So, a few things have gotten pointed out to me in the last couple years. Specifically in regards to how I learn/process information. Turns out, after cognitive testing, I actually retain information well in an audio format. This explains a lot, but it’s also clarified why and how I consume audiobooks in the way that I do.
I first started listening to audiobooks in high school when I worked as a page in a library. My shifts were about three hours long, and I reshelved books in the nonfiction section of the children’s room. For those of you thinking this is a special kind of purgatory... yep! And I loved it! Especially because I had a walkman and was allowed to listen to it while I reshelved. I ended up using that time to listen to the books I was supposed to read for school (Old Man and the Sea was only bearable because I got it done during my shifts) and listening to romance novels. Once I started college, I would listen to the audiobooks I could find that were related to my coursework (I drove ~40 to school each way, and that was nothing but dead time otherwise) and while I couldn’t take notes, I was able to do the reading.
Now days, I’ve figured out that I generally don’t really like listening to fiction. It is a tricky call to know if a book is going to trip my second-hand embarrassment trigger, and I can’t skim in the same way with an audiobook that I can with a physical one. As such, for the most part, I only really listen to non-fiction on audio. This works out really well, but there is the continuing challenge that most backlist non-fiction works (prior to about 2010) don’t have unabridged audiobooks available. Some absolutely do! But while I am -.- about audible being owned in a monopolistic way, it has absolutely done a BUNCH for getting audiobooks out in the zeitgeist and making books more accessible for huge chunks of the population.. .because the audiobooks exist in the first place. We can have a whole conversation about availability and capitalism, but that they exist at all is awesome.
Anyway, just felt like chatting about that. Mostly as I’m listening to three separate audiobooks (alternatingly) and felt like it.
