Using Audible as a Tool

You may have heard somewhere by now that I am was a disabled student.  Okay look I was trying to be blase but if you haven’t heard this by now you are not paying attention because I have whined about having to slow down really quite a lot. There are however sometimes unexpected bright areas, and one of them for me is audiobooks. In a financial-home environment where all of us take every subscription necessity very seriously (Do I want this?  Do I REALLY want it?  Ok but can I get it free?  No?  Do I really NEED it?  Look it would’ve been nice but I think I can cope…), the one and only thing I have never been tempted to cancel, ever since the free trial at the start of my MA, is my Audible subscription.  I am therefore officially upgrading it here and now to one of my research tools.

Firstly, this is not a sales pitch.  We all have our own thing, this is my thing not yours and I actually don’t even want to share it with you, so there.  (Seriously, do not buy a subscription that might not be for you!)  I first took a free trial for Audible after being awarded DSA (Disabled Student Award) software that included tools such as Dragon, along with microphones and headsets, that allowed PDF files to be read out to me.  I have to admit, I never used this option much, though the lesson recording option I did find very interesting, as with note recording.  Do not get me wrong, it really works.  Reading a heavy text on top of chronic fatigue results in either head pain or sleep, very quickly, even in the midst of study and concentration.  For some reason, listening to the information creates fewer problems, particularly in terms of pain.  As there are few high pitches in most texts, I can even manage easy listening information with a migraine, it can be soothing, though I probably also won’t remember it.  The problem with the academic software was that it takes forever (you know, fifteen minutes) to set up, and you have to be at your desk, organised, and using all those other tools, to really bother using it.  Audible however was right there on my phone, in my pocket, and portable, all for the addition of a pair of comfortable headphones.  Audible doesn’t have all those lovely PDF files, but it is linked to Amazon, and more and more books are being released through Kindle with the Audible narrative already attached.

At first, trying to listen to books, my attention strayed horribly.  I’d forget to listen when the cat walked past me.  When a car drove by on the street.  When something clicked in the kitchen.  That 30 second rewind button thing should have worn away I swear, I have no idea how my phone touch screen coped.  The auto button on the earphone wire became glitchy for a while, and tried to refuse the constant reverses.  I made it take them on the chin.  As with any new skill, practice was needed to adapt to listening to a book as opposed to reading it, and to holding onto the concentration needed to keep the book in mind alongside other distractions.  This is something that so many people lack an understanding of, especially in disciplines such as art.  You may have a basic aptitude or affinity for one subject above another one, but nobody gets out of bed and knocks out a DaVinci.  Expertise is built on long practice and determination, not on inbuilt talent, and I think this is actually true of everything, including allowing the use of a new tool.  Eventually, it was my commute to work that adapted Audible for me.  I was used to plugging my phone in, replacing the car’s radio with app-based music.  Now I had Audible based radio books, and was researching while driving.  At first, I was amazed this worked, as my concentration had been flimsy everywhere else, so I had not expected this to last at all while concentrating on driving, but this really worked and ended up life changing.

Once I learned the trick of it, I could roll this out.  Audible played in the background while I completed any low concentration tasks; cleaning, tidying, exercising.  If I could not find the academic books on it (or through another audio form) that I wanted to read, then I turned it round, found a novel that I wanted to read on Audible for relaxation, exhausted myself on the academic texts, then allowed my brain to unwind with the novel through Audible later on.  I often painted with music playing, now I had periods painting with Audible playing instead, especially in periods where I needed to take in more information quickly and when coming up to deadlines; it was a way of trying to balance calm and wellness with the need to absorb the information needed to submit pieces by the required dates.  This came at a longer term cost; I rarely allowed myself necessary recovery periods, instead using these tools to get further in front, and seeing this as a way of banking time against later lapses.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and what I should have done is to continue to use these tools in the spirit I’d found them in, and not tried to be so flipping clever, as I eventually became ill again from the lack of downtime, but the basic principle I think is sound.

I then found there were difficulties with referencing a text I had heard.  My memory can be faulty for things like names, but excellent for stories, so I would know that I had heard a certain example, but searching an Audible file from that piece of memory can be next to impossible, especially if you have listened to several books and cannot be certain which one you heard it in.  I increasingly found myself going back and purchasing the Kindle versions of the book too, so that I could use traditional referencing, but ‘read’ the book by Audible.  As time went on, I would find myself buying the Kindle versions, and ticking the option to add Audible narration, I would then only ever use the Kindle version for referencing.  A tiny notebook began to permanently appear in my bag, so that I could note references that immediately resonated; which files I had heard them in, and a short quote so that I could later search the Audible file for them.  If I was on the move, I would memorise an odd phrase from the quote instead to search later.  As time went on, I began to use the word ‘read’ interchangeably for anything I had absorbed through Audible or sight; I genuinely forget now how I have read a text, I only remember that I have read it.

So the end result.  After all the trial and error, I no longer bank away time, and I no longer cram academic texts that I am not even sure are relevant.  Instead, I examine texts for relevance, use credits on what I really feel the need to read.  After that I bank Audible credits, and take a break if there is nothing I feel is worth reading, at which time I return to my music and paint, and take the opportunity to rest, for real.  On the flip side of that, I keep an eye on Audible’s very quick developments, and I make purchases from those banked credits that interest me, and that genuinely expand my interests and reading material.  The whole collection of H.G.Wells was just released for one credit; I snapped it up.  For all that I write about science fiction as part of my games narrative interests, I have never actually read Wells in any detail - ridiculous, and here is my opportunity.  If I am enjoying a read or need a read, I use all those tools I have listed to get through it quickly, which is my natural inclination anyway having always been a fast reader, and I find I can now remember it better from hearing it than reading the words.  Referencing and quoting I always try from a written version, which makes this a very expensive exercise in the cases where I feel I need to buy two versions, but I have genuinely found it improves accuracy.  I borrow written versions where I can, and if this is not possible I will take my time and reference from the audio file.  Environmental concerns have pushed me to begin avoiding paper and print, despite my aesthetic love for them, and so the occasional absolute need for a printed book has become something of a guilty pleasure.