The title says it all. I absolutely cannot stand reading. In fact, I loathe the idea of sitting down for a long enough period of time and tiring my eyes by scanning the page of a book. I am too active and too fidgety and honestly my mind wanders and I cannot comprehend or retain what I read.
The Cure for Book Haters
Despite the fact reading and I do not get along very well, I love books. Yes, I know I just contradicted myself. Books are overflowing with valuable insights and knowledge that can develop your ability to be a better businessperson, a better leader, a better worker, a better spouse or just a more well-rounded person.
So here is my cure for the contradiction of loving books but hating reading–audiobooks.
If you are like me and can’t sit still, audiobooks are the solution. You can be driving, flying, riding, working, cooking, jogging, cleaning…you get the idea. Audiobooks free up time, and allow you to get knowledge from books without having to sit down and read. Additionally, I am an auditory learner, so listening often makes the message stick.
The Pros and Cons of Audiobooks
Audiobooks fill in the cracks of time. For instance, unless you are super talented or asking for a death wish, you couldn’t ordinarily read and drive–audiobooks make that possible. There is less wasted time with reading. You can also share audiobooks with family and friends on road trips or in the office if they want to listen and learn. A big positive is that most of the time, audiobooks are cheaper than the actual book. Another benefit to audiobooks is that many of them have interviews or radio show clips with the author to get his or her point of view. Some audiobooks that are narrated by the author have side commentary that goes into detail about what they wrote about that you may not get in a book.
The downside to audiobooks is that you can’t really annotate, highlight, etc. like you could if you had the actual text in front of you. I often buy a copy of the book as well so I can keep notes if I hear something I want to remember. It can also be a bit more difficult to lend an audiobook out to a friend for them to read.
Overall, audiobooks are worth it. They cure my contradictory phrase: “I Love Books, But Hate Reading!”
Book Reviews on this Blog
A new addition to this blog is Book Reviews. I am starting to review some of the books I have read (or listened to) so that my readers can find some of the sources of my inspiration. So stay tuned as more book reviews start appearing on here in the near future!