Pretty crazy story right? Leonardo DiCaprio told Avatar and Terminator writer/director James Cameron he doesn’t read. Now the question is, does he just not read or does he not know how to read? We’re not haters here, reading is hard, I don’t really read either Leo, I listen to audiobooks, happy to recommend a few if needed. This isn’t new with actors, Lea Michele faced these same rumors recently. Maybe you’re a better actor if you’re illiterate? Should I try my hand at acting?

I’m not sure why this isn’t getting more coverage? If you don’t believe us watch the clip yourself, it’s a direct quote! (around 3:07 mark):

He says, “you mean I’m reading? oh I don’t read.”

Perhaps we took it a bit out of context, but nonetheless, how about the balls on Leo? This isn’t the Leo we know today, this isn’t the Departed, Blood Diamond, and Inception, Leo. This is and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and ecstasy popping Romeo in Romeo + Juliet, Leo. To walk into a meeting for a movie they’re about to spend $200 million on and drop your nuts on the table and say, ‘nah, I’m not trying out’, as a 21-year old actor no less, certainty takes some confidence. That type of cockiness either makes you a leading man for the rest of your life or labeled an arrogant asshole who is blackballed from Hollywood, no inbetween.

I’m glad it worked out and he eventually did ‘read’.  I did the same thing in 8th grade and finally passed remedial English class after the 3rd attempt, and look at both of us now!

Sorry this blog was rough, it’s Monday, “I don’t read” on Monday’s! Check out our other blogs or reach out to us.

If you’re like me, and I assume you are (I may be the only one actually reading this), you find it hard to carve out time to read everyday. We’re all super busy with life and unfortunately reading often gets pushed to the back burner. But that is what makes audiobooks so great, they allow you to multitask and still squeeze in “reading” even when you’re busy. (Okay, in all honesty I can barely read, that’s why I listen to audiobooks, I have loads of free time.) 

First to address the elephant in the room – listening to audiobooks is still ‘reading’. We wrote a non-biased, non-defensive blog on this very subject already. Audiobook listeners should never have to apologize for multitasking and still enjoying books! We’ve been persecuted too long!

Any way, to the list of best places, we’re going to rank them since that’ll make it a bit more fun. So here are the top 5 places to listen to audiobooks (strong likelihood these change in the future):

#5 – Cooking/Preparing a Meal

This isn’t going to be for everyone – but resident chef and cooking expert D-man (follow along here) swears by it. As he says “Audiobooks allow me to multitask and do what I love most: cooking and reading books. I also love to ‘cook the books’, so if there is anyone out that needs help with committing fraud feel free to reach out.” For the average folk who needs to strictly follow directions and has no idea what they’re doing in the kitchen audiobook listening and cooking may be a bit much. Or you might say… It’d be like throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the equation. It’d create a situation where there are just too many cooks in the kitchen… But if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

#4 – Playing Video Games

Another one that probably isn’t for everyone but this is a great life hack. Do you like playing mindless video games after a long day of work, but always feel bad about ‘wasting time’? Throw on an audiobook and still kill those zombies but feel more productive while doing it. If only audiobooks were an option when I was growing up, I could have been crushing reading assignments whilst playing some GoldenEye. Things would have been so different… I would have been class president, valedictorian and a star football player had I only known this. Instead I actually did the reading assignments while not playing GoldenEye and here I am today.

#3 – Hiking

This one may be a bit controversial but as someone that has never been a big hiker this changed the game. Biggest issue with hiking is it is a bit repetitive, for someone that needs constant stimuli, longer activities that don’t involve competition were always tough for me to get into. Adding the challenge of the hike + the enjoyment of a good audiobook really made things a lot more fun. Some will say ‘why would you be listening to something, you should be enjoying the sounds of nature’, to that I say, ‘the sounds of nature are for the birds (literally)’. A lot of people listen to music, a lot of people hike with friends (must be nice), but try listening to an audiobook on your next hike and tell me it doesn’t augment the experience.

#2 – The Beach or Pool

Peanut butter and jelly, burger and fries, batman and robin, me and disappointing my parents, the beach and reading. Some of the greatest combinations ever. Nothing like chilling with your feet in the sand/water, beer in hand and audiobook in the headphones. Relaxation personified. We made a whole Best Summer Beach Books blog about this as well. And for those of us who like just to hang out on the beach and get a good tan going (I’m a big tanner myself as we discussed on the Terminal List podcast), a physical book can be quite annoying in this regard. Audiobook allows you to get that golden tan without having to block the sun with your book or worry about straining to read on one particular side (I honestly have no idea if this tanning commentary is right, but I’m going with it).

