Due to a misunderstanding on my part, I only have two one minute recordings. I intend to read the larger excerpt one I acquire a microphone, but for now, this will have to do.

You can clearly hear the difference in the two. When the microphone is farther away, the voice is lost in the reverb, which distorts the quality (though it does reduce the sound made by breaths and other non-speaking noises). In addition, if I were to layer another track on top, I can tell (though I admittedly only experimented briefly) that in the far recording it would sound like the main focus, whereas in the near recording it would appear as background music. The further recording is probably a useful tool, but only for sounds in which it is important to hear just the presence of sound. Where the quality of the sound is important, the nearer recording is the only viable option.