Pocket Change - Shopping Blog

I hate driving (see my bio to know why). So when I traded my 15 minute commute job for a 40 minute trip, I decided I needed a way to make the time pass without freaking out in freeway traffic. The solution: books on CD. It’s been a while since anyone read me a story so I was concerned that I’d have a hard time concentrating. However, after 3 months of listening, I’ve discovered a whole new world of books that I’d never considered before. My first book, 1776, by David McCullough was the perfect listen as I drove home in the Bay Area’s winter of 2006 torrential rains. If our Revolutionary War soldiers could plod through battlefields streaking the snow red with their bloody bare feet, then I could surely cope with crawling traffic in my heated mobile cocoon. More recently, I moved on to some recorded mysteries like my first Richard North Patterson thriller, Honeymoon.

I’m tempted to sign up for Simply Audiobooks where for $9.95/month and up, I can have the latest bestsellers sent to me, like Netflix. It sounds like a great deal but the public library is a better one–it’s still free. And, because my local library has limited offerings, I’ve been forced to discover new genres like Chick Lit and History that I wouldn’t ordinarily read. Most libraries also allow you to request books on CD that aren’t in stock and reserve them for a small fee. So, traffic roll on: I’m catching up on my reading.

Mimi