When I first started building guitars, I discovered a life-hack which allowed me to work more hours without feeling particularly tired or bored, and would make me feel excited to get up in the morning for work. This was listening to audiobooks while working. It is probably a life hack only applicable to certain types of work, but I imagine it could be useful for an artist, perhaps a guitarist practising their technique, particular tasks in any job which don’t require too much problem solving, or just anyone who can divide their attention between two things. Somehow my brain can’t manage to listen and build guitars these days, but I did it for several years and think back fondly on my audiobook days.
I found that there were certain criteria as to what makes an audiobook suitable to listen to while working. One is the length; if you’re going to be listening regularly while working, or perhaps running or driving, you’ll be burning through audiobooks quite fast. If you choose short books, you might be having to choose a new audiobook everyday, and would be faced with the dreaded post-book blues more often than necessary! Therefore long books are better, or a long series. Another thing to watch out for is the style/structure of writing; constant large leaps in time, geographical location or constant introductions of new point-of-view characters, tends to make the mind wander. And the pacing is important too; slower is better as having a chaotic action book would tend to be more distracting than helpful while working. If this sounds like a suitable like hack to you, here are some audiobooks to get started.
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust - For me, this is the ultimate audiobook to listen to while working. In fact, it might be the only way to read this book. It’s extremely huge, and the plot almost non-existent, however it’s made up of gloriously constructed sentences and ridiculously on-point observations about people, humanity and the world in general. It was recommended to me by my brother, whom at one time I would constantly be asking for the next audiobook recommendation, “and it has to be long, please!” He didn't let me down, this is like the longest book ever, and made me look forward to work every day for a long time.
The Musketeers Books and The Count of Monte Cristo - The Musketeers books follow the whole working life of the musketeer d’Artagnan. The author had a gift for the dramatic. He had a knack for building tension in his scenes, often in a funny or dramatic way, and the payoff would always be brilliant. The series is long and it is apparent the author also has a gift for ‘form’ in writing; the overarching story arch and development of each character over their lives is so brilliantly thought out. I loved how the main characters of this story weren’t really heroes, and the villains weren’t really villains; everyone was grey as in real life.
The James Bond books by Ian Fleming - These are short entertaining books, each could be listened to in a day. They are well written and certain scenes have stuck in my mind after many years. My favourite stories were Moonraker in which I discovered a tenderer side to Bond, and You Only Live Twice, in which Bond is on a mission for revenge in Japan. The series is outdated, in that the main character Bond is an Englishman from the 50s and sometimes you can really tell, but the books are fun to read and I would recommend them.
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld - These are the books that taught me it's completely OK to not be completely normal. Terry Pratchett created a huge cast of weird, ugly but fantastic characters and the books contain brilliant insights about people and the world, often in a humorous light. These books are short enough that I could listen to one in a couple of days. But there are almost 40 discworld books, so plenty of material, and time to watch the various characters grow, or not, over time.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - This is a great book to listen to. It's so long, probably around 60 hours, with a number of sequels. And the prose is fairly simple, with not so many POV characters that it gets distracting. It's so easy to listen to and entertaining. It’s fantasy, so you can get lost in a completely new world. Somehow, the way it's written, it sometimes feels like an anime. With Brandon Sanderson books, you always get an amazing climax, but in The Way of Kings, it's particularly good.