How Audiobooks Got Me Out of My Reading Slump

With a frustrated sigh, I slammed the fifth book shut before tossing it onto my desk, where it joined the other three books that I had attempted and failed to start reading. With quarantine in full swing I, like the rest of the world, was looking for different ways to stay busy.

While some were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to exercise due to most fitness centers closing, I knew I was getting the recommended 10,000 steps per day given the infinite number of times I had walked back and forth from my bookshelf to my bed, an ever-changing pile of to-be-read books serving as proof of my indecisive reading habits. As I glanced at the endless pile of books around me, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of shame. Like many others, I decided to use quarantine as an opportunity to do and try things that I previously wouldn’t have been able to do. With the extra time I had, I was excited and determined to start reading all the books that I had previously bought, but no matter how hard I tried, I found myself continuously losing interest.

Social media platforms did little to reassure me that my unproductivity was acceptable. It seemed that every other post on social media consisted of someone discussing how much work they’ve been able to accomplish during lockdown, or their newest hobby. It appeared that everyone was using the unexpected pause in their life to their advantage, while I was struggling to do something that I normally enjoyed.

I had voiced my frustration with feeling inadequate to one of my friends as we waited for our online class to start. She had been struggling with the same issue, and causally suggested that it could be helpful if I switched up the way I was reading books. Before quarantine began, she often created digital art, but she felt unmotivated to draw online after spending hours every single day on Zoom for classes. It wasn’t until she started casually doodling in her sketchbook did her love for drawing return. I decided to take her advice and debated between trying eBooks or audiobooks. Similar to my friend, I was also experiencing online fatigue, so I determined that trying audiobooks would be the route to take.

In all honestly, I have nothing against audiobooks. While there are some memories of sitting in my middle school English class, listening to the group book for forty minutes every week that I would rather not revisit, I didn’t have a negative association with audiobooks. In fact, I admired their ability to make reading accessible for those who might have sight impairments, reading disabilities, or live in areas of the world where books are hard to come across. The main reason why I never considered listening to audiobooks before is because I prefered to read physical books. I really enjoyed the feeling of sitting down after a long day to quietly read a book and the excitement that came with the feeling of anxiously turning the page to learn what happens next in the story.

Since I was in the middle of an intense physical reading slump, I was eager to try anything in order to start enjoying books again. I downloaded the app that provided me access to my library’s audiobook collection. After browsing through the selection, I was shocked at how many different genres of audiobooks were offered.

I quickly selected a book, and before I knew it, I was completely immersed in the story. Given the chaotic state of the world, I found it comforting to be able to block out any distractions and allow the narrator to bring the story to life for me. Instead of focusing on reading as many books as possible, I was able to slow down and really immerse myself in the story through the different narrators and sound techniques used. It didn’t take long for me to become completely obsessed with audiobooks, and the captivating way the narrators were able to draw me into the narrative. Once I started listening to a book, I simply couldn’t stop until it was finished.

After discovering my love for audiobooks, and by extension books in general, I realized that I had been treating reading as if it was a competition. I believed that if I read more books, then I was being productive, but by doing that, it only took the enjoyment out of reading. With that knowledge, I have decided that it no longer matters how many books I read in a year or how long it takes me to read something. The only thing that’s really important is that I’m enjoying what I’m reading.

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