Or are they essentially the same thing?

narrators can make or break a book. 90% of my reading is audio books. a good narrator (eg: jim dale for harry potter) can make you feel like you're in the story. a bland narrator who doesn't use different voices for characters can make it dull. most of my reading is when i'm not able to read a physical book. eg when im driving / washing dishes / cooking / eating / walking parks

i dislike the main narrator for orson scott card's books. his characters are often 10 or 15 year old boys, but the dude sounds like a 50 year old which ruins it for me.

Oh okay ttty

You should practice and improve your reading of the written word as much as possible because far from everything is or will be available on audiobook.

I can't handle audio books, I can't really absorb information or visualize well if I'm listening, it's also too slow.

that's what 3x speed is for

I've got problems with 1x speed, imagine 3x... Besides, the voices get high enough at 2x I don't even want to listen.

I love audio books, I listen to approx 6hrs of audiobooks/day while I'm working. But yes, as someone mentioned earlier, narrators are either great or terrible. I find the narrators who put too much effort into using different voices are the worst though.

I don't know what you're into, but I find that heavy books like philosophy are terrible in audio form, but all of the best fiction ever written is great in audio. A lot of historical audiobooks are great too.

I can say if you want to improve your listening or just have no time to sit and read it is the best way to gain information and save time.

Reading the book yourself is far better because your brain is engaged in active mode, like you never hear a story about how someone is actually reading a book and doing something else right - because it's impossible.

Having a book read to you is ok, but your brain is not fully engaged and most of the nuisance and thoughts will be completely missed. This is why people do other things and think they can multi task when our brain isn't really wired that way. There is a big difference between passive listening and active listening, try having a book read to you and see what you learn, and then read the book and notice the difference.

The number 1 reason for car accidents isn't drunk driving - its distracted driving by people that thinking they can multi task.