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in Chicago and the suburbs from reporters at WBEZ and the Chicago Sun Times.

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From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdad. I'm Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend

and to another installment of our special series Undercover where we are going all in on the

different ways a book comes to life. Last week we uncovered the thorny business of book blurbs

and today we are talking all about the audiobook which I happen to be obsessed with.

It can be such a pleasure when a great audiobook narrator just reads you a story.

I love that I can listen while I'm walking the dog or doing dishes or sitting in terrible

traffic. So much so in fact that I have probably pressured most of the people in my life into

listening to audiobooks too. For me there's nothing like a book on tape as they used to be

called to really bring a text to life. I spent much of my childhood listening to the sound of

striving to have a better the boy who live. I ran to the living room to see what was wrong

and I found you struggling to free your arm from what seemed to be a hole in the wall.

The idea of an audiobook of course is super simple. You get it from the library or another app you

press play and magically a voice in your headphones or on your car speakers reads out loud to you.

No stumbles, no pauses, disciple glass of water, no shuffle of pages turning.

And there's something really magical about that, something that appeals to our most

elemental selves. When we're born we are already wired to respond to the sound of our

our mother's voice because we've been responding to it in the womb. Just from you know right out

of our wrapping we are ready to listen to stories. So much of why we read is to be transported

into someone else's mind or someone else's way of viewing the world. It's like a family or the

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