Listening Made Me Read

As a kid, I was an avid reader. I was really annoying at school. Instead of paying attention in class, you could usually find me with my nose secretly in some unrelated book. It was quite a thrill to do something so good, yet still manage to be rebellious about it. I mean, what teacher could tell you off for reading? The worst part for most of my more attentive classmates was that I'd still do well because I'd read everything I got my hands on—including reading the textbook in the first week we get it.

Although I'm only 21, I miss those good ol' days. I stopped reading for pleasure round about the time I started university four years ago. Stupidly, I chose to do a history degree, and oh lord does it kill you. I spend all of my time reading long, boring articles in Old English and Scots. I pour over dusty tomes in the most forgotten parts of my university library. I read hundreds of articles on the same topic, just with different opinions. It's going to be worth it in the long run, sure! It's no wonder, though, that I stopped having my old passion for reading by my second year. Reading meant work, and work meant that I wanted a drink.

I'm sure you can relate to this. In our busy world, it can be so hard to muster the focus to actually sit down and read something for more than two minutes. You might find that your imagination just isn't limitless anymore—like something tethers you to reality when you try to read. You might jump to your phone whenever you hear that little ping and forget all about what you were just reading. You might be so out of practice with the reading thing that you just keep looking at the same sentence over and over again, unable to get any further. It's not that you don't understand, exactly. It's more like the words are making sense on their own, and not in a sentence.

All of those things were me a before Christmas. I loved the idea of getting back into reading. Really, I did! I used to be that Hermione-style bookworm kid who was just a little bit too much of an insufferable know-it-all, and I loved every moment of it! Until recently, there were so many books that I'd put on my mental reading list and told myself that I'd read eventually. My identity was so much about my love of books that people would buy me anything with a cool cover at their nearest bookshop for my birthday, but I just couldn't read.

This all changed at Christmas.

What happened? My dad happened. As a child, my dad was always impressed with and proud of my love of books. He wanted to encourage that at all costs and be a part of my reading journey! His only problem was that he's dyslexic. He couldn't read to me like he wanted to, so I spent a lot of my time reading to him. I didn't mind at all. In fact, me being the know-it-all I was, I basked in the praise he gave me for being able to read big words. I still feel a bit smug now thinking about it.

That wasn't enough for him, though. He wanted to find a way to read to me, or at least get someone to do it. So one day, he came home with the audiobook for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Clearly, he wanted to start me off with a difficult read and see where we could take it from there. We listened to it over and over again until we could both quote some of our favourite parts. Many of my fondest memories are of me laying on the couch with my head dangling off the armrest, staring at my dad's Bob Marley clock as I let Stephen Fry's velvet voice take me to Hogwarts.

This Christmas, my dad reminded me of that. He was reminding me not to buy The Crimes of Grindelwald on Blu-ray because he's the one who gets me all of my Harry Potter stuff. Just in passing, he said:

"I even bought you the audiobooks, remember?"

You did! We listened to them all in the wrong order, and we got very confused, but that was the fun of it! We made up our own version of the narrative and giggled at how silly it sounded. It was almost sad to reread them in the right order and understand what was actually going on. We reminisced for a while about when I was little, and then we quickly turned on the PS4 so we could both secretly wipe that little tear from our eyes.

By the end of Boxing Day, my dad had gone up to the attic and brought down the whole of the collection. By New Year's Eve, I had finished listening to The Philosopher's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets.

It didn't hit me until I was packing to go back to university, though. Of course, I couldn't take everything in my little suitcase, so I had to leave the audiobooks behind. While I was on the plane back to uni, I was hit with an amazing idea: I didn't want to have to wait until the summer to listen to the rest of the books! Surely there was some other way for me to listen to them because clearly, it was working quite well. I'd actually finished two books (albeit very short ones).

By the time we'd landed, I had come to the conclusion that I needed an Audible account.

I didn't just read 'Harry Potter.'

You see, I came to the realisation pretty early on that I probably shouldn't spend my credits on audiobooks that were already sitting at home. According to my Goodreads account (which I recently reinstalled), I've read each Harry Potter book 13 times already. I was sure that I could give that a pass and try something new.

So I stuck to Stephen Fry—the voice I was happy with and loved hearing. I bought The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and started listening. When my dad's weekly call came through, I was gushing to him about how hilarious it is! And then he gave me another brilliant idea. The man's a genius, I swear! He said:

"I always wanted to buy the books and the audiobooks so you could read along with the CD."

What a great idea! I was pretty sure I had a copy of Hitchhikers lying around somewhere. Maybe Stephen Fry's voice was just the thing I needed to lift me up into the world of the book like when I was a little girl. Maybe I wouldn't get so distracted with the reading side of things if I was able to shove my earphones in and block out everything but him reading the story to me.

And it worked!

I got through Hitchhikers in barely any time at all. Then, I had bought three extra credits and added the His Dark Materials trilogy to my list. Again, I got through those at an almost inhuman speed. I was getting through the list of books I always wanted to read, all thanks to my dad and some actors in a recording booth! I was finding my love of books all over again!

I read Classics and Modern literature; Gothic and Romance; Children's books and more mature stuff. It didn't matter to me! And my work at university improved with it. I was able to read again without needing to take a shot of something strong, and all of these different narratives were helping me to empathise with different historical figures a little better.

Now I've got Goodreads back, and I've taken part in the 2019 Reading Challenge. 20 books in a year might not be a lot for most veteran readers, but hey! For someone who couldn't stand the thought of reading a few months ago, I think I've come a long way! Plus, why overwhelm myself when I can just thoroughly destroy my own challenge? I've even added some books about reading and writing to my list. All seems a lot better now!

Why did it work?

I have my theories. I reckon it's all about the kind of content we're used to nowadays. We get most of our information and entertainment from films, TV shows and videos—and all of these combine audio and visual aspects. So even when I was able to conjure up an image in my own mind before, it felt like something was lacking. I didn't have the passion to look past that because of how boring and difficult my university reading can get. I'd associated reading with that activity that's usually boring—and even when it's not, it's not as engaging as watching a TV show.

Now I've even taken my training wheels away! One bad voice actor in the Skulduggery Pleasant audiobooks and I'm reading the whole series without the help of someone else's voice! Sure, I still get audiobooks when I like the sound of them, but I don't even need them to help me use my imagination anymore. Clearly, that was just a muscle I needed to work out.

So now I'm back to being the bookworm I love, and I'm even quicker than I was before! If you're someone who doesn't particularly love reading, maybe audiobooks will work for you, too!