Mia Krysa

I set a reading goal for the beginning of 2024 to read 52 books. I underestimated how hard it was going to be for me to stick to my goal. I’m ashamed to say that I’m now at about 9 books completed for this year. I’m so disappointed and have found myself scrambling to finish as many books as possible before the new year in attempt to make myself feel better.

The problem is that I’ve found it hard to find books that hold my attention. I’ll start a book and make it a quarter of the way through (sometimes even half!) and I just get bored, and won’t finish it. After contemplating why I tend to do this, I think another reason was probably that I don’t have enough time. And I hate that excuse. But here’s what I’ve done to overcome that.

Habit-Stacking to my advantage

I came across this new thing called habit-stacking. It’s where you stack a few things you need to get done—and do them at the same time— to be as efficient as possible. In my case, I started listening to audiobooks while I was driving, cleaning, cooking, showering — you name it. I thought I could try to finish as many books as possible, while doing the things I’d already be doing.

Writing for the ear

I came across an article about writing for the ear. “When you are writing for print, ideas and stories are communicated in a visual-linear mode which engages logic and thought. The kind of writing you do for a listener is quite different than when writing for readers. When writing for the ear, follow the ABCs. Accurate. Brief. Clear.” (Swenson, 2017).

This got me thinking if I was even absorbing any of the information I was listening to, rather than if I’d actually read it. Audiobooks aren’t necessarily written for the ear. Books are written to be psychically read, while cozied up on the couch. While I feel like I’m doing the right thing by listening to as many books as I can to read my goal, is it worth it if I don’t even retain the information?

I wonder if at one point in the future, books will be written to be listened to. Podcasts are formatted to be listened to, as well as radio shows and news broadcasts. Will authors ever decide to write book in an audiobook format? Will it change the way we read? With AI on the rise, I’m curious to know what the future of books will look like.

References

Arnold, A. (2017, October 24). Writing for the Ear Instead of the Eye. Swenson Book Development. https://swensonbookdevelopment.com/blog/2017/writing-for-the-ear-instead-of-the-eye/

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