Audiobooks

Back in the summer of 2013, I was postpartum and unhappy about having to go back to work. I despised my commute which could stretch upwards to three hours a day. I felt like I was slowly losing my mind. I listened to political talk radio. I listened to independent radio. I listened to sports talk. I listened to NPR. I listened to nothing. Each choice was good for a small stretch of time, but soon the existential despair of the reality of my drive would creep upon me once more. Recovering from childbirth on leave gave me a brief respite from the grind and also a keen understanding of the sacrifices my job and commute demanded from me. So, as I said, I was unhappy about having to go back to work.

I had seen that Darwin listened to audiobooks during his commutes and I decided this was a fine idea to ease the boredom and despair. Before my return to work, I visited our local library, signed up for my own card, and began browsing their audiobook selections. It turns out this is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I am now in my final weeks of working and I am currently listening to what I think will be my last book while commuting. The addition of audiobooks to my commute transformed it from a soul-destroying daily life suck into an inconvenience that, at least, comes with entertainment. I listened to books that I would have never had time to read on paper. I am also, by nature, more of an aural learner so listening played right into my strengths. I listened to descriptions my eyes would have glazed over and more fully imbibed the stories than if I had only been reading. I am so grateful to have stumbled upon this way to pass the time.

Here is my list of audiobooks that have made my commute so much more bearable:

2013

• 1776 by David McCullough, read by David McCullough
• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson, read by Boyd Gaines
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, read by Sissy Spacek
• His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J Ellis, read by Nelson Runger
• Emma by Jane Austen, read by Wanda McCaddon
• Sum It Up: 1,098 Victories, A Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective by Pat Head Summitt and Sally Jenkins, Read by Sally Jenkins
• Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick, read by Chris Sorensen
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, read by Alexander Scourby

2014

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, read by Josephine Bailey
• Mere Christianity  by C.S. Lewis, read by Geoffrey Howard
• The Great Divorce  by C.S. Lewis, read by Robert Whitfield
• The Screwtape Letters  by C.S. Lewis, read by Joss Ackland
• The Problem of Pain  by C.S. Lewis, read by James Simmons
• Sense and Sensibility  by Jane Austen, read by Wanda McCaddon
• Silas Marner  by George Eliot, read by Rosalyn Landor
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles  by Thomas Hardy, read by Stephen Thorne
• Cheaper by the Dozen  by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, read by Dana Ivey
• Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir, read by Maggie Mash
• Animal Farm by George Orwell, read by Patrick Tull
• The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck, read by Anthony Heald
• The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien, read by Rob Inglis
• The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien, read by Rob Inglis
• The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien, read by Rob Inglis
• 1984 by George Orwell, read by Richard Brown>
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, read by William Hope and Laurel Lefkow
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, read by Karen Savage
• The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, read by Ian McKellen
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, read by Alfred Molina
• The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory, read by Bianca Amato and Graeme Malcolm
• Beowulf Translated by Francis B. Gummere read by Rosalyn Landor
• James Madison: A Life Reconsidered by Lynne Cheney, read by Eliza Foss
• Inferno by Dante, translated by Benedict Flynn, read by Heathcote Williams

2015

• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, read by Donada Peters
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, read by Jeremy Irons
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, read by Kate Reading
• The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones, read by John Curless
• Middlemarch by George Eliot, read by Juliet Stevenson
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, read by Michael Page
• Great Expectations By Charles Dickens, read by Martin Jarvis
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, read by Davina Porter
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, read by Tom Casaletto
• The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, read by Donada Peters
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville, read by Anthony Heald