Simon Evans

In defence of audiobooks

  • From Spectator Life
Image: Guy Venables

A certain stigma has attached itself to audiobooks. To the old school bibliophile, they are the literary equivalent of pre-chewed steak.

The sceptics may have a point. After all, reading is tiring for the same reason that chewing is – work is being done. The brain is just a lump of clever fat, of course, rather than bunched muscle, but it still uses up some 20 per cent of the calories we consume and so it shouldn’t really be surprising that we get tired reading.

Taking the sequenced squiggles on the page and converting them into the architecture of a story, a philosophy or a verse, is hard. Children find it hard, students find it very hard and the vast majority of adults find it gets harder and harder as time goes on. This is bad news for books. If adulthood meansgiving yourself permission to eat ice cream instead of spinach, who is going to choose books, when Netflix and GTA VI are on the menu? Yet, to echo Dorothy Parker’s famous remark about writing, as much as we might hate reading, we love having read. So, what to do?

Audiobooks are like E-Bikes. They attract some opprobrium from purists but they are far more likely to keep the time-poor masses pedalling on into old age, than they are to weaken the resolve of those who would otherwise remain sinewy and self-reliant for ever.

Audiobooks are like E-Bikes. They attract some opprobrium from purists but they are far more likely to keep the time-poor masses pedalling on into old age, than they are to weaken the resolve of those who would otherwise remain sinewy and self-reliant for ever.

Audiobooks eliminate much of the dread that few of us would admit to having at the prospect of picking up a book.

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Simon Evans
Written by
Simon Evans
Simon Evans is a standup comedian who has performed everywhere from Live at the Apollo to the News Quiz. His series of comedy lectures on economics 'Simon Evans goes to market' is broadcast on Radio 4.

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