that it could be placed inside of a hat so that someone walking down the street or reclining in bed “could be perpetually listening” to great works of literature. Need tips on making a cozy space for reading and listening? Check out this post on how to create the perfect book nook.I n 1883, Evert Nymanover, a Swedish scholar at the University of Minnesota, proposed a new invention that some thought would affect the future of humankind: a device that played recordings of books. Audiobooks can captivate the imagination, allowing listeners to create a whole world at once within and outside themselves.” Being able to escape our daily worries is a powerful tool that we can easily tap into through the wonder of audiobooks. Psychology Today cites audio as “one of the most intimate forms of media-listeners work together with the narrator and author to create mental pictures of situations and characters. The National Literacy Trust notes that “audiobooks can help develop reading skills, such as decoding and comprehension.” Listening to an audiobook allows your eyes and mind to relax while ushering in a good night of sleep.īeing able to work our brain and read books while doing tasks like driving, cleaning, or exercising is a win-win-and allows less satisfying chores to become more enjoyable, reducing stress. The blue light from screens is a disruption to our circadian rhythm, which makes nodding off at night difficult. On top of that, studies have suggested that there’s a link between social media use and feelings of loneliness and depression-another reason to put an audiobook on and the phone down. Most Americans spend over seven hours a day looking at digital screens, which can lead to blurred vision, eye strain, and long-term vision problems like nearsightedness. Looking at the brain scans and data analysis, the researchers saw that the stories stimulated the same cognitive and emotional areas, regardless of their medium.” Discover noted that “in a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from the Gallant Lab at UC Berkeley scanned the brains of nine participants while they read and listened. listening to someone else read aloud can help by replacing negative thoughts with something else.”Īudiobooks have the same benefits of readingĭon’t let anyone tell you that listening to audiobooks is cheating. Psychology Today notes that for “those of us prone to anxiety and depression. Need some listening inspiration? Check out these bookseller-recommended audiobooks.Īudiobooks build crucial listening skills for childrenĪccording to the Audio Publishers Association, audiobooks help “build and enhance vital literacy skills such as fluency, vocabulary, language acquisition, pronunciation, phonemic awareness, and comprehension-skills that often boost reading scores.” Need some audiobook recommendations for kids? Head to the Kids page.Īudiobooks have the power to boost our moods and disrupt negative thinking patterns. Here are 8 ways audiobooks can boost your emotional and physical health-all you need to do is press play.
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