Sunday, January 25, 2009

I have been a listener of books for about 4 years now.  It started when my commute averaged more than two hours a day.  I was going stir crazy.  I would listen to the radio and it seemed like there was either a DJ talking about something that he knew nothing about, but needed to fill air time or there was a commercial.  I needed something to occupy that time.  Something that would stimulate my brain or entertain me.  I had a friend at work who just signed up with a service that gave him the ability to download a couple of book a month and listen to them.  He gave me his sign on so I could try it out.  Next month I signed my self up.  There was a promotion going on at the time where if I signed up for a year contract I would get an discount on an Ipod.  If I remember correctly I only had to pay $30 for it the Ipod.  It was the best thing I did.  I think if money got tight I would cut out cable before my books.   

The site I use to get my books is www.audible.com

Besides books I also get a daily subscription to audible news papers.  I mostly listen to the New York Times, but on occasion listen to the Wall Street Journal.  This allows me to stay caught up on current events.

At first I would only listen to non fiction books, but as time went on I found that I had a tendency to listen to science fiction books.  Growing up I didn't do much reading.  So before this I couldn't have told you what my preference of books was.  I didn't realize how much I was missing by not reading (listening) to books.  It is amazing how much you learn through them.  Your vocabulary increases.  Your sense of of human nature increases and your perspective of sociological issues also is greater.

In the coming days/weeks I will be posting mini book reviews over some of my favorite books I have listened to.  Below is a list of all the books I have listened to up until now.  

If you have any questions or comments about the books please post.

List of Books
  • Einstein's Dreams Alan Lightman
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything (Unabridged)  Bill Bryson
  • Out of the Silent Planet (Unabridged)  C.S. Lewis 
  • Till We Have Faces (Unabridged)  C.S. Lewis 
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Unabridged)  C.S. Lewis 
  • Prince Caspian (Unabridged)  C.S. Lewis 
  • The Horse and His Boy (Unabridged)  C.S. Lewis  
  • Eragon (Unabridged),  Christopher Paolini  
  • Brisingr  Christopher Paolini 
  • The Road (Unabridged)  Cormac McCarthy 
  • Angels and Demons (Unabridged)  Dan Brown 
  • Digital Fortress (Unabridged)  Dan Brown 
  • Deception Point (Unabridged)  Dan Brown 
  • Odd Thomas (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • Forever Odd (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz
  • Fear Nothing (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • Life Expectancy (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • Sole Survivor  Dean Koontz 
  • Mr. Murder (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • Brother Odd (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • Seize the Night (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • Ticktock (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • The Darkest Evening of the Year (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • One Door Away from Heaven (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • Odd Hours (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • Strangers (Unabridged)  Dean Koontz 
  • The Thirteenth Tale (Unabridged)  Diane Setterfield 
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Unabridged)  Douglas Adams 
  • The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Unabridged)  Douglas Adams 
  • Blasphemy  Douglas Preston 
  • Never Change  Elizabeth Berg 
  • Dune (Unabridged)  Frank Herbert   
  • Children of Dune (Unabridged)  Frank Herbert 
  • Son of a Witch (Unabridged)  Gregory Maguire 
  • Genghis Khan (Unabridged)  Harold Lamb 
  • The Open Door by Mrs. J.H. Riddell  
  • The Glorious Cause  Jeff Shaara 
  • Give Me a Break  John Stossel 
  • The Traveler (Unabridged)  John Twelve Hawks 
  • America (The Audiobook)  Jon Stewart and The Writers of The Daily Show 
  • The Pillars of the Earth (Unabridged)  Ken Follett 
  • World Without End (Unabridged)  Ken Follett 
  • Hidden Empire (Unabridged)  Kevin J. Anderson 
  • A Forest of Stars (Unabridged)  Kevin J. Anderson 
  • Horizon Storms (Unabridged)  Kevin J. Anderson 
  • Scattered Suns (Unabridged)  Kevin J. Anderson 
  • Of Fire and Night (Unabridged)  Kevin J. Anderson 
  • Metal Swarm (Unabridged)  Kevin J. Anderson 
  • The Ashes of Worlds (Unabridged)  Kevin J. Anderson 
  • The Kite Runner (Unabridged)  Khaled Hosseini 
  • Harsh Cry of the Heron (Unabridged)  Lian Hearn 
  • Heaven's Net Is Wide (Unabridged)  Lian Hearn 
  • The Giver (Unabridged)  Lois Lowry 
  • An Act of God by Melville Davisson Post  
  • Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-65  Michael Beschloss State of Fear (Unabridged)  Michael Crichton 
  • The Best of Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine (Unabridged)  Michael Swanwick, Adam-Troy Castro, Jerry Oltion, Stephen Baxter, Pat Forde, and more 
  • Neverwhere (Unabridged)  Neil Gaiman 
  • Speaker for the Dead (Unabridged)  Orson Scott Card 
  • Xenocide (Unabridged)  Orson Scott Card 
  • Children of the Mind (Unabridged)  Orson Scott Card 
  • Empire (Unabridged)  Orson Scott Card 
  • Ender in Exile  Orson Scott Card 
  • The Republic  Plato Symposium (Unabridged)         
  • Altered Carbon (Unabridged)  Richard K. Morgan 
  • Broken Angels (Unabridged)  Richard K. Morgan 
  • Woken Furies (Unabridged)  Richard K. Morgan 
  • Spin (Unabridged)  Robert Charles Wilson 
  • The Eye of the World (Unabridged)  Robert Jordan 
  • The Great Hunt (Unabridged)  Robert Jordan 
  • The Dragon Reborn (Unabridged)  Robert Jordan 
  • The Shadow Rising (Unabridged)  Robert Jordan 
  • The Fires of Heaven (Unabridged)  Robert Jordan 
  • Lord of Chaos (Unabridged)  Robert Jordan 
  • The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches (Unabridged)  Robert Stanek 
  • Water for Elephants (Unabridged)  Sara Gruen 
  • The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I    Stephen King 
  • The Drawing of the Three: The Dark Tower II    Stephen King 
  • The Waste Lands: The Dark Tower III (Unabridged)  Stephen King 
  • Wizard and Glass: The Dark Tower IV (Unabridged)  Stephen King 
  • Wolves of the Calla: Dark Tower V (Unabridged)  Stephen King 
  • Song of Susannah: The Dark Tower VI (Unabridged)  Stephen King 
  • The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower VII (Unabridged)  Stephen King  
  • Bag of Bones (Unabridged)  Stephen King 
  • Duma Key (Unabridged)  Stephen King 
  • The Talisman (Unabridged)  Stephen King and Peter Straub 
  • Black House (Unabridged)  Stephen King and Peter Straub 
  • Twilight (Unabridged)  Stephenie Meyer 
  • New Moon (Unabridged)  Stephenie Meyer 
  • Eclipse: The Twilight Saga, Book 3 (Unabridged)  Stephenie Meyer 
  • Breaking Dawn (Unabridged)  Stephenie Meyer 
  • Freakonomics: Revised Edition (Unabridged)  Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner 
  • The Art of War (Unabridged)  Sun-Tzu, translation by John Minford 
  • The World Is Flat: Updated and Expanded (Unabridged)  Thomas L. Friedman 
  • Man's Search for Meaning (Unabridged)  Viktor E. Frankl 
  • Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time (Unabridged)  Will Durant










