Audible

This week, I spent Friday night nannying at someone’s house.

Because I party hard, ya’ll.

I don’t normally nanny anymore, mostly because I work forty hours a week in an office, then get home and work on side hustle/personal career/books until I go to sleep. But this particular job fell into my lap, and I couldn’t say no. I mean, who DOESN’T need a little extra cash the month before Christmas, right?

At least, that’s what I told myself when I got home at 10 o’clock and realized I’d been awake for seventeen consecutive hours and really, really wanted to have been asleep a long time ago.

Not that I was counting.

But, aside from a little extra cash and an excuse to go out to dinner, this nanny job also gave me an excuse to sit on my butt and read for an hour or so. I mean, the kids were in bed, parents weren’t headed home for a while, and I had time.

And time, lately, isn’t something I have a lot of.

Actually, my reading has slowed down a little in the last few months. And by slowing down a little, I mean it’s fallen off a cliff into the ocean. I generally read a lot—in fact, I’ve read 96 books this year. But finding time to read when you work forty hours a week and run your own side hustle is a little—demanding.

So I listen to audiobooks in my car—with the volume all the way up, because due to personal reasons, my car sounds like a monster truck. Please don’t ask. And I sneak in a chapter here and a few pages there. I’ve started to bring a book to work with me, so I can read during my lunch break. That tends to have mixed results. Mostly because I do want to be social as well and hang out with my coworkers.

Because being social is definitely a priority in my life.

Wink wink.

Just now, I am working through Seven Years In Tibet. Actually, I’ve reviewed this wonderful book on my blog before, and I can truthfully say that it is just as magical and engaging the second time around. Despite having to read it in bits and pieces. I also have an audiobook waiting for me, which I WILL start today. Lately, the temptation in my car has been to turn on the radio and listen to music on the way to work, and several of my audiobooks have been returned to the library unheard.

Definitely not my proudest moment.

But today I am jumping back on the bookwagon, so to speak, and am determined not only to listen to this audiobook, but to fill up my queue again.

Soo… any suggestions?

What kind of crazy things do you do to find time to read? Tell me about them in the comments!

I have a confession about this one.

I didn’t actually read it.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I have never, in my entire life, picked up a physical copy of this book and read it through start to finish.

Instead, I listened to it on Audible, narrated by the lovely and brilliant Kate Winslet.

Usually, I insist on reading a book before I would even think of getting the Audible version of it. (For one thing, audiobooks are expensive.) But they had a sale, and I was weak. Can books on sale be my weakness? I think that’s allowed.

It had better be allowed. Otherwise, I might be in trouble.

Anyway, if you haven’t heard the audio version of Matilda, please go buy it immediately and listen to it. It was incredible. Kate Winslet is a brilliant and wonderfully expressive reader, and her interpretation of this lovely little story was beyond charming. I was hooked from the first chapter.

As most of us probably know, Matilda is the story of a brilliant little girl growing up in a family that is—how shall we say—less brilliant. Her father is a crooked car salesman, and her mother plays bingo every afternoon. And so, little Matilda is left alone every day to fend for herself and find her own amusement. And every day, little Matilda walks herself down to the village library to sit in the big armchair that is much too large for her and read a book. Within a few weeks, she has read all of the children’s books the library has to offer, and the librarian offers her another, larger book. By Charles Dickens.

And so the classical education of a five year old begins. Matilda reads everything that she can get her hands on, and by the time she enters school, she is better read than many adults.

Miss Honey, her lovely young school teacher, is enchanted with Matilda’s potential, but thanks to a bullying headmistress—a woman as vicious as she is intimidating—Matilda is confined to the bottom class. With nothing to challenge her young mind, she quickly grows bored, and strange things begin to happen.

Thus begins one of my new favorite children’s books. Matilda was charming and witty, and in some ways, went far beyond the reaches of a regular children’s book. I found it a wonderful new treasure to add to my list of books read this year. Hopefully, one of these days, I’ll be able to sit down and read the book for myself.

Until then, I’ll continue to enjoy Kate Winslet’s version.

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