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Top 10 benefits of reading audiobooks

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Cliff Weitzman
By Cliff Weitzman Dyslexia & Accessibility Advocate, CEO/Founder of Speechify in Bibliophiles on June 23, 2022
Here are ten reasons people love reading audiobooks and why you should try them too.

    There are lots of people who have fallen in love with audiobooks. Even though there are many people who still love ordering new print books from Amazon, there are some people who prefer an audible podcast over a physical book.

    Some people find that their reading comprehension improves when they listen to their favorite audiobooks, and other people have an easier time multitasking when they use audiobooks instead. What are some of the top reasons why people love audiobooks?

    Before we begin. Let’s clear something up.

    Why do people say reading an audiobook?

    Yes, people say “reading audiobooks” and “listening to audiobooks”. It’s weird but acceptable. It’s also important to understand that an audiobook can be read along while listening. It is not exclusively audio-only.

    Take this blog, for instance, you can read along while listening to it like an audiobook. It uses text-to-speech. Try it, click the “Listen to this story” button above, below the title. It takes 7 minutes to listen to this article. However, you can listen to this up to 9x the speed!

    Here’s our Top 10 Benefits of Reading Audiobooks

    1. Audiobooks Are Great for Physical and Mental Health

    Audiobooks help people with a wide variety of mental and physical benefits. Reading a good book can help people by addressing a wide variety of mental health issues. For example, some people who suffer from depression or anxiety find that their mental health issues are easier to manage with audiobooks. Furthermore, audiobooks can help people by taking care of their eyes. If you read a book from start to finish, you may start to develop a headache, and your eyesight might begin to suffer. With an audiobook, this is not necessarily an issue.

    2. Audiobooks Can Help You Sleep

    If you have a hard time sleeping at night, an audiobook may be able to help you. When you listen to an audiobook, you get to relax your eyes, which you do not get to do when you read a physical book. With an audiobook, the sound of the voice is usually soothing, which can make it easier for you to fall asleep at night.

    3. Audiobooks Have the Same Benefits as Reading

    Even though lots of people love reading books, audiobooks provide the same benefit. Both options are a great way for you to explore a new author, expand your vocabulary, and immerse yourself in an amazing plot. Audiobooks are also a great option for re-reading. You might uncover something that you did not notice the first time around.

    We’ve curated THE best places to find audiobooks.

    4. Audiobooks Help You With Time Management

    When you read a physical book, you are not able to do anything else. If you love books and want to read them while doing your workout or commuting, you can’t. You need to hold the book in your hand, regardless of whether it is a sci-fi book or a self-help book, and turn the physical pages. With an audiobook, you can do something else at the same time. You can clean the house, drive a car, or do some yard work. Listening to audiobooks allows you to save time during the day.

    5. Audiobooks Improve Your Literacy Skills

    You may have spent time focusing on literacy skills during your book club meetings, and audiobooks help you dramatically improve them. You might notice plot points that you might not have otherwise spotted, and by listening to the narrator, the intonations of the voice can guide you through the book, helping you uncover new things you might have otherwise overlooked. Use audiobooks to help you improve your comprehension skills.

    6. Audiobooks Can Reduce Negative Thinking

    Audiobooks are also a great way for people to reduce negative thinking. There are a lot of people who develop mental health issues because of negative thought patterns. By focusing on something else, such as an audiobook, it is easier for people to put those negative thought patterns to the side, focusing on a positive thought pattern instead.

    7. Audiobooks Build Fluency

    Language learners can also use an audiobook to build fluency. If you want to become fluent in another language, the only way to do so is to listen to other people speak it. You may pick up on things that you might not have noticed in a textbook, so you can use audiobooks to help you learn a second language. You might even want to practice speaking during the pauses in the audiobook.

    8. Audiobooks Improve Critical Listening Skills for Children

    Another one of the benefits of listening to an audiobook is that it can help build listening skills in children. Audiobooks are a great way for children to learn new words, build their literacy skills, and increase language retention rates. There are even a lot of children who are struggling readers who can dramatically improve their reading level by listening to an audiobook. This is even a great way to learn a second language, like Spanish or French.

    9. Audiobooks Improve Your Focus

    There are a lot of people who are looking for ways to improve their focus. Audiobooks can help you do that. Today, people have shorter attention spans than they have ever had in the past. By listening to audiobooks, you train yourself to pay attention for longer amounts of time. That way, you will have an easier time focusing on other tasks in the future. If you lengthen your attention span by listening to audiobooks, you can also lengthen your attention in the classroom or at work. This is particularly helpful for people with learning disabilities who need to practice focusing.

    10. You Visit Another World

    If you are interested in decoding mystery worlds, then an audiobook can help you. There are amazing worlds that you never get to learn about if you don’t listen to audiobooks. A lot of audiobook providers even add sound effects that make it all the more interesting. Use audiobooks if you want to learn about new places.

    Take Advantage of Audiobooks With These Major Benefits

    Ultimately, these are just a few of the biggest benefits of listening to audiobooks. There are audiobooks for people at every reading level, and you might be interested in exploring a bestseller. One of the best parts is that you can even listen to audiobooks on smartphones. If you are looking for a new way to explore some of the best books of all time, consider picking up an audiobook.

    Did you listen, read, or do both for this blog? If you enjoyed the experience, did you know you can do this for literally everything on the internet?

    Try Speechify for free. It’s an app that turns any text to speech and is available for Chrome, Safari, iOS, and Android. Happy listening!

    FAQs

    Some of the most common questions people ask about the benefits of audiobooks include:

    1. Is listening to an audiobook as good as reading?

    Listening to an audiobook can be as good as reading, but it is a matter of personal preference. There are some people who have an easier time paying attention when they read a physical book, but other people have an easier time paying attention when they use an audiobook instead.

    2. What are the pros and cons of audiobooks?

    Audiobooks are great because you can multitask, listen to the intonation of the narrator, and rest your eyes. Audiobooks are also great for people with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. On the other hand, some people have an easier time paying attention when they read a physical book. Some people also don’t like the voices of some of the narrators used in audiobooks.

    3. What are the benefits of listening to audiobooks?

    Some of the top benefits of listening to audiobooks include that they can help you improve your pronunciation and fluency, they can help you manage your time better, and they help people build critical listening skills, including children.

    4. What genres of audiobooks are there?

    There are lots of great audiobooks out there. Some people like to listen to science fiction audiobooks, particularly if they include sound effects. Other people like listening to self-help books. You can also enjoy audiobooks from the mystery genre. There are even historical audiobooks available.

    5. Do audiobooks help people with dyslexia?

    Audiobooks can help people with dyslexia because people with dyslexia have a difficult time reading written words. Even though some people are diagnosed with dyslexia at an early age, that is not always the case. Instead of having to worry about reading text on a page, people with dyslexia can listen to the book instead. That way, they don’t have to worry about getting confused or turned around, and they can still grasp everything happening in the story.

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    Cliff Weitzman

    Cliff Weitzman

    Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.

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