My 2018 New Year’s resolution was to prioritize reading. Growing up, and all through my 20s, books were my constant companions. Then I became a mother, and became too tired to read. My brain was occupied by the 30,000 details of daily life and the schizophrenic nature of attempting to accomplish ANYTHING while simultaneously keeping tabs on tiny death traps/navigating the persistent interruptions of those tiny death traps. Beginning and completing a task–ANY task (brushing their teeth, cooking dinner, making a phone call, paying bills)–without interruptions, sounds downright luxurious to me. Up until January, any time I tried to read, my brain would shut down and I’d fall asleep.
I missed books, though. I feel most like myself when I’m submerged in a story. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it makes sense to me. When I read, I’m completely and totally inside my own head. I’m not thinking about chores. I’m not thinking about my family. I’m not thinking about what our next duty station will be and how the kids will adjust and which choices to make to ensure everyone transitions well. I’m inside a world in my head. Period. It recharges me, and it helps my brain synapses fire more interestingly in my normal life.
I set a goal to read 20 books this year. I’m currently at 27, so hooray to that!
One book that I’d been meaning to read for quite a while is Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman. I love Neil. He’s my favorite author. I’ll read anything he writes, including stories about Thor and Loki, which are pretty far outside of my normal interests.
I own the book, but when I spotted the audiobook, read by Neil, available for free on Hoopla, I decided to give it a shot. I could listen to Neil read just about anything and be happy. Love his accent, love the quality of his voice, love the emotion with which he commits to the words. Several of his books sit safely in my top 10.
These myths stand alone as individual stories, which made them ideal to listen to in short bursts, but also work together to tell the story of the gods, from beginning to end to new beginning. It was a cozy and funny and tragic listen, and I couldn’t help but pretend that I was in old times, when stories and myths were told by firelight, and passed by mouth through the generations. I feel like Neil would approve of that.
Do you have favorite audiobooks you can point me to? I enjoyed having something to listen to while I was cooking/driving/etc.
Cookery Bookery 