The Downside of Audio Books

I've been listening to audio books in the car for over four years, ever since the last presidential campaign. I had been a huge fan of public radio but simply could no longer listen to the campaign rhetoric from either side. Commercial radio was filled with, well, commercials. My CD collection was getting tired of the heavy rotation. In desperation, I tried an audio book and totally fell in love with the format.

There's a downside to listening to books in the car. Words that stay quietly on the page of a printed book are out loud and in the open in an audio book. There was the time I took my car in for service just as a sex scene in a romance got hot and heavy. (Thank goodness I remembered to turn off the CD player before handing over the keys.) There have been times when I've been laughing out loud and then noticed the people in the next car over staring at me. The worst times, though, are those when the book is so touching that I cry.

In my current listen, Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos, holocaust survivor, Irma, tells M.J. the story of a treasured tea cup that had belonged to her young daughter who died on the way to the concentration camp. A former neighbor's tiny act of kindness in saving that cup from the Nazis gave Irma the courage to go on with her life. I, of course, started to bawl. The last ten minutes of my commute into work was spent digging Kleenex out of my purse and wiping my face so I could recover enough to face my co-workers.

It was a good thing that I was running late this morning and forgot to put on mascara. Nobody at work would ever notice red, bleary eyes at 7:30 in the morning. Raccoon eyes on the other hand? Much more difficult to cover up.

I'm starting to wonder why it is that the potentially embarrassing audio book moments happen at the worst possible time. I may have to start a scientific study to see if this is actually true. In the meantime, I'll keep the tissues handy for the conclusion of this excellent book.