“I remember more when I listen to a book.”

That was all I needed to push my audiobook recording tasks higher up the priority list.

A friend had Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” (narrated by the award-winning Simon Vance) on audiobook for her long car trip with her family. The girls moaned and groaned about having to listen to more of “Ugh, that book!” but we got to talking about reading versus listening and it was terribly helpful for the writer to hear what two 14-year old girls are saying.

“I just remember more of it,” she said. “Yeah, when I read a book, I don’t remember anything, but if I listen to it, I remember more for sure.”

Their teacher recommended that they first listen to one of their required books before they read it. They both thought the request was a little weird, but they did it and they liked the experience.

Audiobooks weren’t the clear winner in the comprehension and retention category, however.

“If I see the movie, then I remember every detail,” one sister said.

“That’s not true,” the other sister challenged.

“No, really. If I see the movie, I can remember everything and if I listen to it, I can remember lots of it, but if I just read the book, I can’t remember anything.”

There you have it, dear students, out of a population of several billion, two girls in a car about to go on a 6-hour car journey in the rain and traffic would rather listen to Great Expectations than read it.

But if they had the choice, they’d rather see the movie.