Thomas Betts- Odyssey Listening Reflection

I enjoyed the fact that while listening to the Odyssey I enjoyed the fact that the reader told the story emphatically. By switching voices for the different characters and adjusting the tone of his voice for different portions of the story it became more interesting than if I were to just read it myself. Something that could be considered a good thing but is also a bad thing about listening to the book is that we all hear the exact same story, read the exact same way. This provides clarity and because the meaning of what is said in the book is told to us through the readers enunciation there will be no confusion as to what Homer intended for words to mean, because that has been interpreted for us by the author. This is also frustrating in the aspect that individually as readers we are not able to make decisions for ourselves and interpret things as we read them. Another thing that is both frustrating and enjoyable about the process of listening to the book is the fact that the authors pace is steady and slow. It would be easier and quicker to just read the book and I could consume more information more quickly. The upside of this is that in forcing me to slow down the audio recording also forces me to look more carefully about what has been said. Finally, the fact that it is an audio recording makes it difficult to go back to a specific place and re-read to further comprehension. In my experience with listening to the Odyssey I found that despite the advantages of hearing a story rather than reading, the sacrifice of efficiency and functionality makes it frustrating.