If I’m not working or around other people, more often than not, I want to be reading. The rise in availability of audiobooks has made this easier to achieve. One can read a physical book when stationary, then listen to an audiobook when driving, tidying up, walking or otherwise in motion. I like to get the same book in both formats for complete immersion: read the book over breakfast, switch to the audiobook on the stereo while getting ready for work, listen on headphones during my commute.
My fall-asleep routine always, inviolably, involves reading either a physical or Kindle book. It’s so effective a soporific that most nights I struggle to read for more than 10 minutes, which is both satisfying and maddening. I’ve tried falling asleep to audiobooks, but there’s something about it that’s too passive. It’s almost as if I need to be actively engaged in the pursuit of staying awake in order to fall asleep. Reading a physical book in bed, my eyes and hands and even bent knees against which the book is resting are all enlisted in the reading process, a warrior pose against sleep. But sleep always wins.
I came across this piece in The Times the other day, “Audiobooks to Lull You to Sleep.” I was intrigued, even though I’d already established that such a practice was not for me. That phrasing, that promise “to lull you to sleep,” shifted the idea of the presleep audiobook for me. As children, we were sung lullabies, read bedtime stories. Once children outgrow these parental ministrations, they’re on their own. That intimacy of being read to and sung to and having their sleep treated as a precious creative project is finished. (“And not a moment too soon!” I hear exhausted parents cry.) But do we ever outgrow the desire to be lulled, whether by soothing voice or chamomile tea or sleep gummy? I don’t think so.
“Ever fallen asleep to an audiobook?” I asked in one of my group texts. “Duh, most nights,” my friend Natalie responded immediately. She’s partial to whodunits, nothing too complicated. My friend Chris said one of his most vivid reading experiences was of soothing himself to sleep with Stephen King’s “The Outsider” during a bout with Covid. “It was very trippy because I was only ever partially conscious,” he said. “It was like I was dreaming the book.”
Another friend had a list of rules for falling asleep to audiobooks: Choose a book you’ve read before so you’re not overly concerned with following the plot. Use one earbud to listen if you’re worried about keeping a partner awake. Set a sleep timer so you’re not awakened by a particularly animated scene. And the narrator can’t be too dynamic: The experience of Thandiwe Newton reading “War and Peace” was too theatrical for her.
Someone suggested that falling asleep to audiobooks might be hostile to the appreciation of literature. While in my ideal reading scenario I approach a book with intention and the full scope of my concentration, that setup is increasingly unrealistic. I asked Dion Graham, a narrator of audiobooks, including Colson Whitehead’s “Crook Manifesto” and David Grann’s “The Wager,” how he felt about the idea of people falling asleep to his voice. He sees it as a privilege of being an adult: “You get to have a bedtime story any time you want,” he said, adding, “You’re a grown-up, so nobody can tell you you have to go to bed. You can listen all night.”
Elisabeth Egan, who wrote the Times piece on audiobooks for sleep, compared falling asleep to an audiobook to falling asleep to a comforting movie, like “When Harry Met Sally.” I like the idea of art having many applications, of there not being one “right” way to engage with a book or a movie. There’s so much to worry about already.
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THE WEEK IN CULTURE
Theater
CULTURE CALENDAR
🎥 “Challengers” (Friday): This latest movie from Luca Guadagnino, the director of “Call Me by Your Name,” depicts a love triangle that unfurls over more than decade. In 2006, two best friends and tennis players — Art and Patrick — fall for Tashi, another young player (Zendaya). Art and Patrick’s friendship breaks down, and their careers rise and fall.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Whether you’re looking for a showstopping Passover dessert or just a rich, fudgy treat with coffee, Genevieve Ko’s classic flourless chocolate cake will fit the bill. Crackly on top and creamy in the center, this brownielike confection can be whisked together in one bowl, no electric mixer or egg-separating required. It calls for chocolate chips, which eliminates any chopping. But feel free to use whatever good dark chocolate you have on hand; a cocoa percentage of 70 to 78 percent gives it a nice bittersweet balance.
REAL ESTATE
The hunt: After spending decades in Arizona, a couple relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where they hoped to find a home with no stairs and enough space to host family. Which one did they choose? Play our game.
What you get for $1.4 million: A four-bedroom ranch in Boise, Idaho; two acres in Kent, Conn.; and a Tudor Revival cottage in Biltmore Forest, N.C., built in 1927.
What is Highsnobiety? It’s a magazine — and a store, website, production agency and clothing line.
Japan: The village of Yoshida is famous for its steel. To attract visitors, residents invite tourists to help them produce it.
Beginners: The Times spoke with 150 artists, some planning retrospectives and others making their debuts, about the process of starting.
ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER
How to be less sedentary
If you’re anything like me and the millions of other people who have desk jobs, you do a lot of sitting around. But being less sedentary can do wonders for your well-being. Start by carving out small, intentional moments of movement throughout your day. While you don’t need anything new to do that, the right gear makes it much easier to build a habit. Wirecutter’s experts swear by tricks like buying a wobble board for your standing desk, keeping a Hula-Hoop (yes, a Hula-Hoop!) in your home office and using a fitness tracker to remind you to stand. No matter how you decide to get moving, take a lap — it’s good for you. — Annemarie Conte
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Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, N.B.A. playoffs: The Knicks are a No. 2 seed in the East after their best regular season in over a decade. The team’s core — Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo — were college teammates and close friends at Villanova. Their style is tough, defensive, exhausting. Brunson, in particular, has emerged as a star: He scored 40 or more points in 11 games this season, good for second-most in the league. 6 p.m. Eastern today on ESPN
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