Listening to a Book? What?

So...

You have two kids
        and a husband,
               and you go to school full-time,
                      have homework
                               and housework,
                                     are writing one novel,
                                             and co-authoring a second novel,
                                                     and you've read--*checks goodreads*--19 novels in 2013.


A friend said this to me today, flabbergasted that I have time to actually read books.

With a bright smile, I admitted I cheat. But only a little bit.



No, I don't use sparknotes to "read" Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy and Milton. All of which I started and finished in 2013.

I've found it's awfully difficult to read while folding laundry, or cooking dinner, or cleaning my house, or driving to drop my son off in kindergarten. Every fold of cloth and mile of road felt absolutely wasted. Wasted because I had books to read for school and leisure.

 I have two friends who swear by audiobooks.

And now I swear by them.

When I found I couldn't possibly finish school books and leisure books, I downloaded the Audible iPhone app, plugged my phone into the docking station, and voila!!!

I listen to books while I clean, and cook, and drive. (I'm listening to one as I write this post) You never really notice how much time it takes to "make a quick trip to school, then stop quickly to get the mail" until you have an app keeping track of your listening time. Those quick trips are nearly an hour of my time in the morning.

For every one book I read, I've listened to one and a half audiobooks. Because really, with everything I do, I'm left to "actually reading a book" right before bed. I kill a hundred pages or so before my eyes grow too unfocused to read any longer. During the day, while I'm doing everything else that needs to get done, I listen to books.

My house no longer suffers for my book addiction. My car stereo has forgotten what "music" is. My children, five and two years old, listen along with me to books they will read in college...in thirteen and sixteen years. The transition from morning cartoons to "listening to  mommy's books" wasn't as tragic as expected.

My kids comment on the narrator's various accents. My son, the five year old, shrieks with the glee of recognizing words in mommy's books that he's learned to write/read in school. Instead of sitting in front of the television, my kids are learning, expanding their pliable little brains while mommy expands her less pliable and slightly tougher brain.

Audiobooks, are far more beneficial than just getting the next fix for an addiction that isn't detrimental to your health.

Happy Reading--listening to audiobooks. Happier Writing,

J