Slice of Life is a weekly event hosted by Two Writing Teachers.
Today my Slice of Life will be doing double duty. I'm going to do a quick slice on "reading with your ears" and I'm going to catch you up on my #mustreadin2014.
The term "reading with my ears" was introduced to me this past year. I think I started seeing it quite a bit on the Monday meme - "It's Monday! What Are You Reading". Lots of people talk about how they listen to an audio book often on the way to work. It's a great way to get in some extra reading during a time when you can't always hold a book and have your eyes doing the reading. Sounded like a good idea to me.
The first time I tried it was this spring. My daughter and I are in the car a lot in the afternoons and evenings. I checked out Brandon Mull's new book "Five Kingdoms: Sky Raiders" and we set out to listen to it. I'm a proficient reader. I enjoy reading and making meaning of the text. Listening to something should be easy, right? Wrong. "Reading with my ears" is HARD! I have to force myself to concentrate. I can't "zone out" as I do when I listen to music and drive. If I miss a part, I cannot go back a few paragraphs and reread. If I miss something, I have to go back a whole part, which may or may not be an entire chapter. I found myself frequently asking my daughter, "what did they just say?" If I figure out something big, but I want to go back and check on some details, nope, can't do that. I also found that even though I think I'm in the car a lot, if you have a long book, it takes a really long time to read, I mean read with your ears, a long book!
On the positive side, we recently took a road trip and took a few audio books with us. When you have an extended time in the car, say 18 hours, an audio book really helps pass the time. When I have nothing to look at but the long, open road in front of me, I appreciate the audio book that much more. I still have to concentrate. I still have to ask my daughter what I missed. But, it's maybe a little bit easier.
I'll continue to try reading with my ears. Maybe with practice it will get a little easier. I'm planning on finishing Matthew Cody's book "Super" on my road trip to nErDcampMI next week. It's probably like fluency - it's only going to get better if I practice practice practice. Back to the books!
Now, how's my #mustreadin2014 reading doing? Um, not so well. It's not because I'm not reading, it's because there are so many other books out to read, I'm reading those! Here's an update on my list.
Middle grade:
Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle
Treasure Hunters by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Bigger Than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder
The Quirks by Erin Soderberg
The Real Boy by Anne Ursu
Winners Take All by Fred Bowen
The Thing About Georgie by Lisa Graff
YA:
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
delirium by Lauren Oliver
The Land of Stories The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer reading it now!
Adult:
Dream It! Do It! by Marty Sklar
What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman
Morning Glory by Sarah Jio
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Inferno by Dan Brown
I have a lot to read!!!!
Happy Reading!
I've been spending a lot of time in the car recently and have tried to start the "reading with my ears" habit. I've actually listened to five or six books, and am starting to really enjoy it. For me, it's all about finding a narrator I like. If I don't like the way the book sounds, I just return it and try again.
ReplyDeleteMost of my trips in the car are 10 minutes or less ~ I think I would be fairly distracted to "read with my ears!" I actually do have a hard time with ONLY auditory learning and have never listened to a book on tape.
ReplyDeleteYou're making progress on your must read list ~ keep it up!
You have a lot of reading to do...but you've read so much already! I need to get in the habit of listening to books in the car - it would be so much better for me than listening to the news these days - so depressing!
ReplyDeleteLots of reading is a great problem to have! You have some wonderful titles still to read! Both titles by Anne Ursu are fantastic. We are an audio book family when it comes to summer road trips - we are never in the car for very long otherwise. The False Prince was probably our favourite listen.
ReplyDeleteI used to listen to books often when I lived in my old home, a longer drive. But now I live only 5 minutes from work-not enough time really to listen to NPR! I miss it, but I was alone, & it was the same drive every day, so that helped, I think. You may not have read so many on your list, but you certainly read some good ones!
ReplyDelete