For me it depends on the author, the book and the narrator.
Proust, for example, is too boring to read, but his novel is pleasant to listen to. The long, long sentences in particular, because when I hear them, they finally make sense (usually). I can compare the two modes, because I have read about 3/5 of “Recherche,” and heard about as much; and I have listened to some of it more than once, but I have read very little of it more than once. The audio that I have listened to is from Librivox, not a commercial CD. Another novel I prefer to listen to is “Bonjour tristesse,” lu par the French actress Jacqueline Pagnol. *
- Steve suggested in a forum a year or two ago to listen to Proust instead of reading him.
As for Americans who speak French, Jodie Foster went to high school at a French lycee in Los Angeles (I think: she touches on this very briefly in the video). She played a role in the French film, “A Very Long Sunday Engagement.” * In the IMDB forum for the movie, one native French speaker claims she speaks like a native, another claims she speaks like a native, just not like a Parisian, and a third scoffs, saying she definitely speaks with an accent. My French is not good enough to tell the difference, but if you want to listen to her, you can decide. The following is from Youtube and lasts 5:59. The interview of Foster begins at 1:29:
- A good movie, but I suggest reading the book first. It’s a bit of a jigsaw puzzle figuring out who is who, so you might have to flip pages back and forth to ID characters. A case where reading versus listening depends on the book. Worth the effort, though; I thought it a fine novel with an offbeat view of World War 1.