While I'm glad I don't have to do a tiring commute each day, I have heard that this is when many people get time to read - and not just if they're on a train.
Listening to a book while you're driving, or experiencing any sort of downtime, has become very much 'a thing' and you'd think with the amount of reading I have to do each week, I'd be making the most of this resource. But it's not something I've found works for me - yet.
However I've heard a number of people's experiences recently which have made me reconsider.
A friend has told me she listens along when she's doing the ironing, cooking or cleaning. A boatbuilder chooses books to read while he's working. A potter chose audio books to distract her from noisy neighbours, and baker David Wright researched the history and culture of breadmaking using audio books.
David worked extraordinary, anti-social hours as a baker. Starting work at 11pm he'd get home in time to take his children to school at 8am. He says he felt life was passing him by. He decided to listen to books as he baked through the night, to learn more about his trade.
The result is his brilliant book 'Breaking Bread' which is released next week. He'll be in the press and radio talking about it (beginning with BBC Radio Suffolk tomorrow morning at 11am). And do come along to hear him speak at The Riverside on Sunday 30 March. I promise it will be entertaining and enlightening.
While I can see that listening to a book while undertaking a repetitive and familiar task can be an effective use of time, it's interesting that we feel obliged to be more 'productive', doing more than one thing at a time, and less inclined to be 'in the moment'.
And it seems this is only likely to increase. A recent survey has found that more children are listening to books than reading. It has been suggested, then, that schools should encourage the use of audio books as a means of 'sparking a love of reading and supporting literacy development, ... deepening learning and boosting wellbeing'.
Other research has warned against this being a substitute to the means of picking up a book independently, however, and being read to by a teacher or parent.
Listening to an audio book is 'something very different from having your parents read a book to you, which I think is a really, really good thing if at all possible,' said Professor John Mullan to the Guardian. 'An audiobook is unresponsive and implacable. There’s no possible exchange or rapport, however brilliantly read it is.'
Audio books can be 'a portal to a love of books' though they're not a substitute. But how fortunate we are to have so many means of accessing stories, research and opinion in great writing today.
Thank you for reading.