Audio Books

Audio Books

Do you think listening to audiobooks is cheating? Taking a short cut and depriving us of the pleasure of absorbing a good book with our eyes?

Highbrow lovers of literature believe you must read each word to truly take in a book but I am seduced by my new guilty pleasure of listening to audio books. I cannot get enough of novels and autobiographies that are not only served up for me on an oral silver platter but are often read by the celebrity author themselves.  Harry (the loose-lipped prince) himself read to me every word of his controversial tome, ‘Spare’, and Mathew McConaughey drawled each page to me of his memoir titled ‘Green Lights’. It is intimate to have the author speak every word to you as if they are telling only you their deepest and darkest secrets. 

I have dozens of actual hard cover books stacked high at home that sit there mocking me because I have not had time to read them.  Books have always been my sanctuary away from the world but somewhere in the last decade I lost prioritising turning pages and when I opened a book I would usually end up literally drooling over the words as they sent me into slumber within minutes. 

My son has dyslexia so audio books are his life blood and now for me as well they are a game changer. I have them on when I cook dinner or drive home from school drop off. I can multitask and still get my book fix. I cannot quite believe this is possible.

Currently I am listening to Pamela Anderson narrating her own life story in her autobiography titled, ‘Love, Pamela.’ It is fun and light and also a lesson that the Playboy Pet was not a fame-hungry sex goddess. The mother of 2 is quite the opposite and has actually spent her life dedicated to animal rights issues. The Baywatch star has never seen that famous sex tape with her ex-husband, Tommy Lee. The tape was stolen from their safe in their home and they have never made a cent from it. What a travesty of justice. The environmentalist was abused as a child and she explains how as a result of this the most famous blonde in the world doubted her body and self-worth. Pamela herself seems gentle and funny and fascinating and truly, truly  beautiful. Shame on me for thinking she was just fake tan and implants.

I have already purchased my next book that is narrated and written by Mathew Perry.  It is called ‘Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.’ Another celebrity telling us what was really going on when we were looking onward assuming their lives were perfect. 

Sometime, I will go back to the purist form of actually reading books but for now audio books are surprising and delighting me and are in fact the easiest relationship I have ever had.