In recent years, I have found myself reading less and less. I think it all started when … hmm, yes, I think it was when I started college. Reading was included in homework - read twenty pages for Sociology, fifteen for Human Communication, fifty for Rhetorical Theory, and so on. There was hardly room for a New York Times bestseller amongst textbooks, at least for me. Reading quickly became a privilage rather than a pasttime, and only in the last year have I made a point of trying to read more.
Still, it’s difficult to carve out an hour to do a good bit of reading. I have too much to do between work, going grocery shopping, visiting my friends … it seems like all I ever do is spend time in my car.
Ah ha! Time in my car …
I had heard people talk about audio books. I had seen them at Borders, nice little wrapped square boxes lined up neatly on a few shelves near the front of the store. Normally, I walk right by them as I make a beeline for the Literature section, where all the “real” books are.
But the other night, I couldn’t avoid them. There was an entire shelf of them sitting outside of the store, on the sidewalk. CLEARANCE could be read clearly on a red sign above them. I’m not one to ever pass by a bargain shelf. And so it happened that I purchased Steven King’s Cell on audio book, read by the rather attractive (physically and audibly) actor Campbell Scott.
This is great because not only is an actor reading to me while I’m driving, but I am stepping outside of my literary comfort zone and my normal medium (physical books, made of some kind of paper and cardboard).
It’s even better in that I am forced to listen to every gory detail of Cell. There is no skimming ahead when listening to an audio book. Sure, I could fast forward through that knife-through-the-throat paragraph a bit, but who knows if I would miss something vital to the story?
If you’re not really digging anything I’ve mentioned above, there is always the amazing modern technology that has brought us podcasts. In keeping with the theme of the strange and twisted, check out some podcasts from Norm Sherman.
If anyone has any recommendations for decent cheap or free audiobooks, throw ‘em our way!
Del.icio.us
RSS feed
Sometimes the truth is
leafless said:
I too have not read a non-technical book for quite a while. All the “assigned” readings in college had effectively purged my appetite for reading.
April 18, 2008 @ 5:20 am