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As Book Week comes around, I would like to break the stigma surrounding audiobooks.

I confess: my passion for reading, my large collection of books teeming my shelves, and the nature of my studies has led me to one conclusion—I do not understand the hype of audiobooks. Perhaps this scorn may have emerged out of pretentiousness, or perhaps my inability to try new things, but regardless, I take this back. Audiobooks, albeit different to the incomparable experience of reading a physical book, can still be such an engaging experience.

For starters, audiobooks are a performance. I was unaware that there is a whole community of voice actors who are the stars of the audiobook world; and rightly so, for listening to them tell stories and play characters is akin to listening to a great radio play. It is so exciting to hear how an actor interprets the words, and brings life to a novel, in this new medium. In that sense, my ears are engaged in the reading process, listening to the beauty of their cadences and the rhythm of their dialogue. There are even famous actors who voice audiobooks, which surprised me! I was pleasantly shocked to find that there is a version of one of my favourite novels read by Ethan Hawke.

I have an office job, so I love a good podcast. This is another reason why audiobooks are so great: we can engage in art whilst going about our day! Sure, it’s not always the best idea to distract yourself while working, but sometimes if I have a mindless, repetitive task, I love knowing I can listen to a story at the same time. Currently, I am listening to a music biography by the guitarist of one of my favourite bands, and it makes me excited to do some of my more boring tasks at work! I know this sentiment applies to many when cleaning too: dusting, organising, or doing the dishes can be made much more fun with an interesting sci-fi novel in your ear.

There is also so much available on audiobook platforms (specifically, Audible) that I would never have read physically. For instance, I listened to a popular design book, ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ by Don Norman, and learnt so much about user experience design. And yet, I would never have picked this up at a bookstore, since I am usually not that interested in non-fiction books. Audiobooks can actually teach us things that we would not have thought to read about!

And finally, for the obvious reason to do anything in life: listening to audiobooks is so much fun! I recently listened to a romance novel, ‘Thank You For Listening’ by Julia Whelan (one of the most popular and established audiobook narrators!) which was about an audiobook narrator! Julia was playing so many characters that it was such a funny production, to hear her swapping between accents and playing characters amongst a heartfelt romance story. So maybe my weird stigma around listening to an audiobook is now gone: they are so much fun, and you should try it to boost your happiness!