For long, the idea of listening to a book seemed absurd to us — especially when you're gifted with vision. But a few years back we gave audiobooks a go on YouTube, hoping that it would make difficult books more comprehensible. Safe to say, it didn't turn into an addiction, and we couldn't tell if it was the medium to blame, or the narrator, or that the book was simply too tedious. That being said, our experience wasn't enough to brush off the idea of trying it out again. Opportunity came knocking on our door last week when Amazon launched Audible in India with over 2 lakh full-length audiobooks on offer that include 400 exclusive Indian titles.

A smooth ride
The process is simple. You sign in to the Amazon store on your web browser and head over to the Books & Audible tab. Then, you sign up for a free trial — prime members get 90 days, while non-members get 30. It's easy to get lost in the sea of options spanning genres. We pick Em and the Big Hoom written by Mumbai-based writer and Sahitya Akademi award-winner Jerry Pinto — because we don't remember the last time we read a book that felt like it had been written in blood. And we wanted to check if this medium would do any justice.