That Damn Tape

I recently started toying with the idea of listening to a "book on tape" while I was running at the gym. I was getting tired of the same music that I listen to every time I was on the machines. However, for years I've had a painful hatred of audio books. I blame my 10th grade ALA teacher who made us listen to A Separate Peace, Animal Farm, and Julius Caesar on tape. They were always read by boring old men who had very little inflection in their voice are read too slow. Meanwhile, I'd be staring at the page knowing that if I were reading the book on my own I'd be about thirty pages ahead of that damn tape. 

Because of my disgust toward audio recorded literature, I decided that my idea to listen to a book instead of some heart-pumping tunes in the gym was probably not worthwhile. Then I saw a commercial for a free subscription to Audible, a part of Amazon.com. This caught my attention. I signed up and was able to get a twenty-six dollar audio book for free. Apparently having someone read the book to you is as expensive as actually purchasing the text copy. Who knew. 

The book I got is called The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Maybe it's because I don't have the book physically in front of me now, but I am loving listening to this book. It's long too which means I'm definitely getting my free book's worth. I'm primarily listening to it while I run, but also have listened to it on long car rides. It's great! I've found a great new way to multi-task. In addition this book is fabulous. So whether you read it in hardcover or listen to it on your iPod, I highly recommend it!