10 comments:

  1. Man's Search for Meaning was excellent.

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  2. That's a long list of books and long commute for a lot of years. Doing the math: it takes roughly 80 hours (2 months commute time) per book. That’s not bad. Have you listened to any twice?

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  3. I saw 5 in your list that I read and some others that might have or were just similar. I noticed you read/listened to the second set of the Ender series by Orson Scott Card. Did you ever read Ender's game? The first of the series? That one was good.

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  4. I am up and running on the webiste you recommended. I will be trying an audio book out in the next day or two. Thanks.

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  5. I have downloaded two audio books. "Getting to Yes", which is a business negotiations book. Also, "7 Highly Effective People". I am really looking forward to listening to both books.

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  6. You have me motivated to run to the library and get an audio book. I have read a few on your list. Years ago I had the audio of Angela's Ashes and I really enjoyed listening to Frank McCord.

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  7. This is awesome. I will go to my local library 1st and try it out. Do I need to get an iPod in order to get the download? Not sure where I am to download the book to in order for me to listen to it. I assume that once I decide to do this, that there will be instructions on how and where to download.

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  8. The easiest way to listen to these books are through an Ipod or other MP3 player. You can also burn them to a CD, but that does take a little more work. I just bought a car last Aug. that allows you to link you Ipod directly up to the car stereo. That really makes it simple. Before I was using a tape deck device that connected to the Ipod.

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  9. Robert Stanek? You fell for all the fake reviews that he wrote himself on audible.com? Just google Stanek and fraud and you'll find out about his self promotional techniques.

    by the way - his audio books are self published and he does all the reading ... they are not available on CD

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