Audiobooks

Dani suggested I try listening to audio books and over the past couple of weeks I have. I listened to Arthur Phillips' Angelica and immediately hunted for my favorite audio book of all time, The Princess Bride. It so happens that The Princess Bride is also (and has been for many years) my favorite book and movie. I used to listen to the audio book when I was a child sleeping over at a relative's house. Rob Reiner's soothing voice lulled me to sleep as he recounted a story I knew so well. I remember listening to it on my walkman and occasionally waking when the tape clicked its end. I always fell asleep somewhere in the middle of the tape, but simply turned it over to hear more because I loved the way he told the story, nevermind the chronology.

I started listening to the audio book last night and all the wonderful memories of my childhood came rushing back. In the introduction, William Goldman writes that this book changed his life - it caused his love of reading. While I already loved to read by the time I first read The Princess Bride, it certainly had an impact on my life, if only as a marker along the way and a signifier of pleasant memories - the aunt and uncle who introduced me to the movie, how my mother checked the book out of the library, but I read it in three days instead or how I encouraged my high school book club to read it and found kindred spirits. Like when I was a little girl listening to the audio book while I fell asleep, I listened to The Princess Bride on my ipod shuffle today (it did just that - shuffle the book) and the chronology of events mattered not. I was awash in memories, delighting in the story as it came together in pieces. At first I tried to page through the snippets and piece the story together, but then I just let it play and was surprised every few minutes as the plot sharply changed. I know the story so well that I filled in the gaps just fine.

This experience leaves me on the fence about audio books. I loved listening to a story while commuting, but like trying to read when exhausted and lulled by the train, I felt sleepy at times and missed parts of the story. At the same time, the audio book engaged me when I couldn't find a seat on the train and thus did not have to awkwardly stare into a stranger's lap. I could just listen. Yet, I felt disengaged from the text. I never went back and skimmed a section I might have missed, simply forged ahead. However, I truly enjoyed listening to a favorite story while I made dinner. I think audio books have a place in my life, I just need to work out where.

- KER