Casement

My parents were never so 'cool' to read out books to me when I was a kid. Never in the past has someone read out a book to me, for most of my friends and family members did not know that such a thing ever existed.

So, the first time I heard someone read out a book to me was the audio version of 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini. I randomly picked one of Crossword bookstores’ bestsellers and searched for the title on my library homepage when the audio book link appeared. The process thereafter was very simple. Click on the link, download the audio file to my system and start listening. And I did the same, without delay.

The story is about Amir, a wealthy businessman's son and his soulmate and servant Hassan. Amir and Hassan spend their childhood together in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir, a physically weak boy with no athletic abilities takes pleasure in literature, books, reading and creative writing. Amir adopts a bossy attitude with Hassan, despite the strength of their friendship. Hassan, on the other hand, is loyal, intelligent and strong, whose loyalty for Amir's family is unquestionable. This friendship is torn because of Amir's act of betrayal and his guilt thereof. The war in Afghanistan forces Amir and his father to flee Kabul for a life in the US.

After years of struggle to achieve a comfortable life in the US, Amir goes back to his hometown, now stained with blood and mutilated bodies to redress his wrongdoing and regain his self-esteem. Hosseini's description of Afghanistan from the days of monarchy to the present day of war and destruction serves as an interesting backdrop for the story.

The voice that read out the book expressed appropriate emotions with the lines, lending additional accuracy to the parallel imagination running in my mind. At times, the Urdu words used in the book, like 'jaan' as in 'baba jaan', 'Amir jaan' was pronounced by the reader as 'john' which made me think that Amir's dad's name was John, which didn't make sense to me until I heard the word again in association with another person and understood its right meaning.
There is lack of personal touch when you hear a book, for often I mark the book with my pencils and reread the paragraphs I enjoyed the most before putting the book down. Further, improving our vocabulary with the audio version of a book is far fetched, as you don't feel like pausing the flow of the story to look up a dictionary. Navigating and positioning the file from the point I left it in the previous session is another painful thing to do. In all, I would say, an audio book is a different experience than reading a book but not a better one. May be, I would use an audio book when I want to have read a book, but don't want to read it.