“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
  • A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

• Emily Brady
  • Humboldt: Life on America’s Marijuana Frontier GR

• Octavia E. Butler
  • Dawn (Xenogenesis Trilogy Book 1) GR
  • Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis Trilogy Book 2) GR
  • Imago (Xenogenesis Trilogy Book 3) GR
  • Fledgling GR

• Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood GR
  • Between the World and Me GR

• Brian Doyle
  • Mink River
  • The Plover

• William Faulkner
  • Light in August GR

• Jonathan Franzen
  • The Corrections: A Novel GR
  • Freedom: A Novel GR

• Neil Gaiman
  • American Gods: 10th Anniversary Edition GR

• Roxane Gay
  • Bad Feminist GR

• Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear GR
  • The Signature of All Things: A Novel 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
  •  A Tale for the Time Being

• 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:

• Ted Andrews
  • Animal-Speak: Understanding Animal Messengers, Totems, and Signs

• Jes Baker
  • Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls

• Lucia Berlin
  • A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

• Brené Brown
  • Rising Strong GR

• Octavia E. Butler
  • Dawn (Xenogenesis Trilogy Book 1) GR
  • Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis Trilogy Book 2) GR
  • Imago (Xenogenesis Trilogy Book 3) GR
  • Fledgling GR

• 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
  • A Visit from the Goon Squad

• Ken Follet
  • Winter of the World: The Century Trilogy, Book 2 GR
  • Edge of Eternity, The Century Trilogy, Book 3 GR

• Jonathan Franzen
  • The Corrections: A Novel GR

• Mary Gaitskill
  • The Mare

• 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

• Mindy Kaling
  • Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)

• Mary Anna King
  • Bastards

• Naomi Klein
  • This Changes Everything
  • The Shock Doctrine (unfinished)

• Marie Kondō
  • Spark Joy

• 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
  • What Happened, Miss Simone?: A Biography

• Dan Marshall
  • Home is Burning

• Andie Mitchell
  • It Was Me All Along

• Judith Orloff
  • Emotional Freedom

• Ruth Ozeki
  • A Tale for the Time Being

• 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
  • The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life’s Perfection

• Patti Smith
  • Just Kids
  • M Train

• Colin Tipping
  • Radical Self-Forgiveness Practices

• Ethan Watters
  • Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche (unfinished)

• Rainn Wilson
  • The Bassoon King: My Life in Art Faith, and Idiocy

---

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
  • The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood GR
  • Between the World and Me GR

• Brian Doyle
  • Mink River
  • The Plover

• F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Great Gatsby GR

• Diana Gabaldon
  • Voyager (#3) GR
  • Drums of Autumn (#4) GR
  • The Fiery Cross: Outlander, Book 5 GR (unfinished)

• Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear GR
  • The Signature of All Things: A Novel GR

• 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:

• Margaret Atwood
  • Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam #1) GR
  • The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam #2) GR

• Samantha Bee
  • I Know I Am, But What Are You?

• Russell Brand
  • Revolution

• 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

• Diana Gabaldon
  • Outlander (#1) GR
  • Dragonfly in Amber (#2) 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

• Rob Lowe
  • Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography

• Penny Marshall
  • My Mother Was Nuts

• 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
  • Yes Please

• 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
  • Dead Ever After, Sookie Stackhouse #13

• 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
  • The Brothers Karamazov (Jimcin Recordings Edition) GR
  • Crime and Punishment (Audio Connoisseur Edition) GR

• Neil Gaiman
  • American Gods: 10th Anniversary Edition GR

• Charlaine Harris
  • Deadlocked, Sookie Stackhouse #12

• 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
  • The Bedwetter

---

---

 2011:

• Susie Bright
  • Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex World Reader GR
  • The Sexual State of the Union GR

• James Lee Burke
  • The Neon Rain (unfinished)

• Suzanne Collins
  • The Hunger Games GR
  • Catching Fire: Hunger Games, Book 2 GR
  • Mockingjay: The Final Book of The Hunger Games GR

• 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
  • Bossypants

• Ken Follet
  • Pillars of the Earth (#1) GR
  • World Without End (#2) GR

• 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
  • Happy Accidents

• 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