Audiobooks are Amazing! (Except When They're Not)

I am a huge fan of audiobooks. They helped me get through intimidating books like Moby Dick, Anna Karenina and Nicholas Nickleby. And literary classics are twice the fun when heard in a British accent. Occasionally I abandon an audiobook if the narrator isn't that great. Sometimes I'm frustrated at having to "rewind" the book in order to capture a choice quote. But these are small quibbles. Audiobooks are what got me out of my slump last year so I shouldn't criticize them, right? 

This year I've discovered a few additional reasons why they are not always ideal. 

(1) Sometimes listening to a book makes the story come to life in a bad way. That happened when I tackled Kristin Lavransdatter earlier this year; I became so emotionally immersed in the story that I had to revert to the written page to manage the stress. 

(2) Sometimes they come dangerously close to sounding like bad preaching. Recently my small group began reading the book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Scazzero. It has some good ideas mixed in with pop psychology. Listening to it often made me angry. But when I read the actual page, I was able to overlook the flimsy reasoning and sift out the good stuff.

(3) Sometimes you miss important details. I listened to several Dorothy Sayers' mysteries in February. When I went back through the written text to find favorite quotes, I discovered some essential clues that I'd missed while listening. This is not the fault of the audiobook as much as it is the fact that I usually listen while doing something else (cooking or exercising) so my mind is less engaged.

Still, I'm a huge fan because there's something scrumptious about being read to. Yet I'm aware that it has its limits. What about you? Did you ever find that listening to a certain book was a bad way to "read" it?

Blessings,

Eating Together as a Basis for Culture - quote from Sean Fitzpatrick

Breaking bread together is a deep sign of cultural togetherness, for it bestows both natural and supernatural nourishment. What’s more, a meal is a ritual. It’s a manifestation of living together in harmony and health—an enactment of human civility and civilization. Food provides a happy occasion for gathering and collective enjoyment, which is one of the pillars of friendship and a healthy culture. As an essentially life-giving activity, the meal is a sacrament of family and friends; it is a sign and a strengthening of the life that flows from those labors of love that bind people together....

Today the idea and ethics of dining are deteriorating into a hurried, harried, pre-packaged affair punctuated by interruptions. The very expression “fast food” is inimical to the most essential reason for meals, which arises not out of speed but out of care, consideration, and conversation. Just as Mass and prayer are not for hastening through, neither are meals. The current tendency, however, is not only to eat in a rush, which prevents the enjoyment of a meal and demeans the dignity of food, but also to eat alone, which diminishes the sense of community. When meals are sacred, the labor and leisure of communities will be sacred—and that sanctity is the basis of culture.

Food for Thought by Sean Fitzpatrick (from Crisis Magazine)

Blessings,

The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch

The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch is not a "how to" as much as a "why to" book on limiting technology. This book is about much more than just social media, or even screens. It's about how to live as full, flourishing human beings. Maybe it will even turn out that in that quest for flourishing, technology in its proper place can actually help. Crouch's definition of a family, and what it takes to make a family healthy, made this a strong four-star read for me. Technology must serve the needs of the family, and not be its master. Technology is in its proper place when it helps us acquire skill and mastery of domains that are the glory of human culture (sports, music, the arts, cooking, writing, etc.) When we let technology replace the development of skill with passive consumption, something has gone wrong.

I appreciated his many insights into the false promises of technology to make life easier. Easier and flashier platforms, games, and programs often encourage us to opt out of activities that take more mental and emotional energy. These harder activities are the ones that enrich us and help us grow. The last thing you need when you are learning, at any age but especially in childhood, is to have things made too easy. Difficulty and resistance, as long as they are age appropriate and not too discouraging, are actually what press our brains and bodies to adapt and learn.

I was completely taken aback by the last chapter on how Christians must live in incarnational community, including the dignity of "low-tech" dying. This probably wouldn't have hit me so hard if it hadn't been for the families I know who suffered the loss of a loved one due to COVID and could not be with them at the moment of their passing. Crouch writes, We are meant not just for thin, virtual connections but for visceral, real connections to one another in this fleeting, temporary, and infinitely beautiful and worthwhile life. We are meant to die in one another's arms, surrounded by prayer and song, knowing beyond a doubt that we are loved.

Crouch wrote so winsomely of his daily, weekly, and yearly fasts from his devices, that I decided to get on board by making Sunday a no-screen day. I had no idea how hard that would be. Ignoring my TV and computer was a cinch, but because I use my cell phone as a kitchen timer and podcast source, and my Kindle's white noise app for taking naps, the temptation was always there to  mindlessly scroll through social media when I picked up these tools. This is a fast that I'm still determined to learn how to do.

I never dreamed that a little book on the dangers of technology overload would be so inspiring. Definitely another of my favorite books of 2021.

Blessings,