Vacation Reading?

I was unsuccessful in my quest to read lots and lots and lots of books during my week on the beach. I blame that on the 900 page behemoth I brought with me. That book was rather unwieldy to read on the beach, but at least the story was worth the length.

Lucky for me, I learned something new. I like audio books!

Normally, while on a road trip, entertain myself with crossword puzzles, NPR, and radio music. The Boyfriend, on the other hand, has always listened to audio books. I was game to try his tradition. He loaded up three audio books to his iPod from the local/state library databases (Score one for an awesome library service) and off to the beach we went.

We started our trip with a Hamish Macbeth novel by M.C. Beaton (a classic road trip selection, sayeth The Boyfriend). It took me awhile to get into the whole vibe of listening to an audio book, but overtime it got easier. Let me tell you, being stuck in traffic on I-95 for 3 hours was never more enjoyable.

From now on, I'm going the audio book route. The time spent in the car was much more enjoyable. In fact, on the drive home, I aws silently rooting for traffic so that I could hear the conclusion of The Lightning Thief. (Too bad the Beltway cleared up. We had to listen to the story as we unpacked the next day.)

The one thing I will do before the next road trip is preview all the books. The better the narrator the better the ride. It's difficult to get into a story when you're too busy giggling at the character voices the narrator makes. Or, even worse, trying to figure out what happens when a narrator switches the character's voice.

Are you an audio book reader? If so, do you have any recommendations for me? I think I need to start stockpiling a list of good listens.