Friday, August 03, 2007

I heard you cheating in your car the other day

I'm not sure what to think of this.

Apparently, audio books are encroaching on the staid parameters of book club culture and if you listen to Rohinton Mistry, rather than read him, "it doesn't count."
"The perennial disagreement in book groups has been over authors, with the single-malt drinkers arguing for F. Scott Fitzgerald and the chardonnay drinkers for Anita Shreve. But the latest schism in the living room lit-fests is not over whom they read, but if they read.
Is it acceptable, they debate within and among themselves, to listen to that month’s book rather than read it? Or is that cheating, like watching the movie instead of reading the book?"
My own feeling is that listening to a book, which I've never done; may mean a bit less ability to take the same pleasure from text or craft; but I certainly wouldn't be hostile to a book club listening to a book once in awhile.
Is it just me though, or do the book clubs in this article regard reading as an endurance. There seems a whiff of something like the mere act of finishing an agreed upon choice as akin to a great deal of work.
Stigma around listening to a book.
Stigmata around reading it.
By the way, this single malt drinker is reading a few things form here.
NYRB just gets better and better.

Posted by Dave

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