Personally, for fiction, my retention is higher in audio form because it forces me to read slower. I have a bad habit of getting into a speed-reading mode othe

Personally, for fiction, my retention is higher in audio form because it forces me to read slower. I have a bad habit of getting into a speed-reading mode otherwise where I think I'm retaining everything but I'm actually skipping over details. I've found books that I thought were mediocre were much better as audiobooks because the pace forced me to really listen to and appreciate the quality of the prose. I do agree that more technical material is more awkward in audio form and really benefits from being able to flip back and forth for reference in a real book.