read between the runs

the above title is all going to depend on your definition of “reading” books. if you count listening to audio books as reading, then you won’t hate me! however, if you think listening to an audiobook is mere consumption of a book and lacks the distinct attention and care that traditional reading encompasses, then this is going to be a hard sell. if that’s all that matters, i physically read five of those. regardless of opinion, i consumed 24 books in a month and i think that deserves some celebration.

my first audiobook was read in 2023–john dies at the end, where, believe it or not, he doesn’t actually die at the end. i listened to the audiobook because i was hating the experience of reading the book and i wanted to knock it out a different way so that i could enjoy my time physically reading books. following, in that summer i was deep in my grad program and had 15 books to read over the summer for a class. that coincided to be when i was going to be in wisconsin, a time that i have not often reserved for reading. during that break i listened to four books in quick succession while on the drives. those were much better experiences, and i was still working on honing my audio experience. i was still not deep into the world of podcasts, though i dabbled, and so this was all me getting my toes wet. none of these five books’ plots stick with me well to this day, but they served a purpose. in 2024, the number exploded to 13, though several of those were half and halves that i split between physical and audio. then of course this year i double exploded. i do plan to keep my total audios at below 40% of those i physically read because i would hate to have the identity of someone who consumes a majority of their books in an audio format.

i am conflicted how i feel about the prestige of 24 though, since i set out the intention of reading longer books this year in exchange for having a reduced total of books read. yes, i have reader a higher percentage of longer books (500+ pages) this year, and am working on completing two more big series atop of the two i already read with two more planned for after, but it feels a little cheap to be knocking out an audiobook in a day. the justification i have is that my tbr was becoming too long and increasing at a rate faster than i could read, so i was never going to read some of the books that interested me. it feels good to knock out books i wanted to read [AND] know that i still have plenty of time to read all the big series that i have spent too much money on collecting.

i initially was in the camp that listening to an audiobook did not count as reading a book and that audiobook listeners were below me because the time commitment that i put into unleashing the contents of my books was far superior to listening to someone else do the hard work. what i was doing was a pure activity and listening to a book was a dirty attempt to recreate the same experience. however, both require attention to the task at hand in an active sense to allow for purposeful meaning making. i told myself that because you could drive, cook, clean, walk, or complete whatever secondary activity was desired at the time in addition to reading, that cheapened the experience.

however, now that my brain has fully developed and i’ve become slightly less judgemental, i understand that i was overreacting. all reading should be considered good reading, especially when it gets people away from doomscrolling or other less desirable activities. plus, i’m realizing that life is actually super busy (wild!) and i plainly don’t have enough time to pursue all of my hobbies. being able to listen to a book while i do chores or walk is an incredible boon because i know that i’m consuming a media i love while doing something else i have to do, leaving extra time for physical reading, video games, writing blog posts, or literally anything else i choose to do. basically what i’m saying is that this change of narrative benefits me so i changed my mind lol.

part of what pushed me last month was looking back at my biggest reading months in years past. i noticed that each june on my storygraph there is a very noticeable uptick in my books read. this makes sense since obviously that is when i get out of school and so immediately i seek to unwind (not the book!) with a bunch of good books in my newly acquired free time. in june of 2022 (my biggest year of reading, coincidentally) i read 16 books. i remember fondly sitting by the pool at autumn’s apartment reading books while she toiled away and was annoyed with me for having so much free time.

after i finished with my summer curriculum writing, i found myself with two weeks time that needed occupying and an IT band that i wasn’t comfortable putting miles on. i knew i wanted to walk two hours, bike at least 10 miles a day, and put 30 minutes in on the blades, which was a lot of time i could have otherwise spent reading. since my goals were vast and time limited, i dove into libby and sifted through my tbr to find books that had no wait. i quickly found like eight books and locked them all down with the idea of reading through one a day since each one was below about 10 hours.

i know some audiobook readers put their noses up at the notion of listeners increasing the speed as they read because of the care they put into their performance, but i can’t bear to listen at 1x speed. i’ve slowly been training my ears to keep up with increasingly fast information. i listen to podcasts and youtube videos by increasing the speed, so it makes sense that i would do the same with audiobooks. plus audio “artists” are insufferable and it seems like they speak half as fast as they normally would in real life so it’s impossibly boring to even attempt to listen to them unaltered. so now when listening, my baseline is usually 2x speed to start. then, depending on the content, readers’ pace, and any accents involved, i’m usually able to kick up to 2.5x speed, reserving 3x speed for something that i just have little interest in.

some friends have questioned my ability to comprehend and remember what i’ve read in books when i’m listening at such an increased pace. to that i say: of course i understand what i’m listening to! otherwise it literally wouldn’t count as reading. besides, my typical reading speed from a book is typically equal or more than 2x speed in an audiobook anyway, so that intake threshold was already pretty high. as for memory, is there anyone who can remember each book that they’ve read? i’ve chatted with people who can’t tell me about the last book they read whether it was last week or two years ago, and some who can’t even remember their current book. and guess what? that’s in the form of physically reading. so my memory after listening of audiobooks on enhanced speed is not indicative of a problem with the way i am consuming the books, but just within long-form content in general. it’s unfair to accuse me of missing out on the experience of reading if i can’t remember something about a book i listened to on audio when i, and others, have the exact same problem after physically reading a book! call me egotistical, but cynically i think it comes from a place of defensiveness where people want to justify their reasoning for reading fewer books or no books by attempting to knock down the way other people are reading books. instead of viewing audiobooks as equal, we seek to diminish the value of audiobooks themselves.wow i just got really empassioned there for some reason lol. maybe because i used to be on the other side and now i get it.

all that said, i am a bit selective in the books that i choose to read as audiobooks. the best genre for an audiobook (to me) is a mystery because it is very low stakes and there isn’t a great deal of information to track. you kinda just need to know the big plot points and some of the minutiae can be missed. it’s also a genre that i am not inherently drawn to, so i don’t feel nearly as bad if my attention wanders briefly. so that’s usually my deal: only choose books that i don’t have a vested, personal interest in. it’s not going to be a series i am excited about or a book i’ve been looking forward to. instead, it’s something that has passively caught my attention so that i make sure that i still get the most out of my physical reading experiences. in fact, the majority of my early audiobooks were not even “for me”. they were for book clubs and books that i didn’t go out of my way to select.

overall i’m glad that my view on audiobooks has evolved some so that i can enjoy more books than i would have been able to previously. no matter how you slice it, 24 books in a month is really cool and i’m proud for it.

do great; be happy