Why an audiobook is just chill
As far as reading material goes, I'm quite an old-fashioned dodo. When someone once asked me if an E-reader ‘wasn't something for me’, I almost had a panic attack at the thought. A book needs to be held, I thought. Until I listened to my first book ever through Storytel: 'Focus' by Mark Tigchelaar. About how to get more done in a world full of distractions. Well, you’ve got my attention there. Okay, the first ten minutes is getting used to an audiobook. And you really need to choose a book that is narrated by a relaxed voice because if you don't feel that vibe, it stops very quickly. But I found that in Focus and since then I've become addicted and walk around for days with headphones listening to audiobooks. And I had thought I would never say this, I also feel a bit like a traitor, but I've discovered that listening to a book has its advantages.
First things first: you have your hands free.
Yes, that sounds very strange, but have you ever read a book in the supermarket? Ha. You can do that now. Just like in the car. On the train. At the bus stop. And believe me: you’ll reach those three hours a day faster than you think and suddenly the book is finished. Bam.
Additionally: it saves space in your bag.
Still nice. If you travel an hour and a half by public transport every day, it’s quite nice to have a book with you. But that thing goes back and forth in that bag and sometimes I suddenly don’t feel like reading, but I had the book with me and I found that really annoying at the end of the day because I was lugging it around. Enter: the audiobook.
It’s actually quite advantageous.
A subscription just for you costs €11.99 per month and then you have access to 150,000 books. Unlimited, everywhere. Honestly: if you buy one book at the bookstore, you’ve already spent that amount, right? And if you share a family subscription for €14.99 with a friend like on Netflix, it’s super cheap.
You can download books to your personal bookshelf.
Handy for when you have little internet, but especially when you are abroad and still want access to your books. You can put multiple books offline on your personal bookshelf to read later.
There is such a thing as a sleep timer.
With which the playback of your book automatically stops after a self-chosen number of minutes. How. Chill. Is. That?
Also nice: you decide how fast the person in question reads
With the playback slider, you can also have your book played at 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, or 2 times the speed. Or slower, that’s possible too. Quite fun. And if you like a certain narrator's voice, you can immediately click through to other books by the same narrator.
I’m sold. Simply because I notice that reading used to sometimes fall by the wayside and now I can suddenly check off one book after another. Anyway, do with it what you want, but I say: at least try.
that thirty-day trial period . And then I’ll probably see you on the other side of the line. Of the audiobook traitors. Bye bye.. images of Kiki sitting on the couch with an orange headphone on and laughing.
