🎧Are Audiobooks My Thing? I'm Not Sure...

Back when Steven and I first reconnected, we got into this habit of listening to audiobooks in the car. He’d pick me up, we'd pop in a CD (yes, a real CD like it was 2007 again), and hit the road with a story playing in the background. Somehow, between the two of us, we always managed to keep track of where we left off — even if a week had passed. One of us would remember what was happening or who someone was. It was like shared brainpower. Teamwork at its finest.

Fast forward a few years, and here I am, trying out audiobooks again — this time solo, on my phone, and with James Patterson's Murder Games. I’m not even halfway through and already feeling kind of meh about the whole experience.

For one, I feel like I’m crawling through this book. If I were reading it, I’d probably be done by now — or at least a lot farther along. But because I’m listening, I’m stuck at the narrator’s pace. I keep wanting to speed things up, but then I worry I’ll miss something important if I do. (Side note: If anyone ever invents an audiobook that automatically adjusts speed based on your brain’s current caffeine level, I’d be all in.)

The other thing? I keep forgetting who people are. I’ll hit play and suddenly be like, “Wait, which guy is this again? Is he the detective or the murderer? Or both?” Then I have to pause, think it through, mentally rewind, and then keep going. It’s not exactly the immersive experience I was hoping for.

So now I’m wondering: maybe audiobooks just aren’t my thing. Or maybe they were our thing — Steven and me, a car ride, a shared story, and no pressure to remember every detail alone. Maybe audiobooks are a tag-team sport and I’ve been trying to play solo.

I’ll stick it out and finish this one — as excruciating as it’s currently feeling — but after that, I think I’ll go back to turning pages instead of listening to them.