Hey, folks, guess what I got for myself. One of those Bluetooth earphones that you put in and it drones on as you go about your errands! I retain about 5% of the information it delivers to me but I’m yet to try it at a boring committee or meeting to drown out the inane stuff.
I really want to train myself to be able to listen to audiobooks. I used to read much more when I was on public transportation. It would be great to have a book recite itself into my ear as I drive.
I love listening to audiobooks, but I do have a harder time retaining info from them than I do sitting down and reading. However, I have found that for previewing books of philosophy or anything else that’s old enough to be free on LibraVox’s app, it’s really great to listen to those things while I’m folding laundry, etc. and then be able to determine whether something will be helpful to me. I discovered a love of philosophy that way.
If you don’t know, LibraVox is a free audiobook app, and they have most of the classics on there, as well as a lot of philosophy, novels, poetry, etc. Audiobooks can be expensive, so I use the free app all the time. Most of what I teach in Humanities has an audiobook on LibraVox, so I tell my students to try it to help them get through the reading during their workouts (which are always a priority to them over school work) if they are too busy to sit down and do it.
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I just started using LibraVox, and what a great project! I’m loving it.
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How does one train oneself to listen to audiobooks? They go too slowly for me to focus, and I almost always end up falling asleep. Which isn’t really something I want to do on the bus.
I have a hard time focusing when I read in my head for long periods of time, though, and prefer to read aloud. Right now I have a collection of connected short stories out from the library, and I read one story per bus ride. But I also have a two-hour ride, which means that the majority of the time must be spent doing something else that catches my attention enough to keep me awake. If I could read aloud, it wouldn’t be an issue. 
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“How does one train oneself to listen to audiobooks? They go too slowly for me to focus, and I almost always end up falling asleep. Which isn’t really something I want to do on the bus.”
On LibraVox you can change the speed at which the book is read. I like listening at about 1.5x normal speed. It helps me from falling asleep and/or letting my mind wander.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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