#1 Commuting to Work

Insert Benny Affleck’s Boston accent: “You know what the best part of my day is?” Answer: the morning commute listening to a good book before having to work. It’s like meditation before a long work day. Hate traffic, hate commuting – listen to an audiobook and change your whole outlook. Packed in like a can of sardines on the subway train on a Monday morning? My mind is in the vast wilderness of Hatchet (and wishing I had a hatchet to create some space…) Your in bumper to bumper traffic? Whatever, my mind is in Hogwarts (probably not the safest thing while driving but I’m just imaging casting the flying charm). Nothing makes a commute easier than a good audiobook and it is the main reason I got back into reading in the first place. So commuting to work will always be the #1 place to listen to audiobooks for me.

Did we miss some places? Let us know reach out to us!

Couple things we need to get out of the way before answering this question. First, I want you to know I come at this completely objectively. I pretty much only listen to audiobooks, I read quite slow and have a reading comprehension that one teacher described as, “Impressive ly poor, see me after class”. So there is absolutely no bias coming from me, I’m not being defensive at all, just straight facts only.

Nextly, you may have seen the title is stated in the form of a question. Betteridge’s law of headlines states “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no. It is based on the assumption that if the publishers were confident that the answer was yes, they would have presented it as an assertion; by presenting it as a question, they are not accountable for whether it is correct or not.” Well Betteridge, I take full accountability and plan to write a follow up article entitled “Do I respect Ian Betteridge and his law of headlines?” We’ll see who blinks first. 

Now to answer the question: Yes, listening to audiobooks is the same thing as reading!  All you literate people can get off your high horse. Someone that listens to an audiobook still completely understands what happened, it’s just a different medium. I compare it to watching a sports event. People that are at the game and people watching it on TV are viewing it through slightly different lenses, however, the content they are consuming is the same, they can still talk about a big play in the game, they still both understand everything that happened. Does being at the game or reading the actual book give you a sense of superiority? Yes, but it doesn’t change the fact that you both were able to enjoy the same entertainment (or hate it depending on the game/book).

Still not convinced? Well, I’m gonna just list out a bunch of other analogies and see if any of them work:

-> Someone writes 2+2 on a chalk board (which you read) or someone asks you what is 2+2 (audiobook), you would never claim the person that answered without seeing the math problem didn’t actually ‘do math’. The answer is 4 by the way, in case anyone was wondering (or 5 if you’ve read 1984).

-> You’re all huddled around the camp fire and someone suggests telling some campfire stories. Would you rather someone regale you with an oral (nice) story or give you a book to read? Another win for audiobooks.

-> You travel to another country what is more valuable being able to read the language or understand people speaking the language? Check mate audiobooks.

-> Would you ever claim that someone that is blind isn’t “reading” because they are “reading” braille? They aren’t using their eyes after all to “read”. Of course not, just because they are interpreting the same story through a different medium doesn’t mean it’s not reading. So the next time someone makes fun of you for listening to an audiobook just tell them “well at least I don’t hate blind people” and leave it at that. 

Plus according to Time Magazine (ever heard of it?) In one study they did they found “no significant differences in comprehension between reading, listening, or reading and listening simultaneously”. One study is good enough for me! Case closed.

There are certainly advantages to reading the physical book, that are undeniable but there are ways to get around this:

Advantages to Reading Physical Books

1. Let’s people in public know you’re smart – Physical books announce to the world ‘look what book I’m reading’, it’s an instant conversation starter (although I found that people hate when I come up and start telling them how I hated the ending of the book they’re reading). Listening to an audiobook? Just casually let it slip to random people in public that you’re not listing to music but an audiobook. “Sorry I couldn’t hear you, I’m really into The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and PS, I Love You” or “I’m listening to The Ghost, it’s much better than The Shadow of the Wind”. No additional context needed.  Feel free to do the same when listening to the BBC Podcast just announce it to the world! 
2. Having a book case to show off your books is pretty awesome – Really no way getting around this fact. Unless… You make a whole podcast and write a ton of blogs to show off about all the books you read. Pretty crazy move though only a couple of real sickos would do something like that…

3. Finishing a physical book – there is something special about literally being able to feel your progress as you work your way through and ultimately finish a long book (for me “long” = any book that isn’t primarily pictures). Audiobooks just don’t really give you that same satisfaction. Need a way to fix this, send us a note let us know about the book you just finished, rant and rave to us (our favorite thing to do). Buddy Book Club is here for you, become one of the buddies today!

Alright this was a lot of rambling, I’ll probably add to this as more great analogies and random thoughts come to me but let us know what you think, reach out to us!

A little late on this blog, my guess is many of our listeners were indulging in some beach reading over the 4th of July weekend. But we have a lot of summer left, plenty of time to crush some summer reading.

