Read more and better with audiobooks
In high school, I would spend my commute either finishing last minute assignments or reading. Since the commute took some time, I could hop on the bus, open a book, and come back to the real world 40 minutes later.
But everything changed when I got into CEGEP.
The much shorter commute, combined with a much more packed bus, didn’t allow me to pick a seat at the back and concentrate on the book I was reading.
After only one semester, I was stuck at home for the duration of COVID, trying to pass time. Alas, it was too late. I had given up on reading and barely touched a book in the following years.
Recently, I’ve had to perform a lot of repetitive tasks and decided to give audiobooks a try, seeing as I’ve memorized all the lyrics to the music I listen to on repeat and frankly, needed new content to listen to.
After some quick research, I downloaded Libby — a free app that allowed me to check out audiobooks from different libraries I had accounts with. Thus, the floodgate that was closed for so long was reopened.
Turns out, not having to look at pages allows you to complete other basic tasks, while still focusing on the story in your ears. Within weeks, I’ve practically swallowed thousand-page books, passion reignited.
Nowadays, when someone mentions audiobooks, most picture the endless Audible (or other similar subscription services) ads. But there is so much more in the great land of the internet.
When I was first looking into the subject, my three main questions were: where do I get audiobooks? What type of stuff can I read? And, most importantly, why should I try audiobooks in the first place?
Most libraries have hundreds, if not thousands, of audiobooks, which compose the majority professionally recorded texts. But what if your book is not found there? Some more specific books, for example, technical textbooks you might need for school, are not usually recorded. For those, multiple text-to-speech applications such as Speechify can be downloaded or used for free. Those voice plain text from PDF files with a bot narrator.
Additionally, a couple of friends who experience different learning disorders have confirmed that accompanying text with a voiceover almost always helps to take in the material easier. Thankfully, there are multiple studies backing this claim! In school, we learn the main learning styles: visual, reading, kinesthetic and auditory. So why restrict ourselves to only visual and reading?
By changing or combining different ways to consume texts, I found a major step forward in speed with which I read and learn, as well as my productivity. The results were almost instantaneous; after spending a day tinkering with the playback speed, I decided to dive into my favorite genre to better judge the results. Being a fantasy fan, this helped me discover new writers and solidify my position as an audiobook advocate.
I hope that after this read, you’ll be inclined to find an audio version of a book you’ve been struggling to read, and give it another try.
