“The point is getting to and enjoying the destination. The point is not how you traveled.”(TLDR: Listening to audiobooks is not cheating.)
Listening to someone read aloud, or being told a tale, feels soothing and familiar. My mama read to me. My best teachers read to me. Many of my fond memories include reading aloud, sharing a story with those I care about. This is not a complete list, but is perhaps 80% comprehensive. Included are titles I’m not particularly proud of having consumed (e.g., E.L. James, dieting and self-help, that unfortunate Sookie phase), but also includes some of the titles and authors that have most moved me, Lucia Berlin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Doyle, Ruth Ozeki; see “Favorites” below.
Short responses to the book, which don’t usually include a summary from me, but which do include a link to GR (Goodreads), are available at hyperlinked titles. Slowly going back to the pre-2016 titles to fill in responses, as well as doing my best to keep up with current responses.
Forthcoming Responses:
Favorites:
- Lucia Berlin
- Emily Brady
- Humboldt: Life on America’s Marijuana Frontier GR
- Octavia E. Butler
- Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Brian Doyle
- William Faulkner
- Light in August GR
- Neil Gaiman
- American Gods: 10th Anniversary Edition GR
- Roxane Gay
- Bad Feminist GR
- Julia Glass
- The Widower’s Tale: A Novel GR
- Barbara Kingsolver
- ** La Lacuna
- Naomi Klein
- This Changes Everything
- Martin A. Lee & Bruce Schlain
- Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD and the Sixties Rebellion
- Ruth Ozeki
- Charles Portis
- True Grit
- Oliver Sacks
- Gratitude
- On The Move
- David Sedaris
- Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
- Cheryl Strayed
- Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
- Sarah Waters
- The Paying Guests
2016:
- Jes Baker
- Lucia Berlin
- Brené Brown
- Rising Strong GR
- Octavia E. Butler
- Elizabeth Camden
- Against the Tide GR
- Gail Collins
- America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines GR
- Howard Cutler & His High Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV
- The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World GR
- Anthony Doerr
- All the Light We Cannot See (unfinished)
- Jennifer Egan
- Ken Follet
- Jonathan Franzen
- The Corrections: A Novel GR
- Mary Gaitskill
- Roxane Gay
- Bad Feminist GR
- Lyndall Gorgon
- Lives Like Loaded Guns (unfinished)
- Steven Gullo
- The Thin Commandments GR
- Thich Naht Hahn
- Mindful Living: A Collection of Teachings on Love, Mindfulness, and Meditation GR (unfinished)
- Graham Hancock
- Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind GR (unfinished)
- Frank Herbert
- Dune (#1)
- Dune Messiah (#2)
- Children of Dune (#3)
- God Emperor of Dune (#4)
- Heretics of Dune (#5) (unfinished)
- E.L. James
- Grey
- Mary Anna King
- Naomi Klein
- This Changes Everything
- The Shock Doctrine (unfinished)
- Marie Kondō
- Mary Kubica
- Pretty Baby
- Martin A. Lee
- Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana — Medical, Recreational, and Scientific
- Martin A. Lee & Bruce Schlain
- Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD and the Sixties Rebellion
- Alan Light
- Dan Marshall
- Home is Burning
- Andie Mitchell
- Judith Orloff
- Emotional Freedom
- Ruth Ozeki
- Amanda Palmer
- The Art of Asking
- Jeanine Pirro
- He Killed Them All: Robert Durst and My Quest for Justice
- Richard Roberts
- Becoming Fluent
- Davy Rothbart
- My Heart is an Idiot
- Oliver Sacks
- Gratitude
- On the Move
- Michael A. Singer
- Patti Smith
- Just Kids
- M Train
- Colin Tipping
- Ethan Watters
- Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche (unfinished)
- Rainn Wilson
2015:
- Aziz Ansari & Eric Klinenberg
- Modern Romance GR
- Emily Brady
- Humboldt: Life on America’s Marijuana Frontier GR
- Jimmy Carter
- A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power (unfinished)
- Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Brian Doyle
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Great Gatsby GR
- Diana Gabaldon
- Christian Hageseth
- Big Weed: An Entrepreneur’s High-Stakes Adventures in the Budding Legal Marijuana Business GR
- Piper Kerman
- Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison
- Martin A. Lee
- Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana — Medical, Recreational, and Scientific
- Terrence McKenna
- Food of the Gods (unfinished)
- Haruki Murakami
- Norwegian Wood
- Oliver Sacks
- On the Move
- Patti Smith
- Just Kids
- M Train
- Alan Taylor
- The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia 1772-1832 (unfinished)
- Hunter S. Thompson
- The Curse of Lono
- David Foster Wallace
- The DFW Reader (unfinished)
2014:
- Samantha Bee
- Russell Brand
- William S. Burroughs
- Naked Lunch: The Restored Text GR
- Truman Capote
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s GR
- Meghan Daum
- The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion GR
- Nora Ephron
- Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble: Some Things About Women and Notes on Media GR
- Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton
- Getting to Yes: Negotiating an Agreement Without Giving In GR
- Gillian Flynn
- Gone Girl: A Novel GR
- Thomas Hardy
- The Woodlanders GR
- Byron Katie
- I Need Your Love, Is That True?
