When I was younger I truly read all the time. I read with a torchlight under my blanket when my parents thought I was asleep. I read under the desk in class. I read while walking on the streets. I read during school assemblies with my books half-tucked into my bag. I read while eating. I read while waiting.
Nowadays I can’t read all the time. I treasure my sleep a lot more. I don’t have classes during which I can hide at the back and read. I have better sense than to read and knock into everyone and everything in my path. I thankfully have no school assemblies to attend either. I often have work to do while I eat. I do still read while waiting. Yet with so much less time on my hands than before, I still manage to read a fair number of books every month.
Gaining Time I don’t have to Read
If I add up the hours that I truly have to read per month and measure them against the number of books I read, I must be an ultimate speed reader. An ultimate speed reader though, I am not. I expand my reading time with audiobooks. Say, I get to a really exciting part in my book but I absolutely must do chores X, Y and Z pronto. I can’t hold my books to continue reading while doing chore X. What do I do? I continue with the audiobook. That is how I still manage to read all the time.
Optimising Time I do have to Read
The one thing I don’t like about buses and cars is that I can’t read. I have motion sickness and get dizzy if I even so much as try to read. It’s not as bad on buses as in cars, so sometimes I’m stubborn and try to read anyway when I take the bus. Not always a good move. To save myself the headache, I listen to audiobooks.
The thing about audiobooks is that they take a lot more time to finish. An average novel of 300 odd pages takes 9 to 11 hours. When I read 350 pages, I’m done in 4 hours. That can make a difference of one whole book! To speed things up, I return to my book to read as soon as I can, rather than continue with the audiobook.
Same but Different
The content of a book and the counterpart audiobook is technically the same. The words are the same. Yet they are different because the interpretation inevitably varies. When we listen to an audiobook, the narrator add their own layer of understanding to the book that the author wrote.
Personally, I like experiencing that spectrum. I start with the book to form my own opinions. Then I switch to the audiobook to experience the book in a more vivid manner. To me listening is more interactive because that is when I can close my eyes and imagine everything. When I read a book, I can’t very well close my eyes. In a way, audiobooks enhance my reading experience.
In alternating between reading and listening, I find myself experiencing books on a much greater spectrum. Alternating also keeps the momentum going because I don’t have to interrupt a book as much.
Of course, finding the exact spot where I left off can be confusing. That’s why I take care to note which chapter I am at, so that I don’t start reading too far ahead or repeat something I have already read. This is where Whispersync between Kindle books and Audible audiobooks is useful — they sync up to offer up a seamless reading and listening experience. Another case for e-readers: they encourage us to read all the time!
Have you ever tried alternating between reading and listening to a book? How else do you find ways to read all the time?
Confab ˈkän-ˌfab, kən-ˈ noun an informal discussion, often about a particular topic
Discussion posts are some of my favourite posts to read. New ideas get shared that way, or old ideas are revisited and given a new spin. And of course, I get to be my opinionated self as I hoist my views upon others, while pretending to be objective. Or maybe not. I do welcome alternate views and I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
I totally do that as well! Except I listen to the audio books on 2x speed so that I don’t feel like it is taking as much time. So the 8 hour audio book becomes 4. Hours of listening. I love hearing the narrators and then picking up in the print version if I want to go even faster. I can read in cars thankfully, and I read while I eat also, so mostly audio books only get their time when I’m doing chores, driving myself and when I’m doing art. :)
2x speed?! O.O I couldn’t ever do that. Maximum is 1.5x because I find on 2x, the voices start to be too distorted for me to be able to pay attention.
I love combining audiobooks and print books for all the reasons you mention. It’s just so convenient. Unfortunately it’s not always so easy to do. Audiobooks are expensive and even though I have an Audible subscription I’m hesitant to use my monthly credit for a book I already own in print and won’t listen to in full lenght.
There’s a German equivalent to Overdrive but it’s not as advanced (you can only stream the audiobooks you borrowed) and of course they don’t carry any English audiobooks.
So most of the time I listen to a different audiobook than book I read but I wish I could combine it more often.
I generally try to get audiobooks from the library or Overdrive and use my Audible credits on books that aren’t available at my library. Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited is also useful because some Kindle ebooks come with the audiobook at no additional cost. Some Kindle ebooks come with a reduced price tag on Audible audiobooks, so I saved a lot on Cinder, which I bought for $1.99 as a daily deal, then paid $3.99 for the audiobook. Totally worth it! :D
You mean Onleihe? I have a subscription. Audiobooks are such a hassle for Mac users because the only way to listen is to stream via the app :( But apparently Windows users can freely transfer to their mp3 players. Hopefully they’ll do something about that in future. I included that in my feedback earlier this year when they conducted a formal survey.
I HAVE MOTION SICKNESS AS WELL. But I’m also plagued by terrible impatience so audiobooks and I do not get along at all. I just can’t do it. I’ve DNFed all the ones that I’ve tried. Which is such a shame because it could save me so much time. Or not, actually. I’m pretty sure I can knock back a book much quicker than someone reading it to me. BUT I love the idea and it sucks that I can’t get into it.
I used to read all the time as well but nowadays life just gets in the way. I’m either working or I’m tired from work or I’m cooking, or socialising (gah) or most importantly, sleeping. It’s hard to find time to read. Nowadays, despite having motion sickness, I just suck it up and try to sneak in a couple of pages on the train. I get sick and stop and then when it passes, I dig right in again. It’s the best that I can do right now.
I used to listen to audiobooks on long car drives when I was still a child. Eight to ten hours cooped up in a car with motion sickness were no joke. But the audiobooks distracted me for a couple of hours, so I’ve always looked upon audiobooks favourably.
Strangely, when I’m on the bus, I can read on my Kindle and bear it much longer than reading printed pages. I have yet to find a logical explanation for this.
Audiobooks can take me weeks or even months to listen to because I have other things (podcasts) that I like to listen to as well. I’ve never tried listening to a book and reading it at the same time. I read multiple books at a time, audiobook or not, so it’s not like I’m bogged down with just that one book for all those weeks.
I used to listen to podcasts but after I discovered vodcasts, I abandoned ship. Sometimes I even forget podcasts exists. Lol. But this means you still occupy your time with listening to something. I read a lot of books simultaneously too. That’s why I’ve adopted this system of reading or listening depending on what I’m doing, so I’ll finish what I start.