Obsolete: How do you access books?

[dig]

I personally only read through audiobooks. I just can't concentrate on written word, book or not. I find it so much easier to take in audio. I exclusively use Audible, and through that I listen to a lot of music biographies, the entire Harry Potter books, a couple history books and some other fiction.

I usually only read when I'm travelling to and from work, or just out and about.

 

[Insanish Danish]

I'm actually the opposite; I find it very difficult to stay focused on audiobooks and prefer to read physical books (I like e-readers for their convenience, I just prefer physical books). Although I will say I get distracted while reading much more now than I used to; when I was younger I could usually breeze through most books within a couple of hours, but now it takes me a few days because I just can't get into that zone like I used to.

 

[Tactician Karina]

I'm similar with the above post in that it's kind of hard for me to focus on audiobooks, to me some voices for them are either too annoying or boring. I prefer reading physical books, though I'll read e-books too if a book in question is only purchased that way, since it's easier for me to concentrate on the story. Plus I like coming up with voices in my mind for the characters in a story and audiobooks ruin that for me. (it's also why I hated class reading in high school whenever the teacher picks who to read next)

 

[dragon_nataku]

I prefer paper books for non-work/uni reading. I can sit in a chair or lie on my stomach or back reading them and it's a nice break from spending all day staring at a computer screen.

For textbooks and research papers, I prefer .pdf's. Not only are they cheaper ($5 for a .pdf vs $200 for the damn textbook??) and easier to find (I literally have no idea how to get my hands on a physical copy of a research journal), but it's much easier to lug my laptop with the .pdf's on it to uni/work than a bunch of textbooks. Plus, I tend to keep my textbooks and .pdf's take up muuuuuuch less space

I really can't do audiobooks. Like others have said in this thread, it's hard for me to concentrate. I do alright when a professor is speaking and I'm taking notes, but often in phone conversations or just listening to the telly instead of watching it I have a hard time paying attention because my eyes are somewhere other than the source of the words. At least in person I can focus on the person to keep me focused on the conversation. Audiobooks, I imagine, would give me the same problem. And I certainly can't listen to them while driving because I already know for a fact that I am not capable of concentrating on driving if someone is speaking to me. This is why I refuse to answer phone calls when I'm driving.