All my life I have always enjoyed reading books. I reminisce of afternoons as a kid sitting up in the crook of an old tree in our backyard, imagining that I was a dogsled musher while reading Jack London’s Call of the Wild. To being a geeky teenager spending his allowance on the first novels in the expanded Star Wars Universe, thrilled that my favorite movies were continued on in print. Even as a young adult, staying up into the wee hours of the morning, unable to stop reading the Harry Potter series.
As I’ve grown older though, I have found myself in a situation where my love of reading was taken from me. You see, I suffer from a degenerative eye condition that is slowly, over the years, robbing me of my sight. This has, unfortunately, progressed to where reading normal print is too difficult and straining. As a result, I found I had lost one of my favorite hobbies; that of reading.
One day I was browsing online and came across some books I really wanted to read. I knew it would be a struggle, but I wanted to read them so bad, and hopefully kick start my lost hobby. I happened across a link to purchase the book as an audiobook instead. I’d tried audiobooks
on CD in the past, but never quite connected with them as I had from actually reading. But now in the age of mp3 downloads and iPods, I decided that maybe audiobooks
might actually work out. I went for it, purchased and downloaded it to my iPod.
It took me a couple of chapters to get used to it, but when I did it felt like a glorious gift! I was able to enjoy books again, and I found it wasn’t about the physical act of reading them, but the imagination churning stories that they contained. I couldn’t get enough, listening whenever a free moment permitted. I listened while doing housework, getting ready for the day, working on the computer or lying in bed before sleep. Audiobooks had not only reinvigorated my imagination, but turned the mundane tasks of the day into cherished listening time.
Audiobooks are wonderful ways to enjoy written stories new and old. I encourage everyone to give them a try. They have the power to bring the joy of books back to a man unable to read print, and the power to make reading accessible to everyone.
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