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I have gone to sleep using a radio set to the news, or a television for years. So falling asleep to a podcast is the next step. I like to listen to Clark Howard, and I’m usually out in five minutes. If not Clark Howard, the podcast Dearly Departed. There are other things I like to listen to but not at bedtime.
A lot of podcasts are what I like to call whizbangy. Lots of bells and whistles, noise and music. Way more like an old fashioned radio drama. If I’m sewing, doing some sort of a project, I would far rather listen to that sort of podcast, or in fact on YouTube the CBS mystery radio theater. For some reason having two things to concentrate on makes the task at hand more enjoyable. I used to listen to television, but that doesn’t seem to work anymore because a lot of television is very visible.
Which sounds like a duh statement, but a lot of history programs are very talkative, not visible. But they don’t seem to show those anymore. I like history from like the middle ages, and having them talk and show me a painting and talk, then show me another painting — I don’t really care about the paintings it’s the talking that’s telling me the history.
I actually like to have noise around me at all times because the fact that I have tinnitus. So hearing people speaking is a lot better than the wheeeeeeeeee in my head.
I actually think I would love the old fashion radio dramas that we used to have back in the 40s. I have listen to a number of them and I enjoy that. But I am almost always doing some thing else around them. I can’t imagine just sitting and listening to something without doing something else. Even if it’s crocheting or embroidery. So I don’t think you’re wrong. If I had to sit and listen to something … well, I actually do that because my sister has dementia and when she calls me daily, she talks in a lecture and it is making me insane. Even then I get up and I do dishes. Clean out the litter boxes. Do the things I need to do, and yes I have to tell you it makes her angry that I’m not sitting on my butt listening. But that is her problem not mine.
But, if I am listening to an audiobook, I concentrate on the audiobook, and I visualize. Much like I do when I read a book, it’s like I step into that world. I cannot listen to an audiobook and drive. So there has to be some sort of a difference that I can’t figure out. Because the only time I listened to an audiobook while I was driving I almost wrecked.
I don't know why, but staying focused on reading something that's more than article length has become hard in the last few years, & I did try a Kindle. I was always a voracious reader & usually had 2-3 books going at once. Now I struggle to get through a book.
I don't know why, but staying focused on reading something that's more than article length has become hard in the last few years, & I did try a Kindle. I was always a voracious reader & usually had 2-3 books going at once. Now I struggle to get through a book.
It could be simple pandemic stress. Pretty sure the reason I can’t do it anymore is grief related since I lost my husband in 2019. The book has to be really good for me to read through anymore.
And frankly, a lot of the books I read and put down are barely adequate. Here’s the thing, styles change. We find it in clothing, we find it in houses, we find it in books. I read mysteries because that’s what I enjoy. And for a while I actually studied fiction writing.
Several years ago the mystery books hit upon the idea of the “unreliable narrator“. For whatever reason I can smell those a mile away, and it ticks me off. As a reader I do not want to start out being lied to, and that’s exactly what an unreliable narrator does.
There’s also been a decision that books need to be tighter and faster paced. Often what that relates to is you get a page or so of dialogue where people leave out the he said/she said, and focus on the dialogue. After a few lines, I have no clue who the hell is talking. Which means I have to go back with a pencil and start ticking off the he said lines so I know that she said — because writers are not defining the voices within the books anymore. This is in order to keep the pace up.
We also are not getting definite ideas on where something is. I read a book a while ago —it was pretty good on one hand and at the end of it thoroughly unsatisfying. It was set in New York City. It could’ve been set in Denver. Or Milwaukee. Or in the great Midwest plains with nothing around it because there was no essence of the place. If I’m reading a book about New York City I want to see New York City. But they aren’t doing that anymore.
I went off on a rant here, just saying, it might not be you. It very well might be the books.
I love good podcasts. They allow me to keep my untired mind engaged and focused when my eyes are too tired to read, for one thing. The lack of visuals does not bother me, because podcasts are meant to be listened to. It’s not the same thing as listening to a movie soundcast without the visuals. A good podcast is complete unto itself.
Some of them are uplifting, some raise disturbing but important questions, some provide fascinating information that I never read about in news articles, and some are purely entertaining.
So call me a fan. I download ones whose descriptions sound promising so I don’t have to be online to listen. Then if I want to relisten to a particular section, I move the slider to where I heard it the first time.
But books are my favorite, mostly printed books but also some e-books.
I listen to Jordan Peterson's podcasts. But they are long and more like conversations with other brainiacs as they flesh out their selected topic. They are so satisfying to me because the people involved are civil, the dialogue makes me think, and I always learn something I didn't know. They are like college level lectures/dicusssions. I don't get much from a 10 min podcast, but two hours'll give you a whole lot to chew on.
I listen to true-crime podcasts when driving long distances.
I do true crime and longer series podcasts when I'm driving long distances--on the way back from Thanksgiving I listened to the Casefile three-part series on Jonestown. Otherwise I listen to shorter podcasts while I'm doing chores or cooking. I kind of like using them as a timer--if I'm finished with what I wanted to do before the podcast episode is over, I use the remaining time to hit a few other small tasks.
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Solly says — Be nice!
