Real People Using Audiobooks

Make that "real person." My husband is an avid audiobooks listener. He has been borrowing at least one audiobook a week from our local library for several years. He listens to the same kind of books he reads...books that have submarines or fighter jets or bullseyes on the cover. Airport books. He listens to them while he cuts our grass. We have seven acres and perhaps 1.5 of that is grass. Way too much, I think, but he gets on his beloved Kubota tractor and zips around mowing. It's a big enough space that frequently he'll have to come inside and change CDs. He also listens to audiobooks in his car and on plane trips.

He likes reading historical fiction and non-fiction and is working his way through the audiobooks of the Master and Commander series.....do you know how many CDs make up one of these books? A lot!

A few months ago he bought himself an MP3 player and has been building a music collection (his musical tastes ended with Blood, Sweat and Tears), downloading music. But he's also downloading audiobooks which means he won't be borrowing these titles from the library...it's not that he really wants to own and pay for the content. What he does want to own is convenience. He won't have to change CDs and the titles he's looking for are always "in".

Often, when we baby boomers talk/write about digital content, somewhere is this, "you can't read an ebook in the bathtub". Sure, but you can't read a print book while you're driving a car or a tractor. Time to stop this meaningless observation and time to realize that there are many many ways to consume content. The more libraries embrace all methods of consumption equally, the more visits people like my husband will make to use the collection.