aphantasia - the inability to voluntarily create mental images in your mind’s eye.

I guess this extends to reading? I wasn’t sure if that would count as “voluntarily” since it just seems to happen for me.

I read to my kids every night and if there is a movie of the book we’re reading, I will finish the book with them before we watch the movie. In this way, the images they have in their minds as we read are theirs. Sometimes interesting things happen in your mind when it needs to create its own images and I think this is a personal part of reading that makes it more than just consumption but also a creative act unto itself.

Once Hollywood has made Jennifer Lawrence the protagonist, that’s all you’ll be able to see ever again.

However none of this would apply in your case so read or watch or listen however works best for you. Personally I find audiobooks a terrible way to read. My mind wanders instead of focusing more on the text. I realize I’ve been thinking about someone else for several minutes, and ultimately don’t retain as much from the book in the end. It’s like “having the tv on in the background” while doing household chores. That’s fine for stuff I don’t really care about, if I just want to relax and divert my mind. But if I really want to enjoy the book and get everything I can from it, I need to read it.

Brains are obviously different. You can listen and think at the same time. I can read aloud to my kids while thinking of what I need to do at work tomorrow. However if someone is talking to me there is no way I can think about anything except the words coming out of their mouth. This is so much the case that if a person talks haltingly or takes a long time coming to the point, it physically hurts me because my brain is locked on them but they aren’t using it efficiently.