57, and still like being read to.

I actually believe I've learned more from things people have read to me than I've enjoyed what I read myself. My wife read to be about "reverse timeout," the "Miracle Method," "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day," and other classic concepts, and I not only absorbed them, I have preached them to interested (and not interested) people many, many times. If I had read those things myself, I wonder if they would have had the impact on me that I did. By far the majority of the information I gathered in medical school was lectured to me, although I must admit, my weary eyelids took advantage of the darkened room and the droning voice many many times as well. Still, there is something about hearing something that is more memorable to me than reading it. Maybe the gates of information gathering at the auditory canals are more wide open than the gates at the optic nerve. Maybe it is because hearing something carries the message in more reality along the ways where comprehension occurs, while seeing gets more distracted along the way. I like to read a good book, but hearing it seems a richer experience to me. I can still detect the author's style, etc. I hope I can "hear" well enough to make good decisions as to what the author's saying, and whether I want to continue with him/her.