Make Use of Your Time: Listen to Audio Books on the Road

If you drive a lot alone (e.g., more than ten minutes to work), what do you do in that time span? I'm guessing you either (1) listen to music (2) stare at the road in silence (3) talk on a cell phone or (4) text while driving (let's hope not).

Have you tried listening to an audio book while driving a boring route? You can probably find a science fiction audio book at your local library to check out. If you're like me, your time is limited for reading books, so the next best thing is listening to them.

Just a few months ago, I never even listened to audio books, but a friend of mine mentioned that's what he used to do when he would go to sleep. Then a relative was talking about how much time a person wastes each day and mentioned that I waste over an hour each day going to work and back. So I decided to check out an audio book to make use of that time, and am glad I did.

I have an older car that has a cassette player, so I checked out 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. Then I listened to Pegasus in Space by Anne McCaffrey but, unfortunately, haven't read the first two books in the trilogy and wasn't too interested in it. I'm now listening to Nightfall, based on Isaac Asimov's short story of the same name (Asimov collaborated with Robert Silverberg on the book). It's a excellent story and the only gripe I have is that it has some unnecessarily long thoughