Audiobooks! Audiobooks! Audiobooks!
There has been a lot of interest in audio books but I had never listened to one. Not until Saturday that is. I needed to drive to and from Banglore this weekend and it takes 4+ hours each way, not taking into account potential traffic within the city itself. Usually, i'm on the phone or i'm listening to podcasts. But, given the bet I have with Preeti this month, I thought listening to audio books would be a better use of my time. So I went through the entire catalogue of ebooks available on the Library app and picked five, four of which I ended up actually listening to.
The first was The Twits by Roald Dahl, narrated by Richard Ayoade, who you might know from the IT Crowd. It was short and hilarious. Richard Ayoade does an amazing job with the narration. I was smiling practically the entire time I was listening to the audio book. It was roughly an hour long so not a big audio book. In a few years time, when my son starts reading books, I'm definitely buying all of Roald Dahls works!
The second was The Book That No One Wanted to Read by Richard Ayoade, narrated by Richard Ayoade and others. I picked the book on a whim and boy am I glad I did. I'm pleasantly surprised at how good the book was. There was a moment towards the end of the book that made me tear up. Absolutely smashing work by Richard Ayoade. It looks like there's a new childrens author in town! This too was a short audio book that lasted less than an hour.
The third was Animal Farm by George Orwell. Preeti has a copy of Animal Farm but for reasons I don't fully remember, I didn't read past the fifth page. This time around, my jaw was on the floor for the last 15 minutes of the audio book. I need to read more of George Orwells writings. This audio book was slightly longer than the first two, but not by much, lasting roughly one hour and thirty minutes long.
The fourth and final was The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida. This book is an absolute eyeopener for me because it helped me to put myself in the shoes of people with physical or intellectual disabilities and how their day-to-day lives might be like in the middle of the "normal" human population. It is an amazing piece of work by a young autistic author. I just discovered that the author has a second book out, which I am eager to read! This audio book was also the longest of the four, lasting a little more than two hours.
I think I got really lucky with the audio books that I chose. From what I understand, people love audio books because it's a good way to use their daily commute, to and from work. I, on the other hand, work from home, so my daily commute involves walking the twenty-or-so feet from my bed room to my office and back. But, given my involvement in the monthly FOSS meetups in Bengaluru, I think I will have roughly 10 hours per month to potentially spend listening to audio books. I have enough physical books on my book shelf that I need to finish so I don't think i'll be reaching for an audio book at home. Let's see how lucky I get with the audio books the next time I travel to and from Banglore.