What is a ‘Beach Book’ you ask? Really it just needs to be easily digestible, fast-paced, lighthearted, and entertaining. What isn’t a ‘Beach Book’ you ask? Room, Room isn’t a beach book. I wish the book store employee that recommended it before a beach trip had known this. Never has reading on a sunny beach been so depressing.

You want a book that you can put down mid-page jump in the water/crack open a beer and pick right back up 30 minutes later without missing a beat. A book you don’t need to re-read a lot (or re-listen), it just plays like a movie in your head that you can pause at any time. Ideally it’s not too long as well, it’s satisfying to be able to knock out a book or two over a beach weekend.

Without further ado here are some of the BBC favorite beach reads:

City of Thieves by David Benioff- As we described in our Make it a Movie blog – City of Thieves is a mix of action/thriller, buddy comedy and coming of age story, with a war backdrop.

For Who: It’s probably more of a guys read as it’s coming of age story around two newly formed buddies.

Good Reads/Amazon Rating: 4.3 & 4.6/5

Length: 8.5 hours

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid – One of the BBC’s favorite, fast-paced story about a fictional 70’s band that feels way too real. Fun, original, leaves you wanting more.

For Who: Really for anyone, but especially if you have a fondness for the sex, drugs, and rock-roll of the 70s. Highly recommend the audiobook.

Good Reads/Amazon Rating: 4.2 & 4.4/5

Length: 9 hours

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey – a biography/self-help book/poetry collection, a fun easy read.

For Who: If you like Matthew McConaughey and his story-telling, this is a a whole lot of that.

Good Reads/Amazon Rating: 4.2 & 4.7/5

Length: 6.5 hours

Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn – Looking for an action book in the vain of Tom Clancy (but significantly shorter/to the point), look no further, the first book in the Mitch Rapp Series will rope you in. As we described in our Make it a Movie blog – it’s Die Hard in the Whitehouse.

For Who: This is another guy book – you probably won’t find it on any other beach list. We’ve also read Grey Man and Terminal List and while those are good, the Mitch Rapp series, in our opinion, is superior. 

Good Reads/Amazon Rating: 4.3 & 4.7/5

Length: 16.5 hours (but feels way shorter)

Other Beach Book recommendations we haven’t read on the podcast:

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Rabbit Cake by Annie Harnett

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

The Davinci Code by Dan Brown

The NFL Draft is all the rage right now, but the BBC has been following it since day one. We’re not bandwagoners. We’re OG draft enthusiast.  Don’t believe us? Here is the high tech 2005/2006 website myself and few good buddies put together (which ultimately became Draft Analysis).

Everyone is doing a mock draft and draft rankings nowadays, but is anyone combining book content and the draft? I don’t think so, and that is the BBC difference. 

Without further ado, here is BBC’s 2022 Top 20 Draft Prospects and Their Book Character Comparison.

This is a very serious and heavily researched blog.

1. Evan Neal – OT, Alabama is Moby Dick (Moby Dick) – An absolute mammoth of a man, the best pass blocker and overall OT, and should be drafted first overall to the Jaguars (someone please protect Sunshine!) Neal will be the anchor on any offensive line. What does an anchor remind us of? A boat. What is the most popular character on (or outside of a) boat known for it’s size and strength? Moby Dick.

2. Derek Stingley Jr. – CB, LSU is Remus Lupin (Harry Potter) – Stingley has the potential to be a lock down corner and perennial pro-bowler. Super high ceiling. But, like Remus Lupin, there were long stretches where he wasn’t seen (due to injury, not because he is a werewolf). Similar to Lupin, he’s a wizard, and worth the risk.

3. Ahmad Gardner – CB, Cincinnati is Severus Snape (Harry Potter) – Gardner has the tall, skinny, ranginess of Snape and the talent to boot. Like Snape he wasn’t hanging out with all the cool kids from Gryffindor (Alabama and Georgia), but still managed to separate himself from the pack.

4. Kyle Hamilton – S, Notre Dame is Ender Wiggins (Ender’s Game) – The physical characteristics may not match here, as Hamilton has elite size and Ender did not. But the intelligence, leadership, and success at a young age are similar. Both are guys you want leading your defense/attack against an alien race.

5. Kayvon Thibodeaux – DE, Oregon – is Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games) – Katniss scored an 11 at her version of the combine, for her skill with a bow and arrow and her fierce temper. Kayvon would score 11 for his unbelievable first step and explosiveness. Deciding if he is Dion Jordan or Khalil Mack is like picking between Peeta and Gale.

6. Ikem Ekwonu – OT, NC State is Jack Reacher (Lee Child Series) – Like Reacher, Ekwonu is a big powerful dude who just wants to beat up whoever is in front of him. An elite run blocker and effort player. Was it Jack Reacher or Ekwonu that said this quote, “Whoever is in front of me, I just want to bury him”?

