Audiobooks - Yes or No?

As a traditional person, as far as books are concerned, I was always highly against audiobooks. I believed that in order to read a book you have to take some time, sit down, pick up your favorite paperback or hardback (no kindle, no whatever has a screen nonsense) and read.

Before you stop reading this post, I feel obligated to tell you that I was indeed very wrong. (That’s something you won’t get me to admit often.)

As my life got busy – school, 2-3 jobs with different and highly consuming schedules, maintaining friendships by hanging out with friends and going out, spending time with family, etc. – I found myself reading less and less. Whatever spare time I had I was too tired to open a book so I put on a TV show or a movie instead.

You have to understand the difference between how the TV show/movies and books made me feel. When I finished a season of a show or watched a movie, I felt as if I’ve wasted a lot of hours of my life. But when I finished a book, I felt strangely productive. It made me feel good about myself, made me feel like I achieved something just by finishing it, by sticking with it.

Because life happened I didn’t get to read as many books as I’d like. Still, though I found myself having lots of time, especially when I was walking to and from work/school or driving home (a bit less than 2 hour drive), but I spent all that time listening to music instead. Don’t get me wrong, I love music, I don’t think there goes a day by when you don’t see me walking around with headphones in my ear, music blasting through them. But that too made me feel incomplete. I tend to drift off in my mind when I listen to music, and that was why I felt like I had too much spare time on my hands that I needed to fill in some way.

The thing you have to understand about me is that I not only have to but I need to multitask. I have to feel productive, I have to feel like I am doing something with my life even in those spare minutes. It’s just the way I am.

That was why I reconsidered listening to audiobooks. It can’t be that difficult, right? I mean, I did listen to recorded stories when I was a kid…

My main concern about audiobooks was language. English isn’t my first language and that was why I felt self-conscious, especially about talking in it. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t understand what would be said, it was more like that I was afraid I would miss something that would be important to the book, to the story. That was why I first started listening to the books I’ve already read. It made me feel better knowing that it wouldn’t matter if I’d missed some important detail because I already knew the story.

I listened through quite a lot of re-reads. Then I got tired of it and finally decided that I’m ready to take the next step – to listen to something new.

The new problem that made me doubt myself was the fear of not being present. I was afraid that I would put on an audiobook, listen for a minute or two, and then my mind would drift off to some other things. Yes, it did happen. But I managed to fix that problem as well. Because my mind is obsessed with multitasking, I just needed to occupy it a bit more. That was why I decided to listen to audiobooks at 1.5/1.75/2/2.5 speed. It made the narrator's breathing and silence almost unnoticeable thus not allowing my mind to steer off. I was fully present throughout the whole story and didn’t miss a thing.

To show you an example of how many spare minutes of walking and driving I actually have, I’m going to tell you how many books I’ve finished in the previous month only by listening to audiobooks. The number is 9. How many books have I read old school style? 1.

I’m sure you can imagine how great that number makes me feel. To finish that many books in a month while leading an active social life… Not bad, I’d say.

To conclude this post in one sentence, audiobooks are a definite yes and a must in our busy lifestyle. Your brain is still processing the story, it's still working same as if you'd be reading. It's true, though, that if you're reading, you're more conscious of the way words are spelled and possibly see different details. But that's what re-reads are all about - to notice the things you missed the first time.

Listen to an audiobook the next time you're on the bus, train or simply out for a walk. You won't regret it.