Audio Books

I rely on audio books and audio magazines for a lot of my reading. I am very grateful there is such a wide range of books now available in this format. Initially I was reluctant to read by listening but when a neighbour left one evening and said she was going home to read in bed I decided it was time I put my reservations to rest and turned on my talking book machine. This opened a whole new world of reading to me, even though at that stage I was still able to read a book with reasonably large print, albeit rather slowly.

When I bought an ipad with the kindle app I had no idea how my world of reading was about to expand. While reluctant to change settings at first and nervous about using a new piece of technology I soon found the button which enlarges fonts and have continued to up size the font as my eyesight has deteriorated. This means I can read any book available to the general public who purchase e-books. If my eyes are being particularly difficult I can also turn on Voice Over and listen to the book.

I also have an app on my phone called Booklink which is available to members of the Blind Foundation to download books onto. I only use this infrequently as I still prefer my own private talking book machine. the Victor Reader Stream. Having my phone in my bedroom at night when it may beep or similar or turn on its backlight for a message I would find very annoying.

Narrators are another issue. Last night I gave up on the lovely book about Raoul Wallenberg as I could not stand the narrator's continual hesitation when reading and continual saying 'quote', 'end of quote'. I am sure it made no difference to the reader if it was a quote. I don't often give up on a book but this one was just too difficult to listen to. I then changed to a book about a New Zealand flying doctor which was much more interesting. I used to feel guilty about deleting books but now that we have such easy reproduction via digital technology I believe life is too short to read a book that is being poorly narrated.