Why you suddenly feel happy about the traffic jam

Yes, you read that right. It all started with an interview I read in Vogue Living. It was an interview with a New Yorker who had settled in Haarlem. He was asked how he liked Haarlem and whether it wasn't too small-town for a New Yorker. ‘On the contrary,’ was his answer. Haarlem was to Amsterdam what Long Island was to New York. Nice and close to the beach and that three quarters of an hour in the car was a favorite moment because during that time he listened to a book.

I want that too, I thought. Why waste my time listening to Die Verrückte Halbe Stunde when I could be listening to Becoming by Michelle Obama. At least that one and a half hours I spent in the car would have some purpose. And so I signed up online for Storytel,because if I want to belong to a club, I’d rather be with the best right away. Storytel not only has thousands of books and Storytel Originals (those are stories that are really specially written to be listened to with not too complicated sentence structures), they also have the most wonderful voices that narrate the books. How delightful to listen to Stephen Fry narrating Harry Potter. And Becoming resonated with me so much more because I could listen to the voice of Michelle Obama herself.

Dutch voices include Herman Koch, Isa Hoes, Rik van de Westelaken, Paulien Cornelisse, Dieuwertje Blok, and many more.

While I was downloading the app, my mother lost her sight (there was no logical connection between these two, don't worry), so I shared my password with her. This way, I could see which books she had put on her little bookshelf and had listened to. Storytel really helped her through a dark summer. In the meantime, her sight has returned (long story, will come later), but Storytel has remained..

And me? I turn on Storytel as soon as I get in the car, I catch myself being happy with red traffic lights, slow snails in front of me, and an extreme traffic jam. My English is improving by leaps and bounds (because I mainly listen to English books, then I feel useful) and I really come home completely zen. I have truly left my work behind.

Here speaks a fan, in short. By the way, I also heard that especially a lot of young people listen to Storytel, so I’m darn hip too. And my mother even more so. Do you want to try Storytel too?? Just click here Really, you will thank me.