Audiobooks and accessibility

 I have been trying audiobooks alternative to help me get into the habit of books, after a long hiatus of close to 20 years of almost nil motivation for the most finest of habits.

There are obvious advantages of trying audiobooks, especially for those that have been struggling with building the reading habit. The first that comes to mind, is ability to multitask- Of being hands-free..

But for me, the greatest advantage has been, infact, the escape or more aptly, the blessing of not having to use my eyes. 

The accessibility use case- Challenged binocular vision:

For about 2 years now, I have been living with the very rare and very early onset of vitreous detachment in my left eye.

In the first year, I was only just annoyed by the presence of a semi-opaque floating object in my vision field. However, as the problem wasn't physiologically cured by my body's cell renewal process, it persisted and began tugging to my already-paper thin retina, thereby almost impairing my ability to comfortably work on my laptop for long hours. I need to be able to do this between 9-11 hours everyday, to make a living( And a little more)!

Now, after a full 2 years of detached vitreous humor showing no signs of disintegration, it has come to the point where I need to urgently find a non-screen workaround for most of my learning- by which, I can save the strain for the screen hours at work.

Hard copies of books- Well, like I mentioned- So easy to put away for lack of portability, availability on library shelves, sometimes - just not unputdownable enough - to allow the habit to develop! 😬

Audiobooks and me:

I, was in this very muddled, anxious mental state post the worsening of my eye condition- Whilst just wanting to fight forward and achieve the goal of completing the "The Lean Startup" by Eric Weiss. 

When I heard of Audible, I wasn't really convinced, since I felt the monthly subscription was expensive, also considering I would have to continue to buy titles nevertheless. In hindsight, I now realise, there is benefit of having a subscription- Which means I can buy subsequent titles with credit. Still, they do not have some very popular titles in my UK marketplace, for example "Thinking fast and slow" and many others!

The case to be taken up with the customer service...will update in the comments section on their response

Getting back to the biggest advantage of Audible, in my case!

They had the title in the voice of the author. That matters.

I somehow count this as a value-add over the actual book, quite frankly.

Aside from the habit stacking with long train journeys and the relief from not having to deploy my struggling eyes, the added advantage of listening to the author speak his work, I feel, it has just made the sometimes arduous task of finishing the read, so much achievable and what's more, the key takeaways linger around much longer, even in a cluttered, restless mind. Almost like personally learnt it from the person himself!

What's more! I am already onto my 4th audiobook in 5 months! The one I am listening to now is "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. What do we call it when you recursively implement a habit on itself?That's what I will talk about in my next post!

Apply a developing atomic habit to develop "Atomic Habits" 😀

In my next post, I would update on the customer support's response on the UK Audible marketplace's inadequacy.

Take care!