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Comment by bouvin | Hacker News Reader

I divide my listening time between audiobooks and podcasts. One thing that audiobooks have enabled me to do, that I probably never would have gotten around to do on my own (even as I do own the books), is to read classics like Rabelais' Gargantua or Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

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except when its an audiobook chances are you're gonna remember much less of it

at least thats my experience

What does it matter? Remembering is not necessary for enjoyment.

Indeed, as proven by the massive popularity of alcohol

I don't know - I struggle to remember what I've read half the time. I listen to audio books while walking, and even now I can recall learning about King John (and there reason there has not been a king names John since him in the UK) while walking along the beach. As I do the walk again, similar parts of that book and others return to me.

But might just be me!

Not just you - I have associations between various Scottish mountains and particular topics, so I might see a mountain in the distance and think something like "problems with economics" or "tank commander WW2"....

e.g. Carn an t-Sagairt Mor and Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach are now forever linked in my memory with Licence to be Bad How Economics Corrupted Us.

Sometimes I pass a place I've passed before while listening to an audiobook and have an immediate recall of what I was listening to at the time. It's like the place is associated with what I heard at the time.

Yes! Me too! A quite inadvertent side-effect of audiobook listening on the go, you end up accidentally creating 'memory palaces'. On the other hand, if you tune out somewhat the story continues without you so sometimes you can end up missing a fair bit.

Me too! It's fun, when an impactful event happens in the story and it's fixed

In fact this is a common technique used for memorisation

Opposite for me, I’ll rewind the book and remember where I was and what I was doing when I previously heard that section.

I’m always backwards I guess.

I think this just depends on what style of learner you are. Me, I am definitely an audio learner. In school, I just needed to listen to the teacher say something once, and as long as I was paying attention during that, it would stick with me. Same with podcasts and audiobooks, I just remember them so well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhgwIhB58PA&pp=ygUceW91IGFyZ...

Sure there is no evidence that the popular depiction of “learning styles” has any effect on learning. But it’s pretty obvious that everyone is different and will learn better from certain sources than others. It’s just not able to be reduced to a simple concept like a style.

Interesting. My experience is the opposite. If I’ve listened to a book, especially for fiction, I’ll typically remember it completely. Whereas if I read it in text, the chances are not as good.

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