In Defense of Audiobooks

Guess what? Audiobooks can be just as good as reading a regular book! In this episode, I'm sharing all you need to know about Audiobooks. From why you should start listening to audio books, where to find them and a few of my favorites to get you started.   

Books and Links from the Episode

Get an Audible Membership

Join Libro FM with code SWITCH for 2 free audio books

https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/audiobooks-or-reading-to-our-brains-it-doesnt-matter

Books Mentioned in this episode

Born a Crime By Trevor Noah Get on Audible 

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid Get on Libro FM or Get on Audible 

Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston Get on Libro FM or Get on Audible 

Fourth Wing By Rebecca Yarros : The Graphic Audio Edition  Get on Graphic Audio or Get on Audible 

Will By Will Smith Get on Libro FM or Audible.com

House of Dragons KA Linde Get on Libro FM or Get on Audible 

This Motherless Land By Nikki May Get on Libro FM or Get on Audible 

Mansfield Park 

Join our bookclub

Fly Girl Omar Tyree Get on Bookshop.org or Amazon.com

Transcript

LaShawn Wiltz (00:02.072)
Hey friends, welcome back to the Pouring Over Books podcast. I am Lashawn, your book loving friend, and I am so happy that you are here for another episode. How friends are we 16 days out until Christmas? And how, once again, have I done no Christmas shopping? Like every year I say, this is the year I'm gonna shop early,

be done by Black Friday Week at the latest, but it never happens. So I'm going to be scrambling this week to buy things and most likely next week too. And now I had to debate if I'm buying everything online since I'm last minute or if I'm going to the stores. I don't want to break the stores. I was there this weekend and it's a mad house. mean,

Literally, I felt like I was in a hoarder's house when I was in Home Goods this weekend. Like you literally could not get through the aisles of all the crap that there was just everywhere. I just want to stay home and finish decorating and listening to my latest book while sipping eggnog. And I don't know if that's going to happen. But anyway, that segues nicely into our topic of the week, friends.

which is audio books. My favorite. This week I'm going to try to convince you that listening to audio books is where it's at. It's a trend you need to get on. Okay, so let me in defense of audio books, let me tell you why you should listen to audio books. I have three reasons to love them. I put up four fingers. Three reasons to love them. Let's see. Number one.

Number one.


So why audio books? Let me give you three reasons to love them. Number one, you can multitask while reading. Listen, as an extreme multitasker, I have always loved the idea of being able to indulge in one of my favorite habits while going about my day. So like I listen to audio books while I'm cooking, while I'm cleaning the bathrooms, driving in the car, sometimes while shopping at Target.

Once I had to stop in the middle of a particularly intense, sexy scene to argue with a cashier that the sweater was, in fact, on sale. It was, it was kind of awkward and disconcerting at the same time and bless her heart, she didn't know why I was blushing. I also liked the tannery, meaning that while I'm out and about and listening, I can be listening, but then before bed, I tend to switch to my Kindle or the hard copy. So.

That's the number one reason, the way you can multitask, which is in this busy world, a good idea always. Number two, audio books give your eyes a break. Listen, we spend at least eight to 10 hours a day looking at some type of screen, like whether it be at work or on computer, or you scroll your phones and tablets endlessly. We watch TV, which of

can lead to long-term vision problems like eye strain, blurred vision, and nearsightedness. So give your eyes a break and listen to your story instead. And the last reason I want to give you this morning is because audiobooks have the same benefits as reading physical books.

LaShawn Wiltz (04:10.168)
A study published by the Journal of Neuroscience that I will link in the show notes found that the stories stimulate the brain in the same way, regardless of whether they were read or heard. Did you hear that? So whether you're reading print books, audiobooks, you're still absorbing the information effectively. Plus, for people with dyslexia and other disabilities, audiobooks can be an essential tool.

to access literature and don't you want everyone to have access? See, it's perfect. So once again, I'm gonna link that study because I want everybody to read that and stop with this madness of audio books isn't reading. The end, okay? Okay, so now that I've convinced you to give audio books a try, where do you listen? friend, there are so, so many places and I unfortunately am a member of them all, but I'm going to give you,

my top three right now. Yeah, so the first one is Audible. Let's start here because yes, yes, it's a part of Amazon. But if you are looking for convenience and a humongous almost endless catalog, start here. It's easy. Of course it is. It's Amazon. It connects to your existing Amazon account and they always, always have sales. I've left a link.

