Audio Only, Thank You

I don't have any photos of my dad reading to me, but when my kids were little, he read to them whenever they were together. He never expected his audience to sit still and he knew we could fidget or multitask and still be paying attention.

My whole like I have loved being read to.  Every night when he wasn't working, my dad would read children's novels to me. Our favorites were Anne of Green Gables and The Great Brain, but we read so many different things.  He would read until one of us fell asleep and sometimes he wouldn't wake up and just stayed sleeping on my floor.  When I was maybe five or six, he bought a tape recorder and blank tapes.  He started recording each night so that when he had to work, he could still read me to sleep. I still remember large passages of these books, not verbatim, but in my way by remembering all the details of the story. 
It was like RFB&D before anyone even suspected I had a learning disability and years and years before I had access to that library.  RFB&D, which has been re-branded Learning Ally, was Readings for the Blind and Dyslexic.  It is a huge collection of books read by volunteers.  When I was a student, we got four-track tapes mailed to us  and I listened to them on high speed. While RFD&D was unique in giving students access to text books, it also had novels and non-fiction.  By the time I was a teenager, I also found that the library had Books on Tape, particularly for best sellers. I have spent a large fortune in library fines over the years. I had library cards at many libraries.  On road trips, I would get a library card in the town I was staying, check out Books on Tape, and then mail them back from the next stop when I was done with them.

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I used to read paper books, too.  In fact, I come from a family of readers.  But I read so much on paper at work now that when I read for leisure, I want it to be easy.  I rarely read on paper for fun anymore.

My parents, brother, & I on vacation before I stopped reading paper books. In fact, I think this was the last vacation I took printed books with me.

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You can imagine, then, how much I love the instant access that is now available online.  I use Audible, Learning Ally, Audiobooks, and sometimes OverDrive (Libby).  I still speed the up. The speed of the original narration determines how much.  A lovely southern drawl can sometime go to triple speed!  My family hates the high speed noise, so if I can convince them to listen along, I'll slow it down, especially if it is Jim Dale , Davina Porter, Wil Wheaton, Katherine Kellgren, or Ralph Cosham.

My dad, reading to my kids again.

***Excepts from online banter about audio books:
My brother, Trystan: Have you read As Meat Loves Salt?
Me: No audio? You read a book on paper? Really? Try again.
Trystan: You said you read a book a week! I thought that’s what you meant!
Me: Have you ever met me? Give me another one!!
Trystan: Far from the Tree? There’s an audio version of that one— read by the author, which is actually a good thing. He’s a great reader (also a friend, so I may be biased).
Me: Trystan, Seriously? I am almost 100% certain I recommended that to you! I absolutely love that book. I didn’t know you knew the narrator, who was great. I assign the chapter on conception by rape in the sociology class I teach. Third time is the charm?
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Jennifer: PS How in the hell do you find time to read a book a week? I am on fastest readers I know but by God, I don't have that kind of time!
Me: Audio books on high speed while doing every loathsome task I have to do
Jennifer: Oh! Ok. I love me some Audible too.
Me: I have Audible, Audiobooks, Learning Ally, & the public library app. I’m a totally junky.
Heather: I never ever listen to audiobooks. I love actually reading, finding the time is hard but I love nothing more than to sit with a book.
Jennifer: Perhaps you are predominantly a visual learner? I’m primarily an auditory learner; so audio books are perfect for me. 
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Amy: The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry!
Me: I don’t think there’s an audio version, Amy. Do you have another suggestion?
Amy: It has to be audio?
​Me: Yes. I hardly ever read on paper & my list of only-available-in-paper-format is at least three years long. But I plow through the audio books. But also, my 50 books list for 2018 is full.
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No audio version for We Were Witches, so Nora went with The Antelope Wife.
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Lisa: The illustrated memoir - The Best We Could Do- is a beautiful book, but only if you read it on paper!
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Julie: Do you use Audbile only, or do you use the public library overdrive system too?
Me: I sometimes do, but I hate waiting.  
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Rhonda: I like to support the library.
Me:  I read everything on audio book. The library system is fine if you have a lot of time & patience to invest in waiting for what you want or for the next book in the series. I would rather just buy it, which also thereby supports the authors, publishers, & editors that produce the works I want to read. Maybe when I retire I’ll go back to the library system. In the meantime, I’ve spent enough money on library fines in my past to have funded ten times what I lost or returned late. It’s probably cheaper for me to just be buying them anyhow.
Rhonda:  I hear you! Those lost books are such a pain.​
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