I love reading since my childhood. We had decent amount of books even during the commie times, yet there were books that I read more than 10-15 times. I would usually read a few books simultaneously – which is probably one of the reasons Kindle is still my favorite gadgets (contested only by Oura ring – because it is the first health tracker that delivered what it promised). Kindle was a life saver when we went for one month long road trip through southern Africa – I could read several books without charging it for weeks or carrying piles of paper around.

But life is busy, especially after I changed job a few months ago, and started this blog. I keep adding books to my reading queue, but barely find time to read them.

This is why I really like the suggestion of Stanley McChrystal, famous ex-general turned successful businessman, to consume audio versions of the book – during runs, workouts or even at bathroom.
(btw. I’m not a fan of generals, army or wars. But I will not dismiss good advice just because it comes from a famous ex-general.)

I tried audiobooks before but didn’t like it much because

• For fiction I would get lost in all the names
• For non-fiction I was not able to catch the details (I’m visual learner)
• I wanted to make notes.

But now the technology moved forward – Kindle has its own audio book player, and I’m sure Amazon worked quite a lot on Audible, so I will be testing both. I also learned to consume knowledge through podcasts. On top of that this is a travel friendly experiment – which is good because I will spend this week on the road visiting customers and partners in 3 cities in India.

I purchased a few books that sit in my reading queue for some time (I have most of them in text version)

• Lying by Sam Harris
• Cosmic Trigger I – Final Secret of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson
• Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman
• The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen
• Zero to One by Peter Thiel
• How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

I’m curious to find out if the issues I personally have with audio absorption were solved by technology.