Of course a library these days is more than just books, but did you know that the Arthur Holt Library subscribes to the Bolinda Digital eAudiobook platform on behalf of our students and staff? eAudiobooks are narrated books that you can listen to on your smartphone, iPod, tablet or any device with an MP3 player.
Many people prefer listening to audiobooks to reading print or electronic books. I know many students and teachers who enjoy listening to audiobooks to pass time on their commute through traffic in the car, or to access some personal time on the train into school, or to simply relax on the walk home of an afternoon.
Others prefer audiobooks to music while on a run or at the gym! And some just enjoy being read to as a mental break from always looking at a screen and/or text.
However, up until this year, I had never listened to an audiobook!
I love reading and I am the kind of person who carries a book with me almost everywhere I go. So, given the fact my 2018 new year resolution was to read even more books than I had in 2017, I decided it was time to take a lesson in listening and give audiobooks a try!
My first foray into the eAudiobook world was an intriguing title: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. This was a recommendation from a friend with a passion for transdisciplinary non-fiction. When I asked Miss Luchetti to add the title to our Bolinda Digital Library she was surprised by my request and secretly put aside a hard copy of the book in case I wasn’t a fan of eAudiobooks. Turns out, I am a fan. A big fan!
I started Guns, Germs and Steel on the drive into school one morning, but as my commute is a mere 15 minutes it was nowhere near enough time to get into the story! Soon I found myself listening to my audiobook at lunch time, on the drive home, while I cooked dinner, when I went for a walk, and on the train into the city of a weekend! Every chance I had a few minutes I put my headphones in my ears and pressed play!
Turns out audiobooks are a journey in themselves – they can carry you away AND you can carry them anywhere! I must admit that occasionally I daydreamed and forgot to listen to a chapter (thank goodness for rewind!). But I also have the habit of daydreaming when reading print books and sometimes have to go back to re-read a few pages of a novel.
What I enjoyed most about my audiobook experience was the mental processes involved. University of Virginia psychologist Daniel Willingham explains in his book about reading that there is no real difference between listening to a book and reading it (from the perspective of cognitive psychology) – a refreshing fact – as I add more audiobooks to my 2018 reading list.
– Miss Gaspari
