Ten on Tuesday

The Ten On Tuesday topic for today is 10 Things To Do While Listening to an Audiobook, and I feel like I am eminently qualified to make a list for this one. I started listening to audiobooks way back in high school, borrowing cassette tapes and then CDs from the library. I discovered Audible in 2009, and over the past seven years most of my reading has gradually become listening to audiobooks. I still read things on my Kindle occasionally and every once in a while I even look at an actual real, live dead-tree book, but it's mainly because I can multitask that I listen to audiobooks. So here's what I do while listening:

1. Knit  - The primary reason I started listening was so I wouldn't have to choose between knitting and reading. Knitting and listening - perfect together!
2. Walk - I can achieve those 10,000 steps much more easily if I listen while I walk.
3. Housework - Listening makes an odious task less so.
4. Yard work - Weeding, pruning, and mowing don't seem like drudgery if I'm engrossed in a book.
5. Grocery shop - This is a chore I despise, but a book in my ears makes it better.
6. Sit in the airport - Since we have to be at the airport so early to get through security and make it to the gate on time, I make sure I always have a good book on my ipod to while away the time spent waiting.
7. Fly - Flying isn't my favorite thing, but if I'm absorbed in an audiobook then I forget all about the lack of legroom and that I'm hurtling through the atmosphere in an aluminum tube.
8. Drive - Most of my driving is short trips around town, but if I'm embarking on a longer road trip there is always a good book plugged into the auxiliary port in the car. 
9. Swing on the porch swing - Sometimes it's nice to sit on the porch swing and simply enjoy the sounds of the birds singing and the breeze blowing. We live on a street with plenty of traffic, so there are times that it's also nice to drown out the sounds of cars, noisy trucks, and other people's questionable taste in music. Enjoying an audiobook on the porch swing is perfect for those times.
10. Drown out snoring - Someone I sleep with has been known to snore quite loudly; at times it's loud enough to wake me up. I've learned over the years that my earbuds and an audiobook are often enough to put me back to sleep and keep me from getting too aggravated with the snorer.

My Audible page tells me that I have 428 titles in my library (Ryan and I share the account, so they're not all mine :-) , and I've tagged almost half of my "read" books as audio on goodreads. Not every book lends itself to becoming an audiobook, but there are also many that are enriched even further by being read by an exceptional narrator. I'm looking forward to reading ToT lists today to see what else I can do while immersed in an audiobook!