This past Fall semester I was driving a lot to my various jobs. I was driving about 85-100 miles a day (round-trip) three days a week, plus about 30-50 miles a day one day a week. And I was still working at the restaurant, etc. So, I decided that the only way to stay awake and not fall asleep as the wheel (though I did see a few accidents on my 405 to the 118 to the 210 or from the 110 to the 91 to 5 to 10 to 210, etc) was to start listening to some books on tape.
I started getting some from the library for free and I listening to
Cutting for Stone, which was a really, really good book. I enjoyed that a lot.
I also listened to this book, which was good in the beginning, but then fell away a little once it was about halfway to three-quarter of the way into it.
I listened to this, which was okay. I liked the premise a bit, but then it sort of fell away.
I started listening to
Anna Karenina, but this book is so long that it's doubled up into two huge albums of CD's at the library. I listened to the first half but when I returned it, the second half was still out. But I just recently downloaded it through audible.com and am listening to it again.
Martin told me about this book and he loved it (and made us watch the trailer of the film a billion times haha) and so I listened to it - it's an interesting concept - six different stories throughout different periods of time and the idea of the soul as connected by all the different characters, etc. It was okay - but I think I'd like reading it better than listening to it.
Martin has also recommended this book over and over (and I've actually owned the book for about three or four years and have tried reading it at least two times, but can't get past the first 100 pages) and so I finally decided to give it a shot audibly. It was still a little tough to get through the beginning (but when you're only listening, you have no choice but to keep listening) and then the middle was really good. I don't know exactly about the ending, but I've kept thinking about it which I guess means it was a good story/book.
Then, we discovered after our Christmas trivia night in December that there was going to be a Harry Potter (books 1-4) trivia night in January. So, I took it upon myself to re-read the first four books to prepare - and this was quite a feat.
I re-read all four within the last seven days and I felt like I was taking the comprehensive exams for my MA all over again. We didn't do so well at trivia (the event was last night) but I am very glad it is over for the moment. Round 2 is at the end of February haha.
So, although I have been driving a lot (and grading, teaching, planning, etc) I have been able to listen to some great books and feel like I'm doing something productive while unproductively just driving miles upon miles.
