Books are my first love, a forever friend. It has always been this way for as long as I can remember. When in school and then college, I had the luxury of time. I could choose to stay up late to read a good book and sleep in the next morning. I could lose myself in the real or fictional characters, their lives and unique journeys, without a care in the world. My dream house always had a reading room with wall-to-wall wood paneled book shelves with neatly arranged books. It also had a reading corner with a cozy spot to sit and a warm blanket to truly get comfortable. A girl can dream right?
While my love for books never diminished, the time that I could allocate for that activity was greatly reduced with work, and more generally adulting activities. I went from reading a hundred books in a year to counting myself lucky if I could finish even five books in a year. I told myself that reading the TIME magazine counted but who was I kidding.
After we had kids, it became even more difficult to make time and kids became my number one priority. Between taking care of kids, work, household chores, driving to and from work and kids activities, sleep and exercise there was not that much free time left. And what little free time I had, I would rather spend with K and the kids than do anything else. So, reading books became a thing that I did in the past.
All this changed about two years ago. I now average about 30 books a year! My days did not magically have more hours though that would be awesome. I discovered Audible. I was initially resistant to the new modes of book consumption – kindle, audible etc. One of the reasons for my resistance was that I felt it was a betrayal to old school reading. But after trying it, I am now a true convert. Listening to a reader read a book does not equal the joy I get from holding a real book in my hand and reading it. That magic is special. But it is pretty good. And more importantly I am actually consuming a good number of books.
I can listen to Audible at any time – while picking up groceries, food prep, exercising, cleaning, driving..the opportunities are endless. I do have to rewind the audio sometimes if I was not paying attention and missed something but 90% of the time, I retain what I listen. And my phone is with me all the time which means I have all my books with me all the time and hence I call it untethered book consumption. It can hold more books than any wall to wall bookshelf I could have had. And I do not have to deal with heavy book boxes the next time we move!
And having books in my life again make me happy. Isn’t that one of the core things we pursue in life – happiness?
What makes you happy my friend?
epiphanu 