Audio Books Are Great For Road Trips

This year compared to any other in my life has seen me on the road more than ever. From January 1 – October 1, I was home for a total of about 5 weeks. It was hard being away from home, driving tens of thousands of miles, most of them by myself. When I’m on the road, with my own vehicle, I love listening to my XM satellite radio. BPM, 90’s on 9, AltNation, Faction and Raw Dog Comedy have taken me to many faraway places and provided me many hours of entertainment.

However, sometimes I will tire of music or if I’m in a rental car, I won’t have XM so aside from putting music on my phone or bringing cd’s, what are my options?

Well, about 4 months ago, I starting looking into Audio Books. I’ve avoided buying a Kindle or other ereader (including buying books and reading it on my phone, which is basically a small tablet – Samsung Note 3) because I don’t like reading on a tech device – I still prefer books. Although books aren’t the most convenient when traveling due to space limitations and they take up a lot of shelf space at home (my den has become my frisbee and book room), I cannot read while driving so audio books just made sense.

I checked out a few apps but the clear winner for me was Audible. Not only is it free to join, but every month they give you 1 credit which is good for a free audio book. They regularly run promotions and many of their titles are frequently on sale so if you don’t want to pay full price for a book (or avoid paying entirely, it’s easy to do so).

I wanted to also explore new books and avoid getting the audio book version of books I already owned. In searching around, I stumbled upon Douglas Preston, who is a sci fi author, with a huge collection of titles. I also checked out a new Stephen King book I hadn’t heard of and found out another series by Janet Evanovich, which seems to have potential based on the first book I listened to her.

I have also found that as much as I enjoy a certain author, I also really enjoy a certain narrator. So far, my favourite narrators are Scott Sowers, David Colacci and Scott Brick.

I will be updating this post with all of the books I have currently listened to while on the road (and more recently, listening to while doing cardio) and for the books I really loved, I will be writing individual reviews because let’s face it – a good book ignites your imagination and you can’t put the book down (or in this case, turn the speakers off).

 Completed Books

• Stephen King – Mr Mercedes
• Janet Evanovich – Top Secret Twenty-One
• Douglas Preston – Tyrannosaur Canyon
• Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – Relic
• Douglas Preston – The Kraken Project
• Douglas Preston – Blasphemy
• Douglas Preston – Impact
• Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – The Ice Limit
• Jeb Blount – People Buy You
• Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – Mount Dragon
• Charles Duhigg – The Power of Habit
• Tom Rath – How Full Is Your Bucket?
• Matthew McBride – A Swollen Red Sun
• Lincoln Child – Deep Storm
• Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner – When to Rob a Bank
• Douglas Preston – Beyond the Ice Limit
• Janet Evanovich – Smokin’ Seventeen
• David McCullough – The Wright Brothers
• Tim Grover – Relentless
• Gail Blanke – Throw Out Fifty Things
• Aija Mayrock – The Survival Guide to Bullying
• Stephen King – End of Watch
• Stephen King – Finders Keepers
• Janet Evanovich – Explosive Eighteen

In My Library

• Robert Pirsig – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• Christopher Chabris – The Invisible Gorilla
• Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
• Dale Carnegie – How to Win Friends and Influence People
• Simon Sinek – Start With Why
• Susan Cain – Quiet
• David Graeber – Debt
• Harry Beckwith – Selling the Invisible
• Andy Weir – The Martian
• The Hound of the Baskervilles
• George S. Clason – The Richest Man in Babylon
• Neil Rackham – SPIN Selling
• Douglas Preston – The Codex
• Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – Fever Dream
• Douglas Preston – Gideon’s Corpse
• Douglas Preston – Two Graves
• Douglas Preston – Gideon’s Sword
• Douglas Preston – Blue Labyrinth
• Douglas Preston – The Lost Island
• Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – Cold Vengeance
• Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – White Fire
• Douglas Preston – Extraction
• Lincoln Child – Utopia
• Lincoln Child – Terminal Freeze
• Lincoln Child – The Third Gate
• Douglas Preston – Cemetery Dance
• Lincoln Child – Death Match
• Jeffrey Deaver – The Starling Project
• A.G. Riddle – The Atlantis Gene
• Tim Krieder – We Learn Nothing
• Hans Christian Andersen – The Snow Queen
• Oren Klaff – Pitch Anything
• Jack Schafer – The Like Switch
• Ryan Holiday – Ego is the Enemy
• Chuck Klosterman – Eating the Dinosaur
• Ken Blanchard – The One Minute Manager
• Thich Nhat Hanh – Savor: Mindful Eating