Lounging Around Reading is a Thing of the Past for This Reader
Guest writer AdriAnne is a stay at home parent with two small kids and no time to sit around and read books anymore. What's a reader to do?
Hi readers,
Readers quit reading periodically throughout their life for various reasons. Some can’t bear to read for pleasure while reading for assignments and homework in college. Others go through seasons where other things take priority over reading. Today’s guest writer found herself unable to spend much time reading a physical book because she was busy raising little kids that wanted her undivided attention as all littles do.
In my frequent perusal of Substack looking for more bookish newsletters, I discovered Book Snacks and its bookish creator,
. I enjoy reading her newsletter every time it lands in my inbox. She writes about her current and recently finished reads/listens, what she’s reading to her kids, a vintage read, and a “snacks to-go” or digital snack for her readers. Her writing is friendly and conversational, and I feel like I’ve gotten to know her a little just through her newsletters. I’m excited for you to get to know her too. Welcome to SoNovelicious, AdriAnne!
Hello SoNovelicious readers! Thank you so much for having me. My name is AdriAnne. Yes, the middle “A” is capitalized and pronounced Ay-dree-ann. My name has been mispronounced my entire life, and I usually let it slide, meaning I’ve answered to a hundred different versions of my name in the last thirty years. I currently live in rural Utah. We chose to come here because it has many of the things we’re looking for in a long-term living situation, such as great outdoor space and topography and lots of room to spread out.
As a mom of two small children and the stay-at-home parent in our house, the time to lounge around with a good book just doesn’t come very often. I used to have the luxury to devour books at my leisure, to lie somewhere comfy and get lost in a story. Looking back, I don’t think I took advantage of those days as I should have, but I try not to waste time wishing for them to return. My delight in books and stories now has to be fed in different formats that allow for hands-free and eyes-free reading. Audiobooks have filled those requirements perfectly. While this is a fairly new facet of my reading life, I have learned a lot in the last few years that has improved my audiobook experience, and I’m excited to share some of my secrets with you.
Platforms I use for Audiobooks
Audible is probably the most obvious listening platform. While it doesn’t support independent bookstores as Libro.fm does, the premium subscription has some fun content beyond books. Audible Premium Plus is $14.95 monthly, giving you one credit per month and access to Audible’s exclusive library of books, content, and podcasts. Audible has recently released a Words + Music series with famous musicians where they tell the stories of their lives interwoven with their famous tracks alongside new ones. It feels like being at an intimate concert or meet and greet with some of your favorite artists. The most interesting episodes to me so far are the Snoop Dogg episode, the Tenacious D episode, and the Beck episode. I loved hearing their backstories in their own words mixed with their music. Audible will often have deals on audiobooks as well, so be sure to check that section when looking for your next listen.
The Libby app is another platform for audiobooks. This is a free option that connects to your library card and your library district. When searching your library’s catalog for audiobooks (and ebooks), you can place them on hold through Overdrive. Overdrive connects to the Libby App, and the audiobooks you’ve checked out through your library will appear there. This app works well for less popular and older books. Newer releases sometimes have long hold times. While waiting for one of those new releases, check out a backlist listen from authors you enjoy.
Libro.fm is the Bookshop.org version of Audible. Libro.fm allows you to choose an independent bookstore to support with the purchases you make through them. Their monthly subscription is the same price as Audible, but unlike Audible, Libro.fm allows you to own the audiobooks you purchase. You can download them as mp3s and listen on any device or app you see fit. Audible only allows you to listen in their app and reserves the right to remove any audiobook at their discretion. I have also seen that the Libro.fm app works better than the audible app for some users, which may be something to consider. While the Libro.fm library is not as wide and varied as Audible, they do keep up with new releases and the most sought-after audiobooks.
Tips and Tricks for Audiobook Listening
Bookmarking and notes - All listening platforms have a bookmarking and notes feature where you can mark where you are and add a note to the bookmark. I use this feature most when listening to nonfiction books. My latest one was This is Where You Belong by Melody Warnick, a book about finding and feeling at home no matter where you live. I bookmarked several sections with advice and tips and sections referencing studies or research she had found so I could revisit those references later when my hands and eyes weren’t busy.
Listening speed - A lot of what readers love about audiobooks is the ability to listen to books quickly, which I also love. I feel like the optimal listening speed to read quickly starts at 1.5x speed, and then once you’re comfortable with the narrator, up the speed to 1.7x. Beyond that, it isn't easy to comprehend what I hear.
