The Imprint

Anyone who knows me, knows I love reading, whether it’s on holiday, during car journeys or just before bed. So I thought it would be apt to post a review of the books I read/listened to in November.

Part of the reading experience is to feel the pages under your fingertips and smell the printed-paper smell wafting in the air. I would describe myself as a die-hard physical book reader and have been from a very young age. A few years ago, I even tried the kindle and it felt slightly artificial. So when Spotify advertised that audiobooks are now included in the subscription, I was sceptical but looking at the range of books they had, I gave it a go. Read on to hear my first impressions of the audiobook experience listening to Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love.

Everything I Know About Love is a book I had seen quite a lot on social media and in every Waterstones I had walked into. The memoir follows Alderton’s 20s as she navigates love, work and most importantly, friendship. I don’t usually read memoirs so thought it would be the perfect choice as my first audiobook. The bonus was that it was read by Alderton herself which was feature a physical book couldn’t necessarily give me.

All in all, it was a lovely read. Dolly Alderton’s memoir-styled book was funny, heart-warming and sometimes world-shattering. Her style felt very fresh and her stories were charismatically honest, which I really enjoyed. Her structure moved from funny short stories to longer emotional tales, often intercepted with quick recipes of her comfort foods, which made it light and easy to listen to. While she followed a general chronological order, she often revisited an old story, making the book feel like a scattered conversation between two friends. Another thing that made the book comforting was that she didn’t shy away from the details but embraced them. It was insightful having someone else’s thoughts in my head and was a different kind of escapism compared to the one fiction books provide.

I definitely enjoyed the audiobook more than I thought; it was a reassuring listen that often had me smiling as I walked in the rain. Alderton added so much theatricality and personality to the reading, which elevated the experience greatly. Another pro of audiobooks is the accessibility, you almost always have your phone on you and so have access to a library of audiobooks. Spotify’s new plan to include audiobooks is great you get more for your money. Currently, only the plan member receives free access to the audiobooks but hopefully, in future, this can be expanded to everyone in a family plan.

The only thing that I didn’t like so much about audiobooks was that you could be easily distracted as you aren’t focusing on a physical page. However, I don’t think this would stop me from using audiobooks in the future.

Alongside listening to Everything I Know About Love, I was also reading Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library. At any given time, I am reading a physical book so it only made sense to read something in the gaps when I wasn’t listening to Alderton.

The story follows the protagonist, Nora Seed, stuck between life and death at a library filled with all the lives she could’ve lived had she made different choices. The book was possibly one of the most creatively written I’ve read, all with a pretty simple concept that was easy to follow. It didn’t fall into the trap of being predictable and I was excited for where the story would take Nora.

I would say that I didn’t connect with the protagonist as I usually do, while I was looking forward to her journey into all these different lives, I didn’t feel like I really knew Nora Seed. Perhaps this was what Haig intended; it isn’t the Nora that we start with that is important but instead the Nora we see as the book finishes.

The last hundred pages of the book were my favourite and I got through them quite quickly. Usually, a fiction book provides escapism into a new world, with different people and circumstances. But The Midnight Library offered a reflective approach that forces the reader to look into themselves rather than escape.

The book exists to ground the reader and remind them that life isn’t in the metaphorical ‘what ifs’ but instead in this current life. Haig takes the quote ‘just cause things could have been different, doesn’t mean that they would’ve been better’ and writes a book on it. If you are looking for a new kind of fiction book that is thought-provoking and well-written, this is the one for you! I would especially recommend as we go into the new year and reflect.

I really enjoyed the balance of having two books to decide between- the audiobook mainly for journeys, when I’m on the go and the physical book for when I wanted to unwind in the evening and put my attention into something in front of me.

Moving forward, the next audiobook I’ll be listening to will be Matthew Perry’s Friends, Lovers and the Big, Terrible Thing. Coming up to two months since his tragic death, I wanted to listen to his memoir and find out more about the work he did to help people suffering with addiction. As well as this, I will be starting Happy Place by Emily Henry. Having read and loved her last three books, I thought it would be the perfect escape from the winter and to the sunny setting of Maine.

Thank you for reading and I hope my next piece brings you back to The Imprint!