Word Philosopher

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Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

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April 6 question – Have any of your books been made into audio books? If so, what is the main challenge in producing an audiobook?

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My brother law is never going to read the books I write. He’s not anti-book. He’s not even anti-me. He’s anti-reading. Hold a book? Turn pages? Not for him. He plays audiobooks on the car radio while driving back and forth to work. “Reading is for losers,” he says. “Put that in your blog.”

While I commend the word play, I obviously would never say that reading is for losers. Reading is cool!

In conversation, I think listening to a book and reading a book would be considered the same thing, but my brother-in-law got me thinking; if you say listening to a book is not reading, what would you call it instead? (What can I say? This is what my brain does for fun.)

I considered “consume books” for a while because it played into my “30 day, buy only consumables” goal. (I can buy books! Yay!) I decided against consume* because it reminds me of fires, and who wants to think about burning books? No one! Burning books really is for losers.

Apprehend books? Seems like part of a criminal enterprise. Take in books? Sounds vaguely digestive. (So does consume, really.) Hear books? I mean yeah, people are hearing the books, but it doesn’t work, does it? For comparison, consider that people who read don’t say “I stayed up late seeing a book.”

 In the end, I wasn’t able to come up with a phrase better than “listening to audiobooks.” It’s doesn’t have much literary flair, but it does have the advantage of being clear. Boring, but effective.

So, for lack of a more fun term, “listening to audiobooks” is how I’d describe my brother-in-law’s choice for enjoying literature.

I know that he’s a fan of audiobooks, so you’d think I would have thought about the possibility of audio versions of my books. Of course, none of my drafts have been made into actual books yet, so maybe it’s not that surprising that the audio option hadn’t occurred to me. Once I get the books published, I will have to look into audio versions, especially if I want my brother-in-law’s opinion of my writing. (He doesn’t read blogs either. If he asks, tell him that he is the hero of this month’s post.)

Let me know if you have any fun ideas for what to call “listening to audiobooks.”

Peace and love!

*Though I didn’t classify books as consumable, I did exempt them from the spending goal. Goals are supposed to be realistic, right?