My reading challenge for this year challenged me to "read" an audiobook, which is 100% outside of my comfort zone. I'd heard Aziz Ansari read his own book, Modern Romance, as an audiobook, and there is just something about the way he speaks that can always crack me up.

So I took a leap of faith and downloaded Audible. Since I had never been a customer before, I could get my first month and book for free. I can't tell you a lot about Audible, because I literally deleted it as soon as I finished the book, because I knew I would never use it again. I struggle to hear sometimes, and literally watch tv with subtitles on, so I knew listening to a book wasn't going to be my cup of tea.

When I started listening to the book, Aziz Ansari literally had my laughing out loud on my drive to work because he basically starts the book by telling you how lazy you are for not reading it. I knew that if I were to enjoy any audiobook, it would be this one.

I was really surprised by what the book was. I've read books by Tina Fey, Amy Schumer, and Mindy Kaling - all of their books were written in a similar format: short essay-type chapters about their lives. I assumed this would be something pretty equal to those books. I was wrong.

Modern Romance is actually a well-written humor-induced case study. Ansari actually hosted surveys and focus groups. He did research to write a book on how modern technology has effected dating and relationships. While he obviously threw in some hilarious anecdotes (and commentated on things throughout the book), this book was a well-written research paper type study that I would use to cite sources for class. Seriously.

I heard that I missed out on some pretty awesome graphics, but I feel like I actually got something a little extra by listening to this particular book than I would have gotten from actually reading it. I was really impressed by how smart and unexpected this book was and I actually would recommend it to others - and in the audio format, no less.

Have you read Modern Romance? Have you listened to it? It was definitely a fun and different experience to and from work each day for about a week. Oddly, I don't regret listening to this audiobook, but I don't foresee myself listening to more books anytime in the future.