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Is Listening Cheating?

August 2nd, 2007

NYT - “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 fellow teachers — that rather than read the book, she had listened to an audio version.” (via)

3 COmments on “Is Listening Cheating?”

  1. srah UNITED STATES Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 Says:

    I may be mistaken, but I feel like there are more unabridged audio versions of books than there used to be. Reading or listening to an abridged version does seem like cheating, but hey - if all the words are there, I’m cool with listening. You do miss out on the opportunity to flip back a few pages and say “Wait, what happened there again?” or to remember what the page looked like where X happened, so that you can jump to it when you’re looking for it later.

  2. Sue Windows XP Internet Explorer 7.0 Says:

    How is this cheating? When I listen to an audiobook, I often “read” more than if I were holding the print book in my hand. It is much easier to skim or skip over portions of a printed book than it is to skip portions of an audiobook.

  3. Ed E UNITED STATES Windows XP Internet Explorer 6.0 Says:

    Listening cheating? if it is, I wish the copywrite laws would reflect that. . . I don’t consider it ‘cheating’ and I’m glad that listening is available………. it’s a safer way to read and drive.