First off, audiobooks count as reading and any ableist takes disputing that will not be tolerated in my space.

Physical books were always my first choice for reading. I added ebooks close to 15 years ago, but was still hesitant to add audiobooks. About 7 or 8 years ago, I started commuting a long way to and from work, so I had less time to read. So I started listening to audiobooks for my commute and was hooked. Audio officially became part of my regular reading.

Several years ago, my vision started getting worse and I went from only wearing glasses to drive at night, to wearing them to drive and read, to wearing them all the time. And now, even with wearing my glasses all the time, I suffer from really bad eye strain and eye fatigue. If I spend too much time focused on the page or screen, my vision is very blurry, so I can’t sight read for long periods of time.

In order to continue reading at the levels I enjoy, and to avoid blurry vision so that I can continue to drive as needed, I have switched to reading predominantly audiobooks. I still read ebooks and physical books as well, it just takes me a really long time to get through them now, so I read them less and less.