Imaginary Rules

And an example of how they can get in the way

Forever ago, I told myself that I read fiction in paper or ebook form and I listen to non-fiction in audiobook form . While I do read memoir and occasional essay collections, I have always struggled to read long form non-fiction. I will hear a description of a story, find it fascinating, get the book and devour the first twenty pages of it. I will then dog-ear (yes- I dog-ear- don’t hate me) the page, never to return to the book again. So, a long time ago, I decided that if I didn’t like reading non-fiction, I must enjoy non-fiction on audio. First my Audible account and then my Libro.fm account became cluttered with barely begun works of narrative non-fiction. So… then I decided that I must not like listening to any books in audio form.

A few months ago, I waited too long to start my Fiction Matters bookclub book- The Rules of Magic. The group’s zoom bookclub meetings have been a great addition to my quarantine life so I was desperate to figure out a way to finish the book in time. I figured, as crazy as it sounded to me, that I would try to listen to the audiobook. This way, I could listen while I was doing other things over the course of the week. I’m guessing you can see where this is going but I couldn’t stop listening to the book and I finished it days ahead of our meeting date.

It turns out that I had completely invented my ‘fiction on paper and non-fiction on audio’ rule. I had never tested the theory. I just decided that is how it must be. As a result, I had never tried listening to fiction on audio and lo and behold, I was missing out on a really great way to enjoy more books.

Two things happened as a result of this realization.

• I have listened to a ton of great fiction on audio including- Every Heart a Doorway, Thirteen and The Inheritors.

• And more importantly, I have opened my eyes to other rules I have created for myself that may in fact, not be helpful or even true.

So here’s to more rule breaking in the future! And please share any fiction titles you have loved listening to.