How long has it been since you actually picked up a book and started to read with an intention of completing it? I'm not talking about your text books in case you are attending a school to attach more suffixes and/or prefixes to your name with an anticipation of earning more bucks. I'm referring to a fiction/non-fiction novel, a (auto)biography or you know what I mean. I should say it hasn't been that long in my case (something like an year if I'm not wrong) but the trend is soon changing. Last year, namely '07, I hardly could steal any time at all to read a book. Both, pressure and responsibilities at work and other activities kept me really busy. The only book I could do justice to was Calvin and Hobbes. I have tree sets of the entire collection in three different form factors and I absolutely love it. I'm so attracted to Calvin and Hobbes that I can go on talking about it forever. So let me stop right now continue from where I stopped. I'm sure you are already lost as to where I digressed. To drive you back to the point, I had no time to read any book in the last one year. As the saying goes "everything is for one's own good", this situation gave me an opportunity to dive into the world of 'audio books'.
Lucky enough, my town library is one of the best I have seen and has a mind boggling collection of digital media. Also, a colleague of mine introduced me to audible and the concept looked very interesting. I'm not sure what audio book I first borrowed from my library but the whole idea definitely influenced a lot of things in my everyday life. As soon as I stepped out of the library with my first audio book and got into my car, I slid the first CD into the MP3 player. Within minutes, I was in a totally different world. It was as if there was a storyteller in the passenger seat devoting all his time to narrate a beautiful story to me. He was my personal story teller. Someone who does not get tired of speaking. Someone who does not take a gulp of water to wet his throat even after hours of continuous speaking. The guy never gets pissed off when I ask him to repeat whatever I missed, how many ever times I wish. I could control my storytellers voice according to my preference. This was perfect. Now for someone reading this and thinking it is dangerous to drive while listening, I'm sorry but there ain't no problem. Lord almighty put a lot of time and effort in designing this magnificent brain. There is something called multitasking and this kind of multitasking is far more safer than talking on the phone while driving with a coffee cup in one hand and lipstick in the other.
Finally I found a way to get back in touch with reading (or listening?). 'course, this can't be a solution for someone who wants to feel the book, smell the ink and turn the pages while reading but sure enough filled in the void created by not reading, for someone like me. Earlier, did I say I did not have enough time to read a book? Well, I devoured Two Lives, The Glass Castle, The Little Book That Beats The Market, The Lemon Tree, State of Denial, When Genius Failed and now I'm in the middle of The World is Flat.
Apart from getting back in touch with books, this storyteller of mine made another really big, remarkable and never thought of difference in me. I started to drive slowly (slowly does not mean below speed limit), be more patient with other idiot snail-pace drivers in the left lane, not take off from red lights even before the cars in the cross-street stopped and control the urge to jump thirty odd traffic lights on my way that always decide to turn red when they see me. I never really figured out if they turn red from blushing at my appearance or with anger. The bottom line is I turned into a more careful driver. I know it is difficult to imagine a "careful driver" in New York. The two terms can not go together.
This 21st century storyteller does not stop at CDs in the car, he sits in the iPod, on the hard drive of your laptop and soon, on a memory chip that will be embedded into your brain.Labels: audibles, audio books, autobiography, biography, calvin and hobbes, fiction, lemon tree, mp3, non-fiction, novels, reading, the glass castle, the world is flat, two lives, when genius failed |