- Ken Kesey
- Sometimes A Great Notion
- Stephen King
- The Gunslinger (unfinished)
- Wally Lamb
- We Are Water: A Novel
- Jenny Lawson
- Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) (unfinished)
- Amir Levine
- Rachel S.F. Heller, Attached
- Penny Marshall
- J.R.R. Martin
- The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones (unfinished)
- Cormac McCarthy
- The Road
- Jodi Picoult
- Leaving Time
- Amy Poehler
- Charles Portis
- True Grit
- Rachel Reiland
- Get Me Out of Here
- Cheryl Strayed
- Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
- Wild: Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
- Amy Tan
- The Valley of Amazement
- Donna Tartt
- The Goldfinch
- Sarah Waters
- The Paying Guests
- Terry Tempest Williams
- When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
2013:
- Arj Barker, Doug Benson, Tony Camin
- The Marijuana-Logues: Original Cast Recording
- Orson Scott Card
- Ender’s Game: Special 20th Anniversary Edition GR
- Carlos Castaneda
- A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan GR
- Terry Goodkind
- The First Confessor: The Legend of Magda Searus GR (unfinished)
- Nicole Hardy
- Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin: A Memoir GR
- Charlaine Harris
- Naoki Higashida
- The Reason I Jump
- Ann Lamott
- Small Victories
- J.R.R. Martin
- A Feast for Crows, A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4
- A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 6
- Erin Morgenstern
- The Night Circus
- David Sedaris
- Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
- Adelle Waldman
- The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.
2012:
- George Carlin
- George Carlin Reads to You (unfinished)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Neil Gaiman
- American Gods: 10th Anniversary Edition GR
- Charlaine Harris
- E.L. James
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Fifty Shades Darker
- Fifty Shades Freed
- Franz Kafka
- The Trial
- J.R.R. Martin
- A Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1
- A Clash of Kings, A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2
- A Storm of Swords, A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3
- Chuck Palahniuk
- Rant (unfinished)
- David Sedaris
- David Sedaris Live
- Sarah Silverman
2011:
- James Lee Burke
- The Neon Rain (unfinished)
- Suzanne Collins
- Philip K. Dick
- Ubik GR
- Brett Easton Ellis
- Lunar Park GR
- Bart D. Ehrman
- Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why GR (unfinished)
- William Faulkner
- Light in August GR
- Tina Fey
- Robert Graves
- I, Claudius GR (unfinished)
- Charlaine Harris
- A Touch of Dead
- Dead Until Dark: Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery #1
- Living Dead in Dallas: Sookie Stackhouse #2
- Club Dead: Sookie Stackhouse #3
- Dead to the World: Sookie Stackhouse #4
- Dead as a Doornail: Sookie Stackhouse #5
- Definitely Dead: Sookie Stackhouse #6
- All Together Dead, Sookie Stackhouse #7
- From Dead to Worse, Sookie Stackhouse #8
- Dead and Gone, Sookie Stackhouse #9
- Dead in the Family, Sookie Stackhouse #10
- Dead Reckoning, Sookie Stackhouse #11
- Jane Lynch
- Henry Miller
- Tropic of Cancer
- Tropic of Capricorn
- George Orwell
- Down and Out in Paris and London
- Jodi Picoult
- Sing You Home
- Michael Pollan
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
- Tom Robbins
- Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
- Geneen Roth
- Women, Food, and God (unfinished)
- Christopher Ryan & Cacilda Jetha
- Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships
- Diane Setterfield
- The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
- Eckhart Tolle
- A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
- Rachel Vincent
- Reaper (unfinished?)
2010:
- Jonathan Franzen
- Freedom: A Novel GR
- Julia Glass
- The Widower’s Tale: A Novel GR
- O. Henry
- Holiday Classics (unfinished)
- Barbara Kingsolver
- La Lacuna
- Stieg Larsson
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: The Millennium Series, Book 1
- The Girl Who Played With Fire: The Millennium Series, Book 2
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest: The Millennium Series, Book 3
- Tatiana de Rosnay
- A Secret Kept
- Kathryn Stockett
- The Help
- Ken Follet
- Fall of Giants: The Century Trilogy, Book 1 GR