I've been thinking about this and maybe we've got it backwards. Stories were first related audibly and written stories came much later. Maybe that's when the cheating began. Maybe reading is cheating.
Those of you too lazy to find someone to read a book aloud to you, or the peons among you who can't pay the price, have been pretenders for millennia. You guys need to cut it out.
I've been listening slowly to a book by Matthew Rubery called "The Untold Story of the Talking Book", which is an overly detailed and repetitive tome about the history of audiobooks from their invention shortly after Edison invented the phonograph. They weren't really practical till LP's came along.
The book really is full of information and interesting ideas. It's not a lot of fun to listen to and I think reading it might be even worse. The author tends to hammer endlessly on the same points over and over. But if any of you have a real interest in this topic you might give it a look or a listen.
I just listen to a chapter now and then. I never actually intended to listen to the whole thing but I'm past the half way point now so I'll probably keep listening till the end. I have learned a lot.
Barry