In the show notes, if you want to check it out, I believe it's 99 cents for three months if you join now. So check that out. My second favorite, actually my favorite one right now to use to listen to audio books is Libro FM. It's a personal fave because your purchases support small independent bookstores. So it's like the audio version, audio book version of bookshop.org, which also

supports independent bookstores. I support Brave and Kind here in Atlanta with my subscription. So right now when you start one new credit a month membership and use the code SWITCH, you can get two bonus audiobooks that sign up. So I'm also going to put that link in the show notes. These make great Christmas gifts also. Great last minute Christmas gifts. You can just give somebody a membership and boom, they're your friend for life.

LaShawn Wiltz (06:33.466)
Okay, that was a side note. Okay, back to our discussion. The third place that I would suggest that you listen to audiobooks is Libby from the library. Libby is a free app where you can enjoy e-books, digital audiobooks, magazines, all from your public library. Keep in mind that there may be a longer wait for some more popular books.

And sometimes they won't have some books that you might be looking for. That is the thing. It's the library. It's free. mean, work with it. use it. I mean, if you really want to use it, I like to use it as a supplement. But if you are on a budget, go with Libby Friends. The library. Keep our libraries open by using them. OK. OK. Now,

And while I'm speaking on where to listen to audiobooks, will say, I'm going to give it just a little aside and mention Spotify. I almost said Shopify. Spotify, simply because you get one free audiobook a month with, if you have a premium subscription. So that if you already have a premium subscription, go ahead and listen to audiobook on there and see what you think. Since it's already included.

and Amazon Music just started doing the same thing. So if you have Amazon Music, you now get a free audiobook of mine. Okay, so that's that. All right, so now that I've told you why you need to read audiobooks and how you can get to them, let's get into the audiobooks I'm going to recommend you start with. So number one, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Fun fact.

This is actually the very first audio book I've ever listened to. It was, and it left such an impression on me that I was like, okay, where have I been? Let me listen to more. Between his actual story and his accent, this is still one of the best books I've ever listened to. Plus he is an awesome storyteller. It is just so good.

LaShawn Wiltz (08:53.888)
It is so entertaining to listen to him and it's soothing almost. Number two, Daisy Jones in the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I loved this book when I first read it. I read this book before audiobooks became a thing, but I recently re-listened to it on audiobook because I heard a rumor that it was really good and I wanted to see. The audiobook is performed by an all-star cast of 21 different performers.

Some of the best known actors in the cast include Jennifer Beals as Daisy Jones, Pablo Shribner, I guess you can say as Billy Dunn, Benjamin Bratt as Graham Dunn, and Judy Greer as Karen Serko. The audiobook is fabulous. The novel is written in like an interview style, face documentary style, and every character has a different reader. It is an excellent job. It's a production and I...

I, it's like a movie. Get into it. The third book that I want, hold on. Had to get me a sip of water, sorry. The third book that I want to mention is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. If you have ever read this book, you know that it's written primarily in colloquial. Like the bulk of the novel is written

in, I guess you can say a dialect, meant to sound like how Southern Black Americans spoke to each other in the early 1900s. And it, mean, because like it's like the very first line, where is it? The very first line of when Janie returns to Eatonville, one of her neighbor asks, what's she doing coming back here in them overalls? It's them overalls. And in,

When I say it, sounds fine, but when you're trying to read it, it can be a little disconcerting because I remember, I think I picked up this book in high school and I had to literally, it took me like a chapter to be like, because my brain had to switch. And I know a lot of people don't read this book because they're like, I can't because of how it's written, because it's written like you talk. It can be jarring.

