An Appreciation of the Audio Book
I am a book snob. I freely admit this. I pick up a book, test it’s weight, examine the binding and the artwork and quality of pages before I even begin reading the summary. If a book comes up lacking, the percentage of me reading it right away goes down significantly.
Now, that’s not to say that I completely judge a book based on it’s cover (or spine), and it certainly does not mean that only good books are printed on good quality paper. This is just the beginning of my book selecting process.
A few years ago, my mom signed up on audible.com to start downloading audio books. They were mostly to help my sister get through her school reading list, and at first I scoffed. I can sit and read a book for hours sure, but I could never listen to one! What would I do with my hands? My eyes??
It took me a few years to even give the audio books a try. I was convinced that if it wasn’t paper, it wouldn’t be good.
Then I went back to college after a few years off, and suddenly I was busy again, running errands on campus, trying to keep up my apartment in my down time from studying, making sure I had food for the week. Life caught up to me and took all my precious reading time away from me.
That’s when I started in on the audio books. I didn’t want to like them, so for a long time, I told myself I didn’t. Because in my mind, audiobooks aren’t books. And I was right, in a sense. An audiobook is not a book, it’s a story. The first time I listened to an audiobook, I was completely blown away. My attention was sucked in just as hard as it is when I’m reading, and even though someone was reading the story to me, and therefore changing how I received it, my imagination still went wild. I could picture it just like I could when reading. My imagination wasn’t stifled like I thought it would be. So not only was I free to grocery shop and pay bills and dust while consuming the story, but every aspect of my life had been changed by the story. Suddenly everything in my life was imbued with imagination and magic. My creativity was working over time, and it was as if I’d never grown up and still possessed that little spark of magic only children can hold on to.
So if you are like I was, and had been avoiding audiobooks because they could never look, feel, or smell like real books, I’m here to tell you to stop stifling yourself creatively and give audiobooks a whirl. You never know just where they might take you.
romaincrisis
turnnoffyourmind
snowghoul
jacobvanloon
