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When crafting my goals for the new year, the first goal, that ended up making the top of the list, was my book goal for the year.
It started in 2014, at age 9, when my bookworm-self decided that every year for the foreseeable future, I would set a goal to read the amount of books that corresponds to the last two digits of the year. Hence, that year, I read at least 14 books, and this past year I read 38 books, therefore, surpassing my goal of 24 books. But if I’m being fully honest, I did not necessarily read all of them.
As a self-proclaimed avid reader, I am ashamed to say that I did not consider audiobooks as “counting” towards my reading goal for an absurd amount of time. However, as a busy college student who spends most of my time reading endless pages of political theory, by the time I want to crack open a book at the end of the day, I simply exhausted my reading capacity.
Last semester, when it became difficult for me to uphold my decade-long resolution, I was frustrated and felt like I was losing a chunk of my identity.
Enter audiobooks. A hidden gem that is so accessible, yet commonly overlooked.
I am an avid walker: walking to and from class, going for mental health hot girl walks, or strolling around with my dogs when I am home.
During my walks, I usually have my headphones in, playing my latest album obsession or re-listening to lighthearted podcasts. But when I finally swapped those tired albums out for audiobooks, I felt as if my world opened up.
I won’t lie, it took me a moment to get into it. I realized I had a hard time following fiction over audiobook format. But immediately, I became obsessed with memoirs—they made me feel like I was having a one-on-one conversation with the author.
A few standout listens for me have been “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” written and narrated by accredited chef Ina Garten, “Bad Mormon,” written and narrated by the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay, and “From Here to the Great Unknown,” authored by Lisa Marie Presley and her daughter Riley Keough, who also narrates the book.
Log onto Spotify or Audible and start listening!
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