LaShawn Wiltz (11:21.518)
but it is such a beautiful novel. So I have started suggesting the audible version because it's narrated beautifully by the late Ruby Dee. And she just does such a fabulous job. And I think everybody should read this book. And so I'm going to recommend that you start, if this is your first foray into a Zora Neale Hurston book, specifically, Their Eyes Were Watching God, I'm gonna suggest that you listen to the audible first.

Okay, so the fourth book I want to talk about is The Fourth Wing. Yes, Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarrow. But I'm going to suggest the graphic audio version. Okay, I know, but hear me out. I've read the book. I've listened to the original audio version of this book. But the graphic novel, I mean, the graphic audio was on sale. So I got it.

And it's like listening to a full on movie. Like Daisy Jones and the Sixth, you have a full on cast of characters, cinematic music. It even has sound effects. And remember this has dragons in it. So the sound effects are everything. It is awesome. And if you don't like this book, listen to the graphic audio. I have all of the Akatar books on graphic audio. So I should have known that this would be good because

It's like listening to a movie in your ears. It is glorious. You're just sitting there like, this is great. You can get this just in time for the third. You can get the first and you can get the second one, Iron Flame. That one is also on graphic audio. You can get this just in time for third book coming out in January. So get into it. The last book that I'm going to suggest,

that you listen to as an audible is Will by Will Smith. This was hands down one of the most entertaining and interactive audio books I've ever listened to. Will Smith reads, raps, acts out. It is a good time, friends. I mean, not only was his own story good, but just the way, I mean, he's an actor, so he acted out.

LaShawn Wiltz (13:42.234)
this book. He deserved an Oscar, Grammy, and whatever else you wanted for this book. It's excellent and it's like I said it's a good time. Remember when I was talking about Mariah Carey's book? How she sink but Will Smith took it to the next notch. Okay so yeah that's that. Okay friends I hope I've convinced you to listen to audiobooks. Keeping in that vein let me tell you what I've been listening to on audio

past week or two. Currently, I am obsessed with the Royal Houses fantasy series by K.A. Lindy. I don't know how I got hooked on this. don't know. I don't even remember where I heard about this series. Somebody was reading it on, I think, Bookstagram, and I was like, well. And I was looking for it, and I saw that the audio book, the audible book was free.

Because sometimes that's the thing about Audible, is why I have to recommend it because sometimes you know how you can get Kindle Unlimited. Sometimes there are books on Audible that are free like Kindle Unlimited and Audible. This was the whole series, except for the last two were free. I was like, because the last book in this series comes out in February, I do believe. And the last one in here wasn't.

The one before that wasn't free, but it was like on sale for like a $1.99 because Audible was having that big sale. So I got all of them, the free ones and then, there are five books, I think. So I got them all after I listened to like half of the first one. Cause I was like, this is good. At first glance, it seems to be your typical YA-ish fantasy. I thought it was YA because it was good. fantasy novels usually have good characters.

building. Even the world building tends to be a little bit more, a little better than your typical romantic you might want to say. But this one, was, it was really good to me because I was like, it's good character development. I'm learning about these people. You see the growth. That's one thing YA fantasy writers do an excellent job of.

LaShawn Wiltz (16:06.49)
So I thought, okay, this is why it's a fantasy. it's, you know, plus the little love story was like pining, yearning, you know, some kisses, but mainly pining, yearning. And, know, you, you kinda, it was implied that the main character had done the do before, but it wasn't on the page. It was like, you know, it wasn't overt like most romantic novels these days are.

So I was into it. I was like, okay, this is YA. But I got a joke yesterday when there was some sexy time thrown in that was not YA. I mean, it's still what I can appreciate about KA Lindy is she's not as graphic, you might want to say, as a lot of our romantic writers are these days.

