Audiobooks: My House Has Never Been So Clean

The days of audiobooks being for long car rides or marathon training are long gone.  With smartphones, apps, easy downloadables and expectations of frantic multitasking, the audiobook has moved from the car stereo and portable CD player to the palm of our hands and our back-pockets.   

Downloadable audiobooks are not just a trend; they are significant part of how readers now enjoy books. Here are just a few advantages to using downloadable audiobooks:  

1.     Great way to pad your Goodreads reading list.  It is true listening to a book is equivalent reading a book, so you can double or triple your book completion rate by listening to books while multitasking. Time to burn through that list of Classics that you have wanted to get back to since college.

2.     No need for dancing breaks. Listening to music is great for housecleaning, but in my case results in far too many dancing breaks; whereas, my hyper-focused audiobook listening frequently results in cleaning the same spot a few times. Who knew dusting could be so relaxing and thought-provoking?

3.     Spoken-language is beautiful. Hearing words read out loud is a different experience than reading silently in your read. Sometimes adults need to storytime too. Feels good all over.

4.     Audiobooks can make an average book great. A great audiobook reader takes the mundane and makes it spectacular. Case in point: Most of my book club thought that Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain was average to good. I initially gave it two thumbs-up until someone asked me, “Did you think the dog was talking to you?” Yes! Yes, I did.       

Enjoying audiobooks has never been so simple with products like Audible (a fee-based subscription service from Amazon); Overdrive (a free service available at most libraries with your library card) and OneClick (also a free service available at most libraries with your library card).