If You Haven’t Started Listening To Audio Books, Now Is The Time

I'm late to the party when it comes to the current audio book craze. As I kid, I remember listening to Jay Leno's autobiography on cassette, but that was it.

I've been trying to find a copy of Tribe: On Homecoming And Belonging by Sebastian Junger for years. I know I could order it off of Amazon, but that takes the fun out of it. I enjoy the "hunt," I guess you could say.

Upon seeing an ad for a 30 day free trial of Audible, I decided to give it a try and use one of my two free books on Junger. I'm so glad I did.

First, if you haven't read or listened to that book yet, do so. It is an amazing look at how it is often in the worst times in human history that we feel the most connected to one another.

Honestly, I couldn't have picked a better time to pick that one up. Looking at everything going on in the world today, I think a lot of us are longing for a feeling of belonging.

I also recently read an article about how learning something new can be a great way to help yourself combat depression. Junger's book, while short, was full of things I didn't know, had never considered, and pushed me to think about certain things in a new way.

It was refreshing.

The best part was just leaving it on while I was working, or driving home. In the background was Junger's voice going over the drop in admissions to psychiatric hospitals during The Blitz in the U.K., or the rise in suicide rates among middle class white males in industrialized societies; and what causes it.

If nothing else, sign up for a free trial of one of the many audio book services out there. There are even audio book services you can use through public libraries. It's an easy way to take your mind off of things, relax, and learn something new.