From Podcasts to Audiobooks: How I Became an Ardent Reader

Reading is not easy. It requires calm, time, focus and energy.

Mateo Bornico
Sep 8, 2018 · 5 min read

In my 20s, I was too distracted to find the time to read anything that was not for school. In my 30s, I became a father. We now live in a tiny apartment in Stockholm. You see where this is going.

Podcasts are the gateway (drug) to reading

A few years ago I discovered podcasts. I started with WMYC (RadioLab!) and moved on to NPR, the Tim Ferriss Show, 99% Invisible, etc.. Soon, everyone I met had a favourite podcast to recommend. I listened in 1.5x speed. I listened while I washed the dishes, while I did laundry and while I shopped for groceries. My brain was on fire. I was hooked.

My go-to-fix was the long-form interview podcast. I would listen to countless hours of interesting people talking about the interesting things they did. I was living vicariously through their lives. They introduced me to different ways of thinking and I was able to explore a wide range of topics and the people behind them.

I began to spot some patterns. Almost all interesting people read books. They claim that books were the key to their success and it has led them to where they are today. Some of these people wrote books themselves. Shocking, I know!

This is how I discovered Seth Godin, Derek Sivers, Cal Fussman, Malcolm Gladwell, Reid Hoffman, Shane Parrish, Tristan Harris, Debbie Millman, Jocelyn K Glei, and so many others. I started writing down the recommend book titles as soon as I heard them. Very soon, I had accumulated a reading list of over 100 books.

Blinkist helped me refine my reading list

I began to buy some of the books on my list. Despite my best efforts, I was only able to read a book a month. This was a huge improvement from the handful of books I would normally read in a year. Still, it was not enough.

My sympathetic wife recommended me to try Blinkist. I was skeptical, so I started with the free version. Every day it gave me a free book summary to read or listen to. It was refreshing. Unlike podcasts, the book summaries were concise and did not veer off topic. After each 15 minute summary, I had a general understanding of what the book was about and the main takeaways. So I decided to buy a year subscription.

The paid version enabled me to tackle one-by-one the books on my list. The app also helped me discover other authors and titles I had not previously considered. Overall, I was able to fine-tune my reading list.

Audiobooks: Stumbling on Storytel

Given all that you have read so far, including the above heading, it would seem that audiobooks would have been the natural progression. It was not.

I resisted audiobooks. I’m the type of person that likes to take notes while I read, fold the corners (never on borrowed books), and re-read interesting passages. Books are meant to be read, not listened to. I had also developed a negative association with audiobooks. I thought they were for the lazy or for those with learning difficulties. I avoided audiobooks.

For these very same reasons I also did not like e-readers. Yes, I tried the highlight functionality and synchronization to Evernote. I was just not able to gain a visual representation of where I was in the book or where that one passage was (“Oh, that’s right, it was on the bottom left page about 1/4 in”). I know I’m not the only one that thinks like this.

What convinced me to try audiobooks was a few comments made by authors about recording the audio version of their own books. I thought that if the authors were for audiobooks, then clearly it was “OK” to do.

Moreover, Kevin Rose in his podcast talked about listening to Audiobooks as a way to sample the book before buying the physical copy. This gave me the motivation to give audiobooks a second chance.

Coincidently, around this time I was on holidays in Poland when I saw a TV spot for the Storytel app. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they are a Swedish company based in my hometown of Stockholm! I also noticed that they were present in over a dozen countries and they really seemed to care about having books in local languages, not just English books.

I signed up for the 14-day free trial and after 3 days I was able to finish my first audiobook: “DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” written and narrated by Daniel H. Pink. Not only was I hooked, I was also motivated.

My second book was “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck” by Mark Manson. This is as unapologetically good as it sounds, however, this is not the time nor the place to get into it.

It turns out that listening to audiobooks was easier than I expected. I was also able to retain a lot more than I had estimated originally, even at 1.5x speed. I also love the fact of using the audiobook as a way to sample the book before buying it. It really helps to keep my bookshelf with the books I actually want to re-read.

Audiobooks have not kept me from real books. I do find rare pockets of time to read, however, I now know that I can still make my way through my list on audio format.

All in all, I wanted to say thank you to all the podcasts, apps and companies out there that are helping people like me be more consistent readers.

Question: Do you enjoy Audiobooks? How do you find time to read? How do you choose what to read next? Please let me know.

If you want recommendations on Podcasts, let me know. I recently discovered “3 Books” by Neil Pasricha. Give it a try.

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