“Audiobooks speak for themselves.” ~ Paul Acampora
Smells are intoxicating and have the power to transport you into a happy place: the tantalising aroma of a warm apple pie, the luxurious goodness of freshly cleaned laundry, the subtle scent of a floral perfume but for me it has always been the smell of printed books. I would inhale deeply whether I was in a bookstore, in a library, opening a new book or simply paging through an old one. All book lovers will agree that there is nothing - not even freshly cut flowers - that will surpass the scent of a hard copy book. Why no-one has captured the smell of a good book, bottled it and sold it as a perfume is still beyond me.
It is hardly surprising then when audiobooks really took off in digital, smartphone format around 10 years ago, I wasn’t interested. How can the reading experience be the same as that from scanning the words from an old-fashioned book? My son had gifted me an e-Reader a decade ago and I struggled with reading from an electronic device not because it posed any problems as such: it was just not satisfying as turning the pages of a real book.
In the past, I had listened to stuff on cassette tapes. I remember bagging a bargain of a 100- set cassette tapes of English classic reads like Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Hardy etc during a garage sale in New Zealand in 1998. My kids still “cherish” fond memories of motivational messages and children’s cd sets like Brer Rabbit and Winnie the Pooh being played during the long road trips. They still talk about the marathon-long Brian Tracy cds on productivity, self-discipline and effective communication they grudgingly listened to while traipsing around the country on road trip holidays. So as you can see, listening to books was not new to me. However, it wasn’t a way of life - it was an occasional experience especially when going on a long drive.
About two years ago, I decided to give the Audible App for the iPhone a go more so because of the dangling carrot of Michelle Obama’s autobiography, “Becoming”, which was given as a freebie if you downloaded the app. I was salivating at the bits to read that and I was not disappointed. The easy eloquence and the dulcet tones of the First Lady’s voice as she chronicles her life from her childhood on the South side of Chicago, powering her way to high school and Princeton, juggling her roles of lawyer, mother and wife of the first, black American president makes you beg like Oliver - “ please sir, may I have more?” With her brutal honesty, sharp wit and her engaging storytelling, she invites us into her world as she opens up with the highs and lows of living in the world famous address. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of “reading” this book which seemed to be catapulted to a higher level because it was read by the inspiring lady herself.
If the truth be told, in my busy life, most days I can only fit in at most an hour’s reading. If I had a day of check marking senior students’ English essay drafts, my eyes and brain were too tired to even scan the words of a book. However, since as far back as I can remember, right from my early childhood days, I have developed the ritual of reading just before I sleep. Reading has a powerful way of decompressing the body and the mind and bringing it down to a restful place so that you can enjoy a good night’s sleep. Now, with the iPhone propped on my pillow, I get to have the company of any charming voice lulling me into a deep stupor when I don’t have the energy or the inclination to engage in traditional reading. My current bedfellow is our past prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, as he delights me with his alluring voice as he tells it warts and all of his term as the 29th prime minister of Australia (2015-2018) in his autobiography, “The Bigger Picture”.
One thing I noticed with my new found love of audio books is that monotonous and tedious tasks are now a pleasure to do. With my iPhone close by, I happily take off the washing from the line, carefully and meticulously fold and despatch the clothes to the respective owners’ rooms. Sometimes, I am quite open to ironing and putting away the clothes or the linen( yes, I iron sheets and pillowcases) as long as I have an enthralling autobiography, fiction or business book to listen to. Sometimes, even the already clean kitchen counters and the stove get another doing over just because the plot is too riveting to put on pause. Cooking is also a much- looked forward to activity. Since I am not a fan of bottled or packaged convenience foods, food prepping can take a lot of time but it is something I eagerly look forward to now as I can polish another chapter.
For those who know me well, I still rebel against any form of physical activity that is associated with fitness or exercise. However, this is now somewhat sweetened as I arm myself with iPhone and AirPods and pound the pavements with a whole host of walking partners who read to me. Sometimes, when the storytelling is taking a decidedly juicy turn, I hastily make an executive decision to lengthen my route. I have to admit the 15-20 minute early morning walks I resentfully did out of duty has now become a sought after pleasure( okay, maybe that’s stretching it a bit!) and has translated to almost an hour.
I guess one of the reasons I was vehemently against audio books was that it felt like cheating. From the time we start reading in prep , we are conditioned to think that reading is a sanctimonious activity that is an individualistic, fully focussed task done silently and demanding the full importance it deserves. So, if you are going to disparage this sacred, centuries- long undertaking by just taking the easy way out and listening to someone, it would be cheating, right?
However, the more I thought about it, I realised that while it is important for emergent readers to see the words in books so that they can increase their sight words and thereby become more proficient with reading, it wasn’t really necessary for us who are established readers who have already cracked the code of reading. Why do we read a book in the first place?
It stimulates our mind (and I am told reduces your chances of getting dementia and Alzheimer’s) which watching television and browsing the internet doesn’t do, it improves our level of concentration which is especially needed in these modern times of short concentration spans, it broadens our interests and knowledge( I have learnt so much about topics, countries and other cultures from books), a good book can make you more empathetic as you relate to the suffering of others, it improves concentration as you need to follow the story in order for it to make sense and most importantly reading before bedtime improves your sleep quality. Aren’t all these benefits still easily achieved by listening to books too, instead of reading them the old-fashioned way of turning the pages of book?
I am a visual learner which means listening is not my thing (a trait I am blessed with to tune out noise I don’t wish to listen to). In the beginning, I found it a bit hard going concentrating on the the spoken word by letting my mind wander on other matters but as time went by, it has become much easier. I still read traditional books, usually in the morning when my eyes are still fresh. However, with my other mode of reading which is listening to audio books, I feel I can read more books than was previously practical. An audio book which can be anywhere from 6 - 25 hours can be finished well within a week(directly proportional to the laundry, food prepping and walking you have!) while a traditional book can stretch from a fortnight to sometimes a month.
Now that I am quite comfortable with the fact that reading should not be dictated by parameters or rules as to what good reading amounts to, I am able to accomplish so much more. I am a hardened multi-tasker so listening to audio books allows me to indulge in my other passions too. Just the other night I crocheted a beanie for my daughter, I paint, I cook, I clean while immersed in another world of books. When I am out gardening though, I reserve that quiet time for my own thoughts - no multi-tasking with audio books then.
Making sense of words from a page is a deeply personal experience because you are on your own to configure the meaning and I still cherish reading fiction through traditional books. However, I love reading memoirs of great men and women who through their courage, vision and ingenuity have changed our world and who have inspired us to reach for greater heights too. Most of these autobiographies are read by the authors themselves. I have to confess that no old fashioned book would have produced the same degree of ecstasy that I experienced when I listened to the mellifluous voice of Bob Igor, as he details the lessons he learned in the 15 years at the helm as CEO of Walt Disney. If ever I admire an inspirational leader, it is undoubtedly this man who entertained me on Google Play(another Audio book App) in his enthralling audio book “The Ride of a Lifetime” where he concurs that it is possible to make ethical and honest business decisions.
If you haven’t tried audio books yet, I highly recommend it. You can download the Audible App on your smartphone and there is a free one month trial with a free book of your choice.
If you have kids of school going age, I would encourage you to get them onto audio books as well. This is the link to an article I wrote especially for them some time ago.
Happy listening and have a fabulous week, folks.
#audiobooks
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