Reading in the Car

Since I am in the car for nearly 4 hours a day, I have to make the most of my time there in order to keep away the demons of boredom and sloth. Initially I found myself listening to music, but I don't really have a large selection on my iPod, so this quickly became monotonous. Next I discovered podcasts, and I tried to keep up with the latest news and other NPR programming thru this medium, and for the most part, it was entertaining and enlightening. I even tried the first 25 episodes of a wonderful program of Radio Lingua where I hoped to teach myself Spanish, but I realized, months later, that this would require some home-study, and I don't have time for that, so my Spanish education stagnated. Finally I remembered that our local library has a selection of books on CD.

This started when Shirra pointed out that we had an audio version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." I gobbled up that book and quickly ventured over to the library. In less than two months, I've devoured audio books at a rate of about two per week. Without further ado, my list so far:

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams). Hysterical.

2. Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar (Cathcart). Very funny; a great source of jokes, most of which were new to me.

3. Blaze (Steven King). Similar to "Of Mice and Men" but from the viewpoint of the retarded man.
4. Carrie (King). Awesome -- much better than the movie. Sissy Spacek read the book version, by the way.
5. The Gunslinger. Not my cuppa.

6. the curious incident of the dog in the night-time (Mark Haddon). I had read this book 3 times and still love the story enough to hear it again.

7. Bare Bones (Kathy Reichs). This is the first book in the series that led to the "Bones" show on TV. It was a fun read but is quite different from the television series.

8. Undead and Unreturnable (Davidson). This was an ultra-hip book about the modern vampire; quite sexy.

9-12. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (Andrew McCall Smith). I've now listened to five of the books in this wonderful series, tho not in order. The books stand alone and are just as fun out of sequence. I think the best of the bunch is "Blue Shoes and Happiness, which is one of the later ones.

Who knew that driving could make a person so literate?