JANICE RASPEN, a librarian at an elementary school in Fredericksburg, Va., came clean with her book club a couple years ago. They were discussing A Fine Balance, a novel set in India in the 1970s by Rohinton Mistry and an Oprah’s Book Club pick, when she told the group — all teachers — that she had listened to an audio version of the book.“My statement was met with stunned silence,” said Ms. Raspen, 38. Finally, Catherine Altman, an art teacher, spoke up. “I said that I felt listening to a book was a copout,” Ms. Altman said. “I’m not a hardcore book person, but my point was that she is a librarian and I thought it was ridiculous. I’m a painter and it would be like me painting by numbers.” The perennial disagreement in book groups has been over authors. But the latest schism in the living room lit-fests is not over whom they read, but if they read. Is it acceptable to listen to that month’s book rather than read it? Or is that cheating, like watching the movie instead of reading the book? Plenty of book club members listen unabashedly. But others cringe at the thought of facing the hairy eyeball from those with whom they share sofas. After all, the settings ideally should be relaxed, courteous and erudite. Some don’t even admit that they listen. But listen they do, though the stigma persists. People are pressed for time, and so growth in the audio book industry has been brisk, with overall sales (downloads, CDs and cassettes) at $871 million in 2006, up 5 percent over the previous year. Tara Volpe, 28, a pharmaceutical sales representative, is an enthusiast. Because she spends a lot of time in her car, she listens while driving to far-flung appointments — even when the books are the assignment for the book group she runs in Sayville, N.Y., made up of women in their 20s and 30s. Yet her listening pleasure is tinged with guilt. “I know it only matters that I got the content of the book and its ideas,” she said. “But I still feel like I’m trying to cover up an affair.” Book groups are by all estimates on the rise, thanks in no small part to Oprah Winfrey, whose 11-year-old Oprah’s Book Club not only spurs sales of her selections but inspires viewers to form gaggles to discuss them. About 20 million Americans are members of book groups, double the number just eight years ago, said Diana Loevy, the author of The Book Club Companion. Question is: do you really get as much out of a book if you listen instead of read?“If the goal is to appreciate the aesthetic of the writing and understand the story,” said Daniel T. Willingham, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Virginia, then there won’t be much difference between listening and reading. “The basic architecture of how we understand language is much more similar between reading and listening than it is different.” Zella Ondrey is open about her listening experiences. She recently listened to an abridgement of Ahab’s Wife: Or, the Star-Gazer and admitted as much to her group. Ms. Ondrey said that others in the group seemed to consider themselves more virtuous for having waded through it the old-fashioned way. “I was frowned upon because I didn’t go through the same machinations,” she said. But that scorn was nothing compared to what she gets on a regular basis from her husband. “My husband makes fun of me all the time,” Ms. Ondrey said. But she gets back. “He’ll have a book in his hand that he’s reading and I’ll say, ‘How about if I tell you the ending, and we’ll see if it’s the same?’”- ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN (New York Times)
