Musical Words to My Ears
I have loved books ever since I was three-years-old. Mom would prop me on her lap and we would read different books together. I loved the stories like the Poky Little Puppy, The Monster at the End of this Book, and the Three Little Pigs. All of the books were part of the Little Golden Books collection for children my age. Of course, in time, I would progress to reading books on my own. I would also write and publish quite a few. Still, reading has always been my first passion and there is nothing I find more enjoyable than a good book.
I love hardcover books, even though I don’t purchase many these days. I still love the woodsy smell of its new printed pages with bright inked letters neatly composed into rows of paragraphs like carted eggs. I remember how much I used to enjoy spending hours in a bookstore or at the library. I would buy or borrow up to 5-10 books at a time. If you spotted me in public, I would be toting around books. Some mistook me as a college student or a teacher, but I was just one happy reader.
When the first Kindle came out in 2007, I was apprehensive about reading a book digitally, so I continued to purchase hardcopies. However, around 2010, my husband bought me a Kindle as an anniversary present. It was one of the best gifts he had bought for me at that time. Not only did I find that the Kindle book was more convenient than toting around heavy books, it freed up space on my coffee table and bookshelves.
The digital-era of books came with so many amenities that I thought there couldn’t possibly be anything else more reliable and handier. Well, I was wrong! The busier our lives get, the more innovative and creative people become in order for us to enjoy reading and other hobbies. Thus, the new-age of audiobooks is our new saving grace. Okay, let me not say that as if audiobooks just came out. They have actually been out since 1932 and progressed to cassette tapes in 1962. Audiolisteners began to pick up steam around 1996 through a company called, Audible. The global book giant Amazon bought Audible for $300 million dollars. Initially, Amazon offered mostly sci-fi and fantasy books. Today, Amazon now offers 200 categories of audiobooks due to its growing listeners. Nearly 45% of Americans now listen to audiobooks and guess who that includes? (Wow, I sound like an infomercial).
Honestly though, I never thought I would enjoy “listening†to a book, but if I think back to the days when Mom would prop me on her lap, she would read into my tiny ears and I would follow along as I held the book in my hands, there really isn’t much difference today, except I’m usually listening while multi-tasking. I still get excited when new books come out just as I did back in the day when I would walk into a bookstore or a library. My arms get goosebumps and my eyes widen like a kid about to receive a piece of chocolate candy. If you’re a book geek like me then you get it. You know that feeling.