What if you could make dead time productive, fun, enjoyable and informative? 

What if you could read a book while driving? 

What if you could read a book while cooking?

What if you could read a book while working out? 

What if you could read a book while falling asleep at night in the dark?

You can. It’s called an audiobook. 

First of all, let's get this out of the way, listening to a book does count as reading a book. 

For hundreds of thousands of years human beings have told each other stories. Out loud, using their mouths and their ears. Eyes didn’t get involved until later. By that logic, you could argue that listening to a book is the old school way of doing it. 

Consuming a book and absorbing its content one way or another has the same impact on comprehension as reading the old fashioned way. Studies have been done. 

If you can’t tell, I’ve been frustrated by the ‘iT dOesN’T CoUnt aS rEaDiNg’ response I see from people when talking about audiobooks. It doesn’t bother me because I don’t particularly care whether someone thinks I’ve read a book or not. What does bother me is that their attitude to audiobooks is going to prevent them from potentially enriching their lives in such a profound way. 

I’ve listened to a lot of audiobooks over the last couple of years so I think I’m about as qualified as anyone to comment on this. As evidence look at the screenshot below of my Audible stats (account started in mid 2022). 

As you can see, pretty much all the time that I’m awake and not engaged in an activity which specifically prevents it, I will have voices in my head. I’m also often listening to audiobooks 😉 

It’s gotten to the point where I don’t really listen to music that much anymore which probably sounds weirder than anything else I’ve said in this blog up to now. But, it’s true. If I’m in a situation where I can listen to something, music is on the backpedal.  

In an age where people are spending upwards of 3 hours a day looking at their phones, anything to your attention away from doom scrolling clickbait will do more than just delay the onset of your shortsightedness as your eyes forget the need to look beyond anything 2 feet away from you. It will fill your life with stories. 

Not just fiction either. Pretty much any book that has been traditionally published (not self-published, although this is catching up) will have an audio version. 

That means you can listen  to Stephen Fry read you the Harry Potter books one minute and have Tim Ferris tell you how to get your working week down to 4 hours at the tap of a button. 

Ever been on a long car journey by yourself and felt bored? Yeah. Start listening to audiobooks. Instead of driving dangerously fast with the music uncomfortably loud to reach your destination as fast as possible to alleviate said boredom you actually start driving like a calm, well adjusted human.

If you have a commute to work, find a book that you really love and that commute could become the best part of your day. 

Find cooking nutritious meals long and boring? Start listening to audiobooks. 

Struggle with the motivation to go to the gym? Tell yourself you’re going to listen to a book for an hour. 

Now whilst this all sounds like I’m about to promote some sort of affiliate link to Audible, that’s not the case (in fact it’s typically better for authors if you get their audiobooks from any other source). 

I still read books in the physical sense but listening to them has increased my consumption of content that has added immeasurable value. If you haven’t tried it for yourself, you could be missing out like I was. 

The reason I’m so passionate about it is because it’s had such a big impact on my life.

When I’m passionate about something, I want to share it with other people.

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