7. Travon Walker – DE, Georgia is Mitch Rapp (Vince Flynn Series) – We’ve mentioned on the Buddy Book Club that Mitch Rapp is the best character out there, so this comparison could only go to the likely #1 overall pick. Walker, is pretty much great at everything he does. A jack of all traits, top tier athlete, just like Mitch Rapp in his lacrosse playing days. 

8. Aidan Hutchinson – DE, Michigan is Darrow au Andromedus (Red Rising Series) – Similar to Darrow in stature in his Gold form, Hutchinson is quick, strong, great hands, and agility (probably from dancing like Darrow). Great production his senior year and a sure fire top 5 pick.

9. Jermaine Johnson – DE, FSU is Court Gentry (Mark Greaney Series) – Much like Court, Johnson battled through a lot of adversity going to two different schools, before finally settling in at FSU and dominating. He’s got all the skills and size you look for in a DE, expect him to be laying out QBs like Court lays out terrorists next season.

10. Andrew Booth – CB, Clemson is Harry Potter – Keeping with the theme that cornerbacks are wizards, Booth is right up there with the best of them. He stays on WRs like Harry stays on the golden snitch.  He has come up with some of the best wizard-like interceptions you’ll ever see.  He also happened to go to a prestigious school similar to Hogwarts.

11. Devin Lloyd – LB, Utah is Aragorn (Lord of the Rings Series) – Lloyd’s production and down-hill style of play makes him an easy top 15 talent. Even though the off the ball linebacker spot has been devalued like Aragorn at one point, every group can benefit from the leadership, instinctiveness and aggressiveness that both Lloyd and Aragorn show.

12. Garrett Wilson – WR, Ohio State is Duncan Idaho (Dune) – We describe Wilson, the same way the book Dune describes Duncan Idaho “feline movements, the swiftness of reflex that made him such a difficult weapons teacher to emulate” (that’s a direct quote but honestly it sounds grammatically wrong, but I’m also an idiot and Dune was way over my head.) That’s Garrett Wilson, extremely quick feet, impossible to cover, should be the first WR to come off the board.

13. Devonte Wyatt – DT, Georgia is a Velociraptor (from Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton) – Sticking with defensive tackles being non-human characters in books, Wyatt was part of an absolutely loaded defense and was probably the least talked about player. Like a Velociraptor he is extremely quick and can sniff out the run or get to the QB. A true 3-down DT.

14. Jordan Davis – DT, Georgia is Jaws (Peter Benchley Book) – Huge, scary, ferocious, faster than you can possibly imagine. Are all the ways to describe Jaws and Jordan Davis, who at 6’6″ 341lbs, and ran a 4.78. Stuff of nightmares.

15. Trent McDuffie – CB, Washington is Hermione Granger (Harry Potter) – A smart, instinctive corner with great speed. He makes up for size with hustle and heart. Similar to Hermione in Harry Potter series, McDuffie may be overlooked but is the true talent.

16. Jameson Williams – WR Alabama is Kvothe (Kingkiller Series) – Williams is a smooth, fluid athlete, that put up insane numbers (19.9 YPC). Was likely a top 5 pick before getting injured. Much like Kvothe and the Kingkiller series, super talented and expecting a lot of big things but we’ll need to continue to wait to see more (don’t hold your breath for Kvothe).

17. Tyler Linderbaum – C, Iowa is The Hatchet (from Hatchet )- Linderbaum is a lunch pale type of guy, hard working, under appreciated, interior lineman that likely won’t go until late in the first round. Much like the Hatchet from the book Hatchet, Linderbuam is underappreciated but will always get the job done despite being a bit undersized. But sometimes a hatchet is better than an axe.

18. Chris Olave – WR, Ohio State is James Bond (Ian Fleming Series ) – Fast, great route running, Devonta Smith type WR. He’s fun to watch and got that silky smoothness of a James Bond. Everything he does seems to come easy. Olave, Chris Olave.

19. Zion Johnson – OG, Boston College is The Green Light (in The Great Gatsby) – The Green Light in the Great Gatsby is very symbolic. It represents… (I have no idea, I’ll save that for the scholars). Zion represents that green light, because he’s a constant, a stalwart at his position. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” And we believe in Zion. But really he’s more like a red light because he’s not letting anyone in 🙂 (okay I’m losing it, one more).

20. Drake London – WR, USC is Roland Deschain (Dark Tower Series) – London is a big body WR, with great production and a nice safety blanket for QBs. He’s a guy that doesn’t lose 50/50 balls. His play style is similar to Roland Deschain’s “he prefers not to over-plan his actions, trusting in his instinct and skill at improvising according to the situation” – lot of his best moments are on broken plays or on poor throws.

If anyone actually got to this point, I commend you. Find more insightful and useful blogs here, or check out our episodes here. Happy NFL Draft Day!