Listening Through the Mirror: Why I Love Audio Books

When I was small, my very first audiobook narrators were my loved ones. They read to me, stories of princesses and fairies. Each book was like looking, or in my case listening, through a magical mirror! I could see a world that was not my own! It was in the castles and fairy gardens that I gained imagination, and a sense of wonder.

As I grew older, audiobook narrators spoke to me from cassettes. They took me to forests and jungles, oceans and savannas. My companions were porcupines and jaguars, pirates and elephants. The narrators painted in words, a world I could not see with my own eyes. Those books gifted me with a sense of exploration, and a lifelong love of animals. These memorable listens through the mirror showed me all the futures that were possible. From my trailer house in a tiny rural town, I journeyed everywhere, and learned to dream.
In high school and college, my narrators swept me away with tales of adventure, happily ever afters, and rugged men with hearts of gold. I enjoyed fiction, and I discovered an appreciation for biographies, history, and social science. My perspective broadened, as I read about people who were completely different from me. Each listen expanded and crystallized my life philosophy. These years gifted me with a thirst for more knowledge, and clarification of self.
Health problems arrived along with age, and these days, I spend more time alone because of insomnia. Audiobooks provide me with a form of companionship, on long silent nights. Now the mirror reflects the synthesis of all those earlier listens. I glimpse the tiny girl I was in stories of magic. I view my youth with a kinder gentler eye. I still journey to exotic places, and meet Vikings and princes, but I do so with a patience and wisdom borne of years.
Through audible book mirrors, I have gazed in at worlds that were not my own, but something of myself was always reflected back to me. Whether it was seeing my current self with more clarity, understanding my past self with more kindness, or envisioning my future self with more enthusiasm. I am intrigued by imagining what listens through the mirror will reveal to me, when my hair is white as snow.

Author: Jena

Hi there. Thanks for stopping by. I am a small-town Southern writer, book hoarder, technology enthusiast, unashamed cat lady, and huge fan of the Outlander series. I have a degree in Psychology from the University of Texas at Tyler. I love nothing more than to paint pictures with words, and to make people happy, and if I can do both at the same time, all the better. Gratitude, simple joys, and optimism are the cornerstones of my life philosophy. I am totally blind, and I have non 24 sleep disorder, and temporal lobe epilepsy. These health issues make for some interesting times, but adversity has taught me wisdom I never would have learned otherwise. I hope you will enjoy my writing, and I thank you for taking the time to read it. View all posts by Jena