Audiobooks

I do a lot of driving. Some of it for work, some to visit friends and family. I average about 28 000km a year or roughly 540km a week. This amounts to many hours in the car on my own. As I am out in the country, I don’t always have good reception.

I do enjoy silence, but I also like to use my time productively. When you’re out on the road as much as I am, there’s often not much time in the day to read. Listening to books gives me a chance to catch up on my reading list or to try new books I wouldn’t necessarily want to buy. The irony is that I often buy the books I have listened to because I want to go back and read them!

Some of the best audiobooks are the ones read by the authors themselves. It is such a pleasure to hear a book read in the way it was intended to sound. One of my favourites this year has been Chitra Ramaswamy’s Homelands which is a story of a friendship between her and a 95-year-old German Jewish refugee who arrived in Britain as part of the Kindertransport in 1939. It tells his story but also hers, examining their otherness, friendship, family and belonging.

Another book that had an impact on me was Syria’s Secret Library by Mike Thomson. In 2011, Syrian government forces attacked Daraya near Damascus and held it under siege, deliberately killing and starving its own citizens. Throughout the bombing and shootings, a group of dedicated men risked their lives to save books and established a secret library deep underground. These books could be borrowed and taken to the front, or read in the bunker where a young man took it upon himself to become the librarian. These men were fighters yet had a thirst for knowledge. So, they continued their education when educational institutions were no longer viable amidst the fighting. Listening to Mike Thomson read I was in awe of their dedication to the resistance and to their commitment to education.

I also like to listen to novels. On our way back from Adelaide, my daughter and I chanced upon A man called Ove by Fredrik Backman, a Swedish author. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to this story on our trip. I had never heard of Backman before and this lead me to listen to one of his other books, Anxious People, which I also loved.

Audiobooks have opened a new world of listening pleasure. Sometimes I listen to learn, other times I listen for pure enjoyment. Either way, it helps while away the hours on the road.

Soon I will be going to Melbourne to visit my sister. This is a round trip of roughly sixteen hours. I haven’t chosen my next book yet. Whatever it will be, I know I will enjoy those hours. In the meantime, your suggestions are always welcome!