How Audiobooks changed my reading game and how it can do for you too!

Over the last 12 months, I have listened to 50+ audiobooks. Before that, well, zero.

Let’s go back to 2015 when I picked up my first ever audiobook, “Shoe Dog” by Nike Co-founder Phil Knight. Only to never pick another one for 6 years!

So, where did I slip?

Let’s be honest, listening requires more concentration than reading. Since your hands and eyes are not

engaged, you might end up doing things that hamper your focus. Which is exactly what I did!

I attended to my phone’s notifications, gazed outside the window and day-dreamt, wrote mails, cooked

while reading a recipe, and yes never finished the audiobook.

Cut to 2020, when in an attempt to fit more reading into a busy professional year, I paid for an audiobook subscription and have never looked back since. 50 books later, I can safely say that my day doesn’t end without listening to one.

Over the last one year, I tested (and abandoned) a lot of audiobooks, and developed my own techniques to maximize my listening experience.

Here are my 4 tips to help you to do the same:-

1. Keep that damn phone away (only after hitting that play button) — I can’t emphasize enough on this tip since most likely you’ll be listening to an audiobook on your phone and we all know how easy it is to be distracted by it. I make a conscious effort to stay away from my phone. Here are some suggestions:

a. I’ve found listening on a Bluetooth headset to be the best. It not only keeps your hands free, but keeps all the wires away which is great when you are moving around a lot.

b. You can also try listening on a speaker (or on your phone’s speaker) if it doesn’t bother people around you.

c. If you have to listen through a wired headphone, switch off your notifications at that time and keep your phone in your pocket.

Browsing on your phone does not bode well with listening, an activity requiring focus and concentration which brings me to my next point.

2. Multi-task judiciously – I listen to audiobooks while doing activities which are monotonous, repetitive and hence require no thinking. Let me explain. Sweeping the floor or making tea or commuting in a bus to work are the things which I have been doing for a very long time now. The tasks are so ingrained in my brain now that I work on an automated mode when I perform them. Compare this to trying a new cup-cake recipe which require me to follow step-by-step

instructions, thus making a deficit in my attention.

So, if you see yourself pushing that rewind button again and again, chances are that it’s not you but the activity which is making you do so. Observe yourself, recognize what doesn’t take away your attention and fit your audiobook right in between that.

3. Try a sample – Like any art, not all audiobooks are made alike. Some are drab, some are confusing, some are not of your taste and some shouldn’t have made that publishing cut. Samples offered with any audiobook app help you to weed out the best books from the enormous selection. Think of it like opening a book in a library and reading a page or two to get the essence. Ask yourself these questions :-

Does it appeal to you?

Does the writing make sense?

How is the narration?

How is the pace?

Remember life is too short to waste your time on a book that doesn’t interest you!

4. Choosing the right genre – I find books with a linear narrative or less no. of characters easy to follow along in an audiobook format. If a book keeps jumping from one timeline/narrator to another, I find it difficult to grasp it. Case in point – A little life, a book with so many narrators, characters and jumping timelines that I had to pick up its physical copy to finish it. Here are some of the styles (with some examples) which I loved in the audio-book format :-

a. Self-improvement books – These have a straight-forward narrative and feel more like a podcast with multiple episodes. Suggestions – The school of life by Alain de Botton, The power of habit by Charles Duhigg

b. Biographies/Memoirs – Most of the books under this genre follow a chronological timeline, hence making it easy to pay attention to. Suggestions - Becoming by Michelle Obama, Know my
name by Chanel Miller

c. Fiction with one narrator – These are entertaining and easy to listen. Suggestions – The seven

husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Reid, Kim Jiyong Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

d. Books narrated by the author – These are my favorite kind of audiobooks. An author while narrating their books bring to life the emotion and tonality of the words. Suggestions — Whisteblower by Susan Fowler, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Poet x by Elizabeth Acevado.

I can’t emphasize enough on the positive change which audiobooks have brought in my reading life. I swear by them in making some of my uninspiring daily tasks interesting. I hope these tips will help you in picking up an audiobook. Let me know if you have any tip to add to it or any book to suggest.

Wishing you happy reading!