Hello everyone!

HAPPY SOLAR ECLIPSE DAY to those of you who are in North America!!! Did you see it!?

I didn’t, because I was trapped away in a windowless box (ie. work), but I got to see it on a small corner of my coworker’s computer screen while he was streaming it online, which counts, right?! RIGHT?! (Okay, all right, it probably doesn’t.)

ANYWAY… Smooth not-so-smooth segue to the conversation topic for today:

Remember, back in the days, I was confessing to you guys about not reading actual, physical books for a long, long, long time?

Well, turns out that kinda is snowballing into another confession.

And this one I really, REALLY am deeply regretful about. Seriously. Please please please don’t unfollow me and leave me forever?!

Okay. All right.

*Deep breath*

The truth is… I haven’t been reading for a while.

… Yeah… You know, life has been so busy, with the blog and writing and work and, you know, that thing where people drag you out of your house ’cause they want you to talk to them. (Oh wait, that’s called socializing.)

So, I’ve been listening to books.

AND that is PRECISELY what we are going to be talking about today…

Audiobooks

What I absolutely love about audiobooks:

You can listen to it while doing a bunch of other stuff. Driving, walking, cleaning, and crafting are my top picks, AND, if you can multi-task better than I can, grocery shopping, pilates, and [insert slightly mindful activity here]. No longer do you gotta choose between a clean apartment AND catching up on your reading goals… YOU CAN HAVE BOTH!!

It makes doing boring stuff way more fun. Let’s face it, I’m not a morning person. I dread the sound of the alarm in the morning (ugh… snooze for 5 more minutes?? Please??) BUT, now I put on an audiobook in the background while I walk my dog, cook, eat, and get dressed for the day. And if I am in the middle of a real good audiobook, I’ll be leaping up out of bed in the morning to continue listening to it. Maybe you don’t like walking, or driving, or [insert boring activity here], BUT if you put on a good audiobook, it’ll be LOADS more fun 🙂

You know that friend who doesn’t like reading? They MIGHT just like audiobooks! (My fiancé is a case in point.) Everyone processes information differently, so we each have our own preferred medium 🙂

What I don’t like so much about audiobooks:

When the narrator doesn’t jive with you, then it will suck. I’ve had books where the performance was subpar, or I just didn’t like the narrator’s voice. And every single minute is horrible. How to avoid this?

• If possible, listen to a sample before purchasing. If you are using Audible (who are not paying me :P), they offer a short segment which gives you a taste of what the narrator sounds like.
• Check out the performance rating beforehand. Audible will show you the overall rating, as well as separate ratings for performance and story.

If you are as wishy-washy and day-dreamy as I am, you might just zone out during the boring parts. I might start thinking about what’s for dinner or my next blog post, and before I know it, an indeterminate amount of time has passed. Then I gotta do that awkward/time-consuming thing where I figure out how much I missed.

Truth be told, if I could choose, I would still prefer reading over listening. I’m a visual learner. I like seeing words on a page and setting the reading pace for myself: I tend to skim through boring parts and read each and every word during dramatic scenes. I like to backtrack when I feel like I missed something. And even more so, I like imagining what the character would sound like and how they would say something. Having someone read it out loud to me takes the fun out of that part.

SO… Let’s turn the table to you guys now:

How do you feel about audiobooks? Do you have any favourite audiobooks? What do you like to do while listening? Which audiobook provider do you use?

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Thank you to Annie @ Annie Likes Words and Birdie @ Birdie Book Worm who wrote about audiobooks a while back! While commenting on their posts, I realized I have a lot to say on the matter, SO… I decided to write my own blog post (It’s been simmering in the back of my head for a while 🙂 )