When I think of summer, two things that come to mind are Summer Reading (aaaargh!)
and long adventurous road trips, or at least increased time in a car (beach, here I come!)
Sure, there are plenty of ways to get your summer reading done, and ways to pass time on a cartrip, but why not combine the two for maximum productivity and enjoyment? Get your summer reading on audiobook, and listen to it on the go! Some things that are great about this are:
1. Audiobooks are read by the pros! Hearing a really great reader do all the character's voices can make a plot that might be dull or difficult to follow leap of the page.
2. You can be doing other things and still absorbing the story. Keep your hands busy weeding the garden, and listen to a story at the same time. This helps BOTH activities seem less like a chore, and you will be amazed by how fast the time and the book pass!
3. Hearing a book outloud educates you about tricky pronunciations.
4. Listening to a story will draw other people in. You might be surprised to find younger siblings, parents, and friends eager to hear what happens next. You might even get a chance to talk to them about the book, and nothing will help you remember it more than a discussion!
5.There's a reason that radio shows were so popular before television. Hearing a story allows you to use your imagination, and you might find yourself swept away (as a word of caution, I find it very creepy to listen to scary stories on long drives alone at night...)
And audiobooks aren't just for assigned reading. We have lots of great books on CDs of our most popular titles. We also have a growing collection of Playaways, single-text MP3 players that allow you to listen to a title the same way you would listen to music, but without the extra step of downloading an audiobook to your MP3 player-- it's all already there for you! And for those "old school" fans like myself whose cars don't have this newfangled CD technology, we even still have books on tape!
Here in no particular order is a quick list of some of my favorite audiobooks, read by some truly talented people:
1. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
2. A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
3. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
4. Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr all by Christopher Paolini
5. All the Harry Potter books-- even if you've already read them, reader Jim Dale will make them come alive in a whole new way!
6. Anything by Bill Bryson-- he's hilarious!
7. The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
8. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
9. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
10. The Absoluetly True Diary of a Part-time Indian
happy listening!
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