Almost into August and I’ve done it. I’ve completed my 2019 Goodreads challenge! With my full-time day job, my attempts to stay physically active every day, and writing time set aside, I made the goal to read one book a month. At the time, it seemed lofty.

All writers will tell you that you must read. Read in your genre. Read outside your genre. Read craft books. Read for the love of reading. Read for the science of reading. But in reality, finding the time to dismantle those TBR piles can be a challenge.

Enter the audiobook. Now, for some years there’s been a bit of a debate about audiobook inclusion as “reading.” I’m not going to say it wasn’t a heavily one-sided debate. Let it be known, audiobooks have completely changed the way I read, write, and decompress.

Taking Chances on Way-Out-of-My-Genre Books

Before, to read a book in my little amount of free time available, it meant I had to pick and choose the book. It had to be such a compelling read, I’d forsake all others on the shelf for several months. My digital TBR was an ever-changing “if only I had time…”

Audiobooks have made me that time. This year, I’ve done a few stretch reads that have been on my list forever and a day. The Golem and the Jinni clocks in at a mere 22 hours of audio, but it was still a much faster “read” than squeezing in 512 pages during my lunch breaks at work. And readers, I LOVED IT.

Boosting Library Usage

My hold list at the library has tripled. And it’s not just an aspirational TBR pile. It’s one that I know I’ll burn through. On my morning commute, during my 10K training (that craziness is for another post), hand-washing my dishes… and taking a shower. I bought a bluetooth shower speaker just so I didn’t have to take a break between chapters.

Winding Down at Night

I’ve tried white noise, rain sounds, and sleeping pills over the years to drown out my constant thoughts of work, chores, what I didn’t get done, what needs to get done tomorrow. I heard a physician give a lecture in which she said our brains don’t have brakes. They have to coast to a stop. Every time we wind ourselves back up, it takes that much more time to wind down again.

I set a sleep timer on an audiobook and, like clockwork, I’m asleep by minute 15. Sometimes even faster than that. It’s not that the story isn’t compelling, that the narrator’s tone is too flat, it’s that I’m completely focused on the story.

Expanding my Writing Vocabulary

And I don’t mean new words to thrust into my writing. The voices, turns of phrase, world-building. Watching how a writer crafts a sweeping historical romance with religion and fantasy spun in, how another amps up the sexual tension between two polar opposites, how yet another makes a failure of a human find the redemption arc they so rightly deserved. Stretch reads expose us to new ways of thinking and lets us peek into a masterclass in action.

I’ve found myself impressed by retellings of classics that have had many, many retellings in this way. Typically, I’m not one for historical romance or fairy tale retellings. And then I took a chance on Alias Hook and found myself rooting for this stunted manchild (Hook) to find love and escape his eternal prison. I even had a few days of bitterness for Peter Pan afterwards. That’s the power of a good story, after all.

So if you’ll excuse me, I have a few hours of audiobook on deck across my borrowing apps. Happy (Stretch) Reading!