Why audiobooks are not helpful?

Reading books is the kind of goal everyone wants to achieve and make it a hobby. How great do you feel when you brag about reading a book to your friends?

But we all know how that goes…

We all have tried reading books and after some chapters, we tend to stop reading books, and then this reading book goal becomes fantasy...

And this fantasy suddenly wakes up sometime near the new year, again we read about some chapters and abandon the goal all over again.

Audiobooks

When audiobooks came online, I thought, well, that's it I needed!

I brought the Amazon books subscription and started looking for good books (my personal taste in books lies in personality development and understanding of how we think).

After a day I had my online library completely filled with a great list of books and I was all set up to listen & learn…

My journey with audiobooks

Good times…

Starting with audiobooks was going so well!

I started listening to audiobooks whenever I got time like while traveling on a bus, walking somewhere, with tea time, and even I replaced TV time with audiobooks.

The first book I completed in a day and a half…

Falling apart…

I was on to my third book, that's when things started changing.

Now while listening, most times, I was not at all listening to books but thinking about my other plans, about past events, what to cook for dinner, or even thinking about a feedback email from colleagues…

I did not realize this for almost a week, in this time I was just jumping around books without thunder standing them, since I was hearing but never listening…bragging to my friends about how I "FINISHED" reading the huge list of books and how dedicated I am towards it.

Well, there will always be one friend who will question you and I got that one…this friend asked me simple questions about the book I "FINISHED" just a few hours ago.

Obviously, I couldn't answer it…

This event got me thinking, Am I really listening to the book or just blowing myself off?

Realization

After that event, I started keeping watch on the books I listen to and how much time I am present to listen to the book instead of roaming along with random thoughts.

Surprisingly, my mind was not at all present in the Present while listening to the books…either it was eating tasty food I had on the Singapore trip a year ago or thinking how my friend are enjoying their time and I am listening to the books.

A month went like this, I tried listening to books and my mind kept slipping from the present moment…I was not able to do anything.

Improvement

Finally, in two months I understood that I was just wasting my time and emotions by pretending to listen to books and all that just to feed my ego with another spoon and brag about it to my friends.

Now even my friend started laughing at me since they also knew what exactly I was doing…felt so disappointed at myself.

So, I took a step back, for one whole week, I read nothing.

Then, I ordered one hard copy of the book from Amazon with a hardcover…The Alchemist!

I found that presence of mind was complete and I could visualize the story as I was reading…No roaming around thoughts.

And so, I realized that for me, reading books with a hard copy was the way, that's how I could read-understand-learn the points of the book.

Is your story similar to mine?

What works for you?

Please comment your thoughts below…