Sunday, March 16, 2014

My First Audiobook Experience

I guess I should call this my first "real" audiobook experience.  I mean, I tried listening to Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood on audiobook a long time ago, when I was still sharing a car with Twin, but I ended up getting the book and reading it the old fashioned way instead, because 1. My sister and I would switch the CD everytime we drove the car, so if I ended my drive in the middle of a chapter, too bad, because she'd take it out to put some music on.  2. I just loved the story and writing so much that I HAD to read it so that I could underline passages.

And I guess before that as a child I had had some experience with audiobooks.  Does anyone remember those "grandfather clock" things that you put the cassette tape into and a grandfatherly voice (that of the clock/cassette player/radio thing) would tell a story??  The twin and I would fall asleep to those a lot when we were little.

But anyway...

I finally (finally!!) went to the library to renew my card and got an audiobook, and I've been listening to it all week on my morning and afternoon commute.  And I LOVE IT.  So much.  It's Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings, which I actually had no urge to read or anything until listening to an NPR interview with Wolitzer about the book.  And then I was like "huh, maybe I should try that..". 

I really love listening to the story.  It's perfect for my commute, because it's not ridiculously crazy all over the place making my heart race, but I'm genuinely super interested in the characters and their lives.  So it keeps my attention but doesn't distract me from the road.

I've always been the kind of person who needs music in the car, but lately I've been so tired and bored during my commute (probably because it's been so cold and whatnot?), and I haven't been able to commit to any music.  I can't choose a CD, and when I do, I don't feel like listening to it much anyway.  But with the audiobook, it's different.  I can't wait to jump into my car and hear more of the story!

I definitely plan on getting more audiobooks from the library!  Why didn't I do this sooner?!

1 comment:

  1. I love audiobooks for long roadtrips -- I find my commute is too quick to really enjoy a story being read to me, but when I'm in the car for 6+ hours a day (my wife and I love roadtrips) having a book read to us is fabulous.

    ReplyDelete