We'll have to do an episode sooner or later on what I'm going to call smut for smut's sake because sometimes I feel like they throw in these scenes and I look, I will never turn down a good smut scene like ever. But sometimes I feel like they throw in smut just to say there was some smut because sometimes it's just ridiculous. It makes no sense. It's gotten to that point where I can

appreciate subtlety because these days there's nothing subtle anymore now like i said i'm all for a good smut scene when it's in its place but like i said i'm gonna have to do an episode on smut for smut's sake like when is it is there ever too much smut when does it teeter over into porn or when does it teeter over into erotica

And there's no long, you know what I Is there a line? But that's a whole nother discussion for another day. Anyway, let's go back to this book. It wasn't graphic or anything. I was just pleasantly surprised, like I said, about this little scene. I was like, And then maybe a few chapters later, they did the deal. I was like, But even then, it was subtle. After all this yearning and pining they've been doing, it was subtle. was classy.

LaShawn Wiltz (18:31.232)
I miss a classy sex scene. And I didn't realize I did until I actually read one. But anyway, especially when you're listening to Audible, because when you listen to a book on audio, sometimes the sex scenes, what reads well on a page does not sound right. It's an art to that. And so I was pleased that I was not cringing during the sex scene.

But anyway, I'm intrigued by this series because of the underlying tones of race and class also that run through it, which was kind of unexpected to me, but it's a lot of parallels. And what that all means is woven in. And I'm still trying to get through this Motherless Land by Nikki Mae. I took a break, but I'm really determined to finish it before the end of the year. So I probably won't review it for you guys until next year.

Just a reminder, it's a light retelling of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. And I love a good retelling of anything Jane Austen. So that is how I got caught up in that. Anyway, if you wanna learn more about that book, listen to last week's episode, because yeah. All right, so also we are gearing up for currently

That's what I want to talk about.

LaShawn Wiltz (20:00.3)
Also currently trying to figure out how I'm going to make my pound cake gluten-free this year. My son's palate has finally expanded enough that I feel like I could do this and it won't be wasted.

plus I'm making a smaller pound cake this year because you know, we're just not going to eat all of it. And I'm tired of saying I'm a freeze it or give it away. And then it doesn't. And then I ended up throwing away cake, which is a travesty. I'm making two cakes this year. I'm making gluten free pound cake and I'm to make a red velvet cake. and that that's how desserts my mother, when she gets back, we'll make my husband a sweet potato pie. I'm not making a sweet potato pie.

I don't like making pie. That's just me. So she can make him a pie when she gets back if he wishes. I might ask her to make us a pecan pie.

I might ask her to make a pecan pie. We'll see. We'll see. Anyway, the next thing I'm currently doing is gearing up for our book club that starts in January. It's again, once again, it's hosted over on Substack. And the theme for 2025 is 90s black girl chip lit. Our first book is a Fly Girl by Omar Tyree. And I'm getting ready to get a head start and start creating a few things for our book club members.

You can still join. You can join for the whole year or you can look at the list of books that we're going to be reading, which is up. I will leave a link to that. You can look at the book list of book and you can join on the month of the book that you want to listen to. It's up to you. We would love to have you all year long, but I understand and I will take you for however long you can give me.

LaShawn Wiltz (21:56.954)
I'm also working on a book challenge for folks who don't want to feel confined by specific books to read, but want, let's say, a theme or a challenge to get them reading. I'm working on something for you guys too. That might include a giveaway. We'll see. I'm working on it. You how you have a million ideas in your head, but then you have to find the time to execute them? That's me right now.

Anyway, that's all I've got for you today, friends. We will have one more episode next week to conclude the year and season one. I am so excited about that, that I have actually, that I've actually got to that point. I'm like, woohoo, I got to say, I'm gonna get to six episodes. And I'm excited to start a new in January. Next week, I'll be talking about my favorite books of 2024.

I think I have read all of the books that I'm going to read that are going to be included in that list. And that is that. Remember, if you like the podcast, make sure you share some love. I'd love you to follow me on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. And if you have a quick minute, please consider leaving me a review or sharing us on social media. It truly helps me connect with other book.

lovers which is the whole point of this. Okay friends talk to you soon have a great week I will see you next week bye.