Discussion Post: Audiobooks…to listen or not to listen?

Hello everyone! I hope that your Monday went well. Mine was pretty good. I finally pulled my older son’s twin bed from storage and put it together. So, he was happy about that. It is a low loft bed and both boys love playing under it, making it into a fort. I put a sheet up on one end so it covers it and clipped a book light inside so that they have a little light. I remember making blanket forts as a kid, I always made a little room and filled it with blankets and pillow. Only then would I lay down with a few books and just read. I hope that my boys get the same joy out of it that I did. Isn’t it funny how we look back at what we enjoyed as children and try to pass that long to our own kids?

Well, enough about my boys…although I love them, you are here for the most recent discussion post. Today I wanted to talk about audiobooks.

I am a firm believer that listening to an audiobook is still considered reading. Admittedly though, I was never a big fan of them. I had listened to them in the past but it was really difficult for me to get into. When I read, I had always done so alone, curled under a warm blanket. It felt strange listening to someone read to me. But when I thought about, it really wasn’t all that strange. As children, our parents read to us and we love it, beg for more than one book at bedtime. Somehow when we learn to read on our own that stops. We no longer listen to others read to us, unless we are not able to read on our own. This was something that I began to ponder.

Why was it that so many of us have a difficult time listening to audiobooks. Was it that we were too distracted, that our egos as adults were incapable of wanting someone else to read for us when we are capable, or just that we love the feel and smell of a real book in our hands. Being a mom, I still read to my son who is capable of reading well above his grade level. It is the special bond that I nurture with that, I hope to help him grow his love of reading. For me, I thought it was just the feel of the book, the comfort it brought. But, it might have been something deeper, I am unsure. What I do know is that I felt I needed to give audiobooks another chance. I could not possibly judge all audiobooks on the small few I had tried. The narrator or story itself might have been the reason I did not enjoy them. Or maybe I just never gave them a fair chance, being biased toward physical copies of books.

So, I gave it another chance. The first book I tried was Shadow of the Fox and man was I impressed. I really enjoyed the narrators and story. I was sucked in. The best part was that I could listen while I did housework or while cooking. This did mean that I had to give up listening to so much of my beloved Kpop music while I did those things. But it also meant I could read more! That was when I became hooked. And I was not the only one, my husband gave it a try and now he listens to an audiobook on the way to and from work every day. I listen while I write blog posts, while I clean, while I cook, and the entire family listens while we drive places. Even my seven-year-old son loves listening to them with us in the car. He gets upset when we move ahead in the book without him.

For me, audiobooks have gone from something I disliked and did not understand to a family-friendly event. We all love to read and now we can enjoy a good book while we drive to get groceries on Sundays. It allows me to get just a little bit more reading in during my day as a busy mom.

What are your thoughts on audiobooks? Do you listen to them or not? If not, why? What have been your favorites? Which was the first book that you listened to as an audiobook?