Literate Housewife’s Jennifer Conner and The Armchair Audies

A big welcome today to our first official Blog Friend, Jennifer Conner of Literate Housewife!

Those who are fans of both social media and audiobooks have likely heard of Literate Housewife. Jennifer Conner’s blog is a whirl of activity with reviews all around and well-known narrators popping in and out. Jennifer reviews print format as well but I always find ample audiobook content to keep me around a while when I stop by.

The Audie Awards ceremony is scheduled for later this  week on May 30th. As the audio industry has prepared for the big night over the past few months, Jennifer and a team of audiobook enthusiasts have been preparing as well for the Armchair Audies. She’ll be telling us more about that in her interview but I want to take a minute first and tell our readers that Jennifer’s Armchair Audies were recently featured in Library Journal and even made the cover!

The Armchair Audies team has now completed their task for 2013 and, along with many other audiobook fans, will be following the Audies ceremony on Thursday night armed with their Armchair Audies ballot. I’ll be traveling home from the Audio Publishers Association Conference (held immediately before the Audie Awards) but I already have that ballot on my phone ready to follow the winners’ announcements through Twitter.

Now let’s welcome the Literate Housewife, Jennifer Conner, as our first Blog Friend!

Lea: Welcome Jennifer to AudioGals!

Jennifer: Thank you so much AudioGals for inviting me to be with you today and for me to be your Blogger Friend. I am beyond thrilled! I couldn’t be happier than when I’m with audiobook lovers.

Lea: When did you start Literate Housewife? Can you tell us about your site?

Jennifer: Literate Housewife began in January of 2007. As a mother with young children I made my New Year’s Resolution to do something just for me. I chose to read 52 books that year and I started my blog to keep myself honest. It had another name to begin with and when it morphed into an honest to God book blog my husband helped me come up with the more appropriate name it has today.

I’ve reviewed a total of 507 books so far. Over the years my reading habits have ebbed and flowed, so the content has done the same thing. I’ve also learned quite a bit about myself and what my boundaries are as a blogger as a result of trying new things. I definitely have limitations given my family life and my career.

The best thing about Literate Housewife is the relationships I’ve had the opportunity to develop over the years with people I would never have met otherwise. This has been so important to me. Blogging has given me a sense of family that was missing in my life since I live so far away from my biological family. Oh, and the squee-worthy, “I can’t believe I just met X!” connections I’ve had the good fortune to make are fun, too.

Thinking about it today, Literate Housewife still provides me with the same thing today that I was hoping to find with that original New Year’s Resolution. It’s a place for me to be myself outside of my roles at home and at work. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the entire world.

Lea: Writing the Speaking of Audiobooks column for the past four years and starting up AudioGals last year with two audio friends have both been extremely satisfying experiences. But it takes a lot of energy – continually – and we only write about audiobooks! How long have you been listening to audiobooks?

Jennifer: I started listening to audiobooks toward the end of 2008. It was out of desperation, really. There was a horrific bedtime routine with my daughters and I spent a good amount of time in their dark room waiting for them to fall asleep. At the time I looked down on audiobooks. I openly admit that I was ignorant and thought of them as a form of cheating, not on the same level as reading the Cliff’s Notes, but you get the picture. Since I couldn’t read a physical book during those awful, awful nights, I thought I could pick up the audiobook version of those books I didn’t have time for in print. It didn’t take long at all before I realized the error of my ways. The right mix of narrator and book makes for an experience every bit as rich, meaningful, and memorable as the most significant books I’ve read in print. If it weren’t for audiobooks, 2010 would have been an absolutely awful year. Today my kids go to sleep by themselves (hooray!) and I’m thankful to have audiobooks and the audiobook community as part of my life.

Lea: Oh, we could talk on and on about your discovery of  how audiobooks can enrich our lives but I’ll save that for another time…

Can you give us some background on the Armchair Audies?

Jennifer: As an audiobook convert, I wasn’t satisfied with happily enjoying audiobooks. I wanted to know all about them. I discovered Audiobook Week and June is Audiobook month through Jen from Devourer of Books. It really got me excited. It wasn’t until 2011 that the Audie Awards caught my attention. By then I was a dedicated Simon Vance fan and I happened to be on Twitter when people were live tweeting the Audie Award event. I have fond memories of coming up with my own unique Audie categories and tweeting the winner (which always happened to be Simon Vance…) that night. I was ready for the real thing last year.

I wanted the 2012 Audie Awards to be more meaningful to me as a listener and fan. I wanted to have an Audie Award ballot and make my own predictions just as I would do for the Oscars. After seeing the list for the first time, the huge number of categories, and nominated audiobooks I was at a loss as to how to make it happen. I was tweeting about it with Tanya from dog eared copy and Bob from The Guilded Earlobe and through those conversations the idea of selecting categories to judge came out and the Armchair Audies was born.

Lea: It took me a few years to pay attention to the Audie Awards as I felt they were out of sync with listeners top choices. Therefore, I closely watched (and admired) your Armchair Audies in action last year. How were your 2012 results?

Jennifer: Last year we really flew by the seat of our pants. We didn’t even have our own site. I had created a page on my blog to house the challenge. Even still, there was a lot of enthusiasm from fellow bloggers. In the end, we judged 15 of the categories. I loved creating our ballot and marking it off as each of the actual awards were announced. I thought we did a fantastic job.

Lea: How many are involved in the Armchair Audies this year?

Jennifer: This year we have more categories being judged. We announced selections in 16 categories, including Audiobook of the Year. Another interesting development is that we have several categories where more than one blogger signed up. This made this year more fun and challenging. I enjoyed getting a sneak peak at how each group approached making a selection. Posting the ballot this year made me proud.

This year we had both our own blog and Facebook fan page, which made the whole event feel more official. While the awards haven’t been announced yet this year, I’m looking forward to next year. I’ve got ideas for adding at least one of our own categories to the mix. If anyone is interested in joining our audiobook challenge next year, please feel free to contact me.

Lea: Thanks for joining us today! I’m betting many listeners will be using your Armchair Ballot on Thursday evening. And thanks for making the Audie Awards an everyday listener’s experience as well.

To our listeners, check out Literate Housewife’s page here at AudioGals for all contact info.

For those following the Audie Awards, Xe Sands will be live-tweeting the Audies as awards are announced. She kept me informed last year and I’ll be following her announcements again this Thursday. Look for @xesands with hashtag #Audies.