Set Your Books and E-readers Down – It’s Time to Listen
I made the switch from paper books to e-books more than fifteen years ago and never looked back. But these days, when I’m reading, my eyes tend to get tired much sooner than they used to and that got me thinking about making yet another change in my reading habits. Enter audiobooks.
I’ve never had much luck with audiobooks in the past. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve tried, and failed, to get through one. As my eyesight changed, though, I became more serious about making audiobooks work for me.
After looking at a few different devices and methods for audiobook delivery, I decided I would keep it simple and just use my cell phone. I tried out a few different audiobook software apps and I went with Books Software’s Smart AudioBook Player app. I can’t tell you how easy it makes listening to audiobooks on a cell phone.
It still takes quite a bit of concentration on my part to keep my mind from wandering off in different directions, as it always has when I’ve tried to listen to audiobooks, but this time I’ve finally made some progress and have finished (and enjoyed) six audiobooks in as many weeks. One obvious, although not to me at first, and very important thing about audiobooks is that it really, really matters who the narrator is. I’ve just begun listening to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, narrated by Stephen Fry, and so far he’s doing an excellent job. Compare that to the full cast BBC audiobook version, which grabbed my attention initially until I realized that I don’t care for a lot of different voices or music mixed in with the reading. I think it was just too much, too soon, for my novice ears.
