AudioBook Week! Why AudioBooks?

June is AudioBook month and if you are a frequent visitor to Cheeky Reads you already know how freakin much I love AudioBooks. The awesome Devourer of Books blog decided to host a week of AudioBook themed posts and events and I couldn't pass up spreading the love!

Check out Devourer of Books today to see her latest posts and enter to win some AudioBooks.

For today's post, she asked us to answer the question "Why AudioBooks?"

To answer this question, I think I have to actually talk about how I came to try out listening to AudioBooks. It's not a light story, but I'll try to keep it from going crazy emotional.

My commute to work is about 1 hour each way and a few years ago I would listen to the radio in the morning, but on the way home each night is when I called my Mom. Now, my mom was sick almost my entire life and had been disabled completely from around the time I was 12. It was hard moving away from my parents and the small town I grew up in, but my parents were my best friends and we spoke everyday.

So, never fail, I would call my mom at 6pm every single day. I would get in my car and tell her all about my life, what had happened that day, etc. And being the awesome mom that she was, she listened like no one else could. Before I knew it, I would be home and our conversation would be over. It was like that 1 hour commute was no time at all.

About three years ago my mother passed away. My dad, who was also older and disabled, wasn't available to talk at 6pm becuase he had friends that could only come visit him at that time. So, I found myself for the first time in about 4 years without my best friend to talk to and make that trip home fly by.

A few months passed and I suddenly started to realize something: I would have a great day at work, be excited about something, etc. but by the time I got home I would be depressed, angry, irritable. You name the bad mood. The hubby started asking why I was always snippy when I first got home and it made me realize something was off.

That something was that the long ride home without my mother to talk to was very lonely. It clicked for me that I really needed something to fill that time with, to take my mind off replaying every last conversation I'd had with mom over and over again. I was depressing myself every single day in that car without realizing it.

When I did figure it out, the next time I went to the library I saw the AudioBook section and thought "Why not?" Which was weird since I was a die-hard "You must read the print version" kinda reader.

I was so lucky that day because I happened upon an AudioBook of an unknown to me series, unknown to me author, and in a genre I don't normally read. And it was good. I mean really good. I'd hate to think of what might have happened if that first AudioBook had been bad. And it is true - AudioBooks can be hit or miss the same way printed books can. The wrong narrator can ruin a great story. A good narrator can take a so-so story and make it more compelling or exciting.

If that first AudioBook hadn't been terrific I think I would have missed out on one of my favorite things in the world now - and would have missed out on something that truly saved me.

That's how I think of AudioBooks - as something that saved me from a really bad time in my life. I was able to lose myself in those stories instead of focusing on my loss. I really cannot put into words how much AudioBooks mean to me.  To put it simply - I adore AudioBooks!