Audio Books

Some years ago when I was first diagnosed with the my first serious sign of aging (I’m not talking about wrinkles or grey hair), the doctor suggested that I start walking.

I found out that walking can be deadly dull when you are walking the same route every day. It was either walk the same route or trying to walk up a tremendous hill out of our neighborhood. I purchased a tape player to listen to music. Somehow that just didn’t do it for me, so I tried audio books. They worked out great. The end result was that I was walking even longer than was necessary. When I’m reading, I find it hard to put the book down, and the cassette player seemed to urge me on to another chapter, and then another chapter.

That lasted quite a while until the weather turned much warmer and my knees and hip joints began to complain loudly. Walking fell by the wayside. I tried to use the dreaded treadmill, but the aches and pains made walking quite uncomfortable.

In the last few weeks, I have been using the audio books available from the public libraries that I can access on line. My insomnia is getting worse and worse, and I thought I would try the audio books. For a long time I downloaded old time radio shows to listen to at night and I would fall asleep quickly. They seemed to be a good solution for my sleep problems. I soon had listened to every Sam Spade, Richard Diamond, and Casey, Crime Photographer available.

The books don’t work as well for me. The problem is I become engrossed in the story and have to continue for one more chapter staying awake. That doesn’t help my sleeplessness much.

There is another little problem with the audio books that is a little distracting for me. When the readers (narrators?) act the parts of the characters, they changed their voices. I’ve noticed that sometimes they forget which voice goes with which character. It seems that Sheriff Longmire’s voice changes from chapter to chapter. And the voice range of Judge Deborah Knott changes—one chapter it’s a normal female voice, then it’s deeper, and then it goes to soprano. As I said, it’s a little distracting. I think it might be better for the reader just to read instead of “playing” the parts.

There is one more drawback. Mr. Fixit gets a little put out seeing me with the earbuds in my ears for most of the day. It’s such fun, though, listening to a good book while doing laundry, dishes, and cooking.