Audiobooks are apparently having a big surge in popularity. Ten years ago, only 15% of Americans had listened to an audiobook, but now it’s over 50%. Revenue for audiobooks has exploded over +300% over the same period, driven by new streaming options.
I’m a bit late to the trend. I’ve written before about my (mostly failed) strategies to overcome my ADHD and read more books – so now I’m trying audiobooks. I’m listening to a business biography called Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination on Spotify. It was free with my ongoing music subscription.
So far, so good. I’ve been listening when I take the dog for a walk or mow the lawn. It’s competing mostly with the sports, travel, and political podcasts that I’ve long listened to. I have my headphones on so much now that I actually got a warning from my iPhone!
I am amazed at how long an audiobook is. I’m only halfway through the book’s 36 hour run time. A few friends suggested speeding up the reading, but it sounds a bit unnatural when I did that. I’d rather savor the listen over the course of the summertime, anyway. If I finish one audiobook a season, that would be a win for me.
I haven’t listened to the audiobook much in my car. I have a pretty regular list of podcasts that I listen to on weekly trips that I haven’t wanted to switch from. Maybe if I take a longer road trip or two this summer or fall, I’ll give that a go.
Are you “into” audiobooks? When do you listen to them?
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MrFireStation 
Listen when I run, always 1.7 speed for playback.
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1.7! That would sound like Mickey Mouse himself reading the book! 😆
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Or Alvin and the Chipmonks.
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A good reader can read faster than a person can read out loud. I wonder how the time would compare between listening to an audio book or reading it. I have always been a big reader and most TV shows seem to be moving too slow to keep my attention.
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Maybe you are ADHD, like me! 🙃
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Probably so, I have to avoid distractions when there is something important to focus on.
I had speed reading in the 5th grade. Being able to crank through a lot of reading quickly with good comprehension is an advantage. But, it also exacerbated my problem listening to sloooooooooow speakers.
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There are too many interesting podcasts to get me back to audio books.
The man who was my boss from 1988-1993 was an enthusiastic audio book listener. We both spent a lot of time in the car and a box of cassettes from Books on Tape were a month rental so we would pass them back and forth. At the start of each book you would hear “if a tape fails to play, hit it smartly against your palm and that should do the trick”. When Books on Tape folded in the early 00’s, he went to headquarters in Newport Beach and bought hundreds of them for pennies At his funeral two years ago, his daughter asked me if I wanted all the boxes in the shed. They lived in Riverside and I told them that 1) I have no cassette player, and 2) I doubt they will turn anymore after being stored in a hot shed for two decades.
I listened to some great stories by Clancy, McPhee and countless others
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Agree that podcasts are much more interesting to me, too. I’m still plugging along on my audiobook too though. If I can finish by end of the month, I’ll be happy.
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