Listen or Read, Which is Better - Another question readers have about audiobooks is whether certain books are better to read or listen to? The answer, for me, is “yes” to both. I like to listen to shorter novels, 400 pages or less. Anything longer than that, I struggle to follow parts of the story and learn the character’s personalities and traits. For example, I listened to The Summer I Turned Pretty series by Jenny Han and loved hearing them that way. Those books are shorter, and the voice flows almost like a conversation, making it enjoyable to listen to. Another book I’m glad I listened to was What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon. The narrator had an Irish accent, the book is set in Ireland, and I loved hearing the book with the Irish accent. I don’t think the story would have been the same in my own voice. However, I listened to The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai and felt I would have enjoyed it more had I read the physical book. The story is very detailed at times and changes time periods quite often, and I feel that if I’d had the book in front of me, it might have been easier to follow, and I would have enjoyed it more.
Great Narrator - A good strategy to take on once you’ve listened to a few audiobooks is finding a narrator you like. If you really enjoyed a narrator of one book, take a look at other books they’ve narrated and start there when looking for your next listen. A few of my favorite narrators I’ve found so far are Saskia Maarleveld, Edward Herrmann, Michael Crouch, Bahni Turpin, and Laura Hamilton.
Sampling Before Buying - My last tip is that all audiobook services will allow you to listen to a sample before purchasing the book. This is a good way to gauge how you feel about the narrator and how the story might sound on audio and help you decide whether or not this would be a book you’d enjoy listening to. This is a great service to take advantage of.
Audiobook Recommendations
I’ve listened to some great audiobooks and I’d like to share a few you might like too. First on this list is What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon. I loved this audiobook's narrator; they have an Irish accent, which added so much depth to my experience since the book is set in Ireland.
The second is Tiny Imperfections by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans. This book has such a strong and specific voice. The narrator really contributed to bringing that to life for me. Their inflections, tone, and pacing were spot on to how I imagine Frank and Youmans would read it aloud were they to do so, and that made the story come to life for me. It didn’t feel like someone was reading me the book; it felt like they were the characters telling the story to a close friend.
The last one I’ll share is The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson. This book is about one of the largest museum heists ever to occur. It's set in a world I knew nothing about beforehand. Listening to the audiobook allowed for convictive storytelling and attention to details that I might have missed had I been reading them and not hearing them. It was almost like listening to an investigative podcast; I could more easily follow clues and timelines, and details because I was listening to it.
I hope I’ve given you some ideas to enhance your listening life. I wish you all the best in your audiobook adventures and can’t wait to share more with you in the Book Snacks newsletter, so join me over there! I am also on Instagram @thebooksnacks. Over there, I share library days with my kids and many more unfiltered book thoughts. I’m happy to answer any questions about audiobook listening and chat books and bookish things with you anytime!
AdriAnne is a lifelong reader, recent audiobook lover, and mom and stay-at-home parent to two wonderful little human beings. She dreams of sitting and reading near cool water and pine trees at a lake house in Idaho or Washington.
She can be found at the following places: Newsletter | Instagram.
Thank you so much for being here, AdriAnne. Finding solutions to keep books in your life after having kids and having no more free time is what readers do when presented with reading challenges. Hopefully, as the kids get older, you can put some “reading” back into your listening life. After all, that lounge chair by the cool water and pine trees awaits you in the future.
Readers, thank you for being here and indulging me in my bookish endeavors. One can never have too many books to read, and finding other bookish newsletters keeps your TBR piled high and your bookish heart happy. Here’s hoping your week will be a good one. Head to the comments and share your thoughts; AdriAnne’s also available for questions. Happy reading!
Some of the links in this newsletter may be affiliate links. That means AdriAnne may earn a small commission if you click through and purchase anything. This costs you nothing.
This is a great post — thank you AdriAnne and Gayla. I have always wanted to get into audio books, without too much success, but this post really offered some great next steps (specifically: Libro.fm and Libby). Now I just have to give things another try. (Can't see myself doing 1.7 speed though!)
Reading with young kiddos is *really* hard. We have 3 young ones between 2-8 and we rely on two things: waking up early (5am for us; 7am for kiddos pretty reliably) and reading for ~30 minutes before we go to sleep at night. Those don't always work for folks, though, for a variety of reasons. Audiobooks are a great way to get more reading in when that dedicated time becomes less and less available. :)