Becoming better at reading by listening

Reading has never been one of my strengths. This is mainly due to the fact that it’s hard for me to stay focused while reading. I tend to daydream and by the time I have noticed, I am usually a few pages in with no idea where I started daydreaming or what was covered during this time.

Knowing that this is something that I wanted to improve, but not exactly sure how I could accomplish it, I began researching some solutions. The one that made the most sense to me was listening to audiobooks, so far I have found this quite enjoyable. However, my goal is that I will be able to train my mind to better focus thus making reading easier for the times where I need to actually read a book instead of listening to it in order to retain the information.

After coming to this conclusion, I then wasn’t sure where I could get audiobooks without having to buy them, I put on my thinking cap and wondered if there was a place where I could almost rent books for a set amount of time and return them when I was finished. I then discovered this strange building called the public library. So I checked it out and sure enough, they allowed me to do this very thing.

After obtaining a library card and linking it to an app, I was able to begin listening to books. The App my library uses is called Libby, which is owned by Overdrive. The part I find quite astonishing is the number of titles that they have accumulated. After talking with a few individuals I now had a good list of books to read.

As I reached the end of my initial list I wondered what I would do next? Should I re-read some of the past titles to gain more insight or something else? I then discovered the subjects section in Overdrive and was introduced to another vast amount of books to read, for me this is currently the self-improvement section, which made finding new titles really easy to do.

I don’t feel that I am retaining as much of the information from these audiobooks as I would initially like, but I feel I am getting better with each book that I complete. My plan is to revisit my lists of titles from time to time to see what else I can learn from them. I am open to any suggestions of books that you have enjoyed or found helpful. I hope that I can automatically publish a list of books that I have read or what have in queue to read, so others can benefit from it. I noticed that there is an API for overdrive, I’ll have to play around with it to see if it lets me accomplish my goal while learning something new.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and let me know if you have any comments.

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