We Meet Again, Audiobooks

I know a lot of people don’t care for audiobooks, and I’ve never been that great of a listener (fact: in elementary school when we took standardized tests, I always did the worst on listening. And science.), so I never thought it was something that would interest me. When I got into the workforce, I discovered podcasts. When you work a desk job that involves data entry, they are a savior. I have found several podcasts that are interesting and make me smile and think all while doing my job. Sometimes when I run a little low on podcasts (fact: I’m never actually low on podcasts since I deliberately stay at least a week behind on most of them, and with the ones that are almost daily I am several weeks behind) I start to feel a little panicky because most of the time, music just won’t cut it. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy music, but most of it doesn’t occupy my mind quite in the same way.

headphones
Art by Michelle Lawrence

I also commute an hour both ways to and from work. I listen to a radio show in the mornings that I enjoy, but in the afternoon my routine varies. Sometimes I begin to think of how I wish I could listen to audiobooks.

I tried it out once when I went on a weekend trip. The narrator was good, I had no problem following the story, and it was all grand. But since I had downloaded the book from my library directly from my iPhone’s Overdrive app, it was apparently eating up my data plan. I had to stop listening to The Prestige somewhere around 60-75% through the story and still haven’t finished it.

OMC_logoI thought there had to be a better way that didn’t involve draining my data plan, but I never made the time to figure it out.

Then I got antsy again about my podcast number again. And then my co-worker asked me to help her do something with her Nook tablet. I have one too, though hers is newer and the operating system is a little different on it, and the question she was asking about had to do with her Overdrive app on there. I was able to figure it out even though I was unfamiliar with it, but suddenly I realized:

There’s an Overdrive app for Nook.

The Nook only has wi-fi, and we don’t actually have wi-fi at work, so…

There’s a way to listen to books without wi-fi or 4G.

I mean, it’s not complicated, I just didn’t bother to figure it out before. What I found out was that if I had just downloaded the books to my computer first, and then transferred them to my phone (or apparently my Nook as well), I can listen to the books at work in my car without using up any data. I tried it this week with one of the two books I actually had downloaded for free over the summer and viola! It worked beautifully. And to think I could have done this a long time ago!

So once I finish Sherlock Holmes, my current audiobook listen, I believe The Prestige and I are going have to pick up where we left off so I can finally get some closure. And then who knows after that? I’m keeping an Excel spreadsheet on what the library offers that I might be interested in.

I’m so excited to dive back into the world of audiobooks, and hopefully I’ll stick with it this time. While it’s not my preferred way to “read” a book, it’s convenient for a busy lifestyle.

Are audiobooks part of your life? Please feel free to recommend favorites! 

15 Responses to We Meet Again, Audiobooks

  1. I just recently discovered how amazing and easy downloading audiobooks from the library is! Plus, it appears that not everyone else in town knows either, so most of the time I can get them fairly quickly! LOVE listening at work, makes the day more entertaining!
    Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings

  2. I’ve been debating using audio books for a while now because I do a lot of walking but I was always hesitant to try it out. I just didn’t think it could be the same as reading a book but now I’m falling behind on reading and I need to catch up so maybe I’ll give them a try after reading this.

    Great post! 🙂

  3. I love listening to podcasts at work too! And audiobooks but sometimes it’s nice to just have something short and sweet to listen to – even though I love audiobooks, I am not always in the mood. I did get a few from the Sync program in the summer and going but Overdrive is a great resource – I’m glad you are using it! I love listening to Neil Gaiman narrating his books because his voice is mesmerizing! 🙂

  4. Oh my gosh, podcasts were a life saver for me too, several years ago! I used to do work that involved tracing lines about 7 hours a day, and I would have gone insane without something like that to listen to!

    I’m so glad you figured out how to make audiobooks a feasible option for you, too, because they can be SO enjoyable. If you haven’t already read Ready Player One, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing that one on audiobook before our meeting next month! ;D

    • I have holds on both the e-book and audiobook through my library, so we’ll see which one becomes available first! Or if I get the e-book first, I might start reading it but then finish with the audiobook.

  5. Yay for audiobooks! I was wary of them at first but discovered that they’re a great way to get through the routines of life. 🙂 I really liked listening to the audiobook for Melina Marchetta’s “On the Jellicoe Road.”

    Also, yay for Overdrive! 😀

  6. When I used to have a fairly long commute (although not an hour both ways, you poor girl) I would get the audiobook of the book I was reading, if available, then just pick up where the audio left off at night before bed or whatever. When my commute became, like, 10 minutes, I stopped getting them. I always just got books on cd from my library. Now that I am subbing at schools all over the city, I’ve been looking at getting cds for my car again. My favorite books are memoirs read by the author. Bossypants by Tina Fey and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling are both fantastic.

    • That’s definitely not a bad idea to listen to the book that I’m also reading. I might do that with some e-books and audiobooks that are both available through the library, so long as I can get them both at once!

  7. I really like audiobooks! I think that they are definitely hit or miss, but I’ve enjoyed most of the ones I’ve gotten. I really like the idea of being able to read while also doing something else with my hands — like working or driving or cooking, etc. It’s so useful and is a good way of getting in extra reading when you otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

    I had horrible audial comprehension when I was in school, too, so I thought that I would hate audiobooks, but I actually never had a problem with them. Maybe it’s because I’m older or something? I don’t know.

    I haven’t used Overdrive before, but the way I listen to audiobooks without using data or wi-fi is just to borrow the actual audio CDs from my library, upload the tracks to my computer, and then listen to them on my phone. Easy peasy! It does take some time to upload the CDs, but I can do that while I’m doing work on my computer anyway, so it doesn’t really matter to me.

    • Maybe it’s because we actually care about the books, whereas we didn’t care what we had to listen to in school? Ha ha… I’m sure being older helps too. 🙂

  8. They don’t really work for me as I get distracted too easily and lose track of what I was listening to. And I don’t really have any places to listen to audio. My drive to work is short and I prefer to listen to the radio. I can’t wear headphones in work and in the gym I prefer to read or listen to music.
    If I had a longer commute, I think I would try harder to get into audio books.

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