My first proper audio book!
One fine evening, when I was bored to death on my drive home from work listening to the same old song on my phone for the zillionth time, I suddenly realized that I was actively spoiling my favorite songs by constant exposure and was subsequently regretful that I could’ve put those two hours/day to better use. I’d wasted close to 500 hours in the past year simply driving and gaining nothing out of those hours. Put to shame by this startling statistic, I decided to never waste a ride from then and assuming audio books were the solution, excitedly began downloading audio books rapidly.
I assumed I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on literary fiction while riding, so I decided that thrillers would make for a great travel company. Thus, Dark Matter became the first book to pop my audio book cherry. But it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.
Apparently, audio books weren’t a great idea for someone like me who’s prone to frequent concentration slips, especially while driving as there was no way I could pause driving to rewind and listen to the passage that I’d just missed. Also, my disenchantment with thrillers became more obvious with every passing minute as I listened to Dark Matter. I persisted and listened to half the audio book but I couldn’t do it anymore. Then followed The Martian and other such books I’d been too reluctant to waste time reading. I properly listened to The Art of War before moving to this book, but I cannot consciously count it as a proper audio book. It lasted a mere 2.5 hours!
So to beat my audio book blues, I decided to listen to the popular, critically acclaimed, well-loved books that I’d abandoned in the past. Handmaid’s tale came as the natural first choice because of its current relevance, TV show, and Atwood’s popularity. I’d abandoned this book previously and was not particularly fond of The Blind Assassin. So, to give myself another, hopefully better taste of this legendary writer I jumped into this audio book with renewed faith.
My forehead was furrowed, my mind was focused, I listened to every single word spilling out of the audio book, I concentrated with a vengeance, to the extreme limits humanely possible for me; I concentrated so much that I was afraid I’d not notice the other vehicles while making turns.
Initially, I began to sense what I’d previously missed. The crafted prose and Atwood’s delightful philosophizing. But as the audio book progressed, I was constantly losing my connection with the book and my reading became akin to the frustratingly restless flutters of a tube light running on low voltage. The momentary flashes of brilliance sustained my interest and for the last 50 pages, I resorted to reading the ebook because I couldn’t take the suspense. Such an uneven reading experience this book offered me! Waking at 4.30 on a Saturday morning, I finished the book by 6 and went back to sleep because the book was too snarled in my thoughts to let me sleep peacefully.
Looking back, I have mixed feelings about this book. Incredibly well written, depressing, frightening because of its easy plausibility yet strangely dissatisfying. Maybe Atwood and I would never get along well. Maybe I would’ve loved this better if I’d read the physical book. Oddly I consider that my failure to love this book is somehow a fault on my part.
Anyways, this still remains the only audio book I’ve properly and completely listened to and that’s an achievement in itself.
Literature Junkie 