Audio Bliss

I'm driving to Texas on Saturday. The prospect of a 12 hour drive isn't that thrilling, but I'll tell you what is: 36 hours worth of jolly good audiobooks. It's been a long dry stretch, having tried and rejected several duds in the past month, but I'm now restocked and ready to go. Here's what's on the playlist:

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith
Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

I've listened to enough of all three to know they'll be winners. (Well, I'm not sure about Kafka, but I liked the first chapter. We'll have to see where it goes from there.)

In case you're interested, here are the rejects, and why I rejected them. I really should have known better, but I figured they were worth a try:

I Heard that Song Before - Mary Higgins Clark
Double Take - Catherine Coulter
True Evil - Greg Iles

I've perhaps said before that I have a higher tolerance for a bad read in print than I do on audio. I think because for me it takes more concentration to listen than to read. If I'm reading and my mind drifts, I can easily skip back to what I missed. It's more trouble to do that with an audiobook.

And the performer can really make or break an audiobook. True Evil is read by Dick Hill, a popular award-winning performer, but I just didn't like his characters. Double Take is performed by a man and woman, and I usually don't like multi-cast books--the transitions between characters are too abrupt for me, though I'm probably in the minority on this one. Finally, despite these authors' popularity, I don't think any of them are great writers, and the writing was too distracting for me to enjoy the book.

You can check out my list of recently read books for other audiobooks I've enjoyed (since we just established that I'm not going to finish it if I don't enjoy it).