My commute is long.  Too long, really.  It takes about 50 minutes to get to work, but I hit traffic in the afternoon, so it can take up to about an hour and a half to get home.  And in the morning, it’s early.  And dark.  And I’m not a morning person.  So I often find myself fighting to stay awake during my commute, both going to work and coming home.

In a state of desperation trying to find some way to stay awake and to enjoy my 2+ hours of driving each day, I decided to try listening to audiobooks.  I had listed to one or two briefly, but really, I preferred to read books rather than to listen to them.  Still, I was desperate.  I had to do something.

Funny thing is, it’s working!  While I’ll always prefer reading books to listening to them, I’m finding that, with an audiobook on a topic that really interests me, it’s generally easier to stay awake.  Huzzah!

The first book I started listening to is David Crystal’s The Story of English in 100 Words.  Now, I get that this is a nerdy choice.  Super-nerdo, in fact.  It’s not everyone’s cup o’ tea.  But for me, it’s awesome.  I love etymology, so this book was perfect.  It presents a broad history of English by examining 100 words and discussing their development and usage and also comparing those words to others that are in some way similar.  I thought it is an awesome way to present the language!

Right now, I’m in the middle of Jon Meacham’s Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, which I heard about a little while ago on either the Daily Show or the Colbert Report (I can’t remember which).  I really enjoy many periods of history, and this book has proved, so far, to be most fascinating.

I’m also actually (slowly) reading a print book, too: Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman.  I’m not very far into it, and it takes me a while to get through printed novels during the school year, but so far it’s good!  I really enjoy crime/mystery novels by Scandinavian authors, so I have high hopes for this, especially as it seems to have won acclaim.

On the horizon?  Well, there’s a new Robert Langdon book coming out in May, so I’ll definitely have to take a look at that, especially as it revolves around Dante’s Inferno.  I also received The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time as a gift, so I have to make time for that one!  This weekend at Barnes and Noble, I spied this as I was checking out, and as I love Sherlock Holmes, I’ll have to pick it up at some point, as will someone else I know (I’m talking to you, Dad!).

So many books, so little time.  Le sigh.