Learning to Read 01: Audiobooks

From words to sounds, a journey of our attention.

Note:
Wall art here about reading
are all from the streets of Navi Mumbai.

Listening to an audiobook for a reader is like trying to walk again in high-heeled or ill-fitting shoes. It's not easy to download an audiobook and simply start listening to a book if you are an avid reader.

It wasn’t simple or easy for me. Like most ‘boomers’, I like the words I read form images, places, people and things in my head. I love to pause and ponder a word or sentence, to turn the page back to something I read a few minutes ago, a few chapters back, and nothing better than books to do that.

Today, I consume quite a few audiobooks; this is how I learned to read an audiobook.

My entry point to audiobooks was listening to podcasts.

Yet before podcasts, many decades ago, there was radio. In my case, it was short-wave radio (SW). That was the internet for kids in the 80s. Following the Cold War on Radio Moscow, VoA or BBC. Music from different continents or a far-off Indian state: Radio Australia, All India Radio and tens of feeble broadcasts, waxing and waning across the airwaves. 

There is a radio shop in Sion, Opps. Sion Lunch Home, which sold radios until recently. Maybe it’s still around.

For Indians listening, we had medium-wave (MW) radio. All India Radio was particularly influential and for a passive listener. Note: You can still tune into them.

Before TV became the thing in the evenings, serials and talk shows were on local radio stations. Growing up in Bangalore, you could listen to stations from all over the South. Plus, being a Bangalorean came with the added advantage of understanding the languages at a basic level. 

It was and is not just music for those who grew up listening to MW and SW. The ultimate version of an insecure gatekeeping Indian uncle—Bharat Sarkar or the Indian Government—is afraid to let private channels have news and other content when they sell the airwaves to FM stations. 

Did the Internet kill the radio stars?

Podcasts and audiobooks brought this world of storytelling back into my life beautifully. Podcasts cover every imaginable interest. They allow you to return to the world once ruled by the radio and on demand.

Also, during the days we willfully try to forget today - the pandemic, Clubhouse lit up the world of audio with its social media experience. That played a very important role in getting my ears used to listening.

• Podcasts were my gateway to get used to people narrating stories in different languages and accents.

• It allowed me to form a habit—where and when you make time to listen and how it synchronises with your existing habits, such as walking, exercising, or relaxing.

Once I learned the listening habit, I attempted listening to a book and continued to do so.

Grandmothers have better oral stories. Granddad needs a book.

Listening to books in languages one can understand.
But can’t read. 

I read books in English, which is the only language I am comfortable reading. I can’t read Hindi and Kannada at a comfortable speed. I also understand Malayalam and Tamil quite well, as well as little Marathi.  

What audiobooks did for me was help me discover the universe of Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil and explore a little bit of the world in  Hindustani and Marathi through audiobooks. 

For Indian language books, I use an app called Storytel, which I realised is like a library of audiobooks. 

I also use the Audible app to find books from outside India. While Storytel is affordable, books on Audible cost more than the paperback and Kindle versions. If you don’t want to spend money on books, free audiobooks are available on the internet, too. You can search the internet, download books, and listen to them!

Possible reasons to listen to an audiobook.

• You can listen to them when you commute, walk, cook or travel

• The book is on your phone and is now an extension of our brain and senses. Let’s tickle a sense called hearing to trigger our minds.

• It allows you to listen to books in languages you can understand but cannot read or read fast enough to enjoy the book.

Listening to audiobooks is a habit, like reading.

It's the same thing, but different. Like reading, listening forms a habit—where and when you make time to listen and how it synchronises with your existing habits, such as walking, exercising, or relaxing.

You could start with podcasts. Once you acquire the habit of listening, attempt listening to a book.

• Pick an easy book to listen to as your first book or a subject or genre you like

• Biographies and self-help books are favourites for most people, not fiction. So maybe start there 

• You can check out the sample clip before you buy the book. This ensures that you can understand the accent or the person's style of reading a book.

A pile of unlistened-to audiobooks. Soon.

That’s all, folks! Happy listening.