I am not a cigar smoker but my husband is. In the literature about cigar manufacturing is a story about the factories.
Women actually made the cigars, they rolled the leaves on their thighs. The work was pretty monotonous and boring. The factory kept them entertained and productive by use of a reader. Because of better projection, it was usually a man reading the classics.
Books on tape is just technology applied to an old practice.
Correct. There is an old tradition of readers at the cigar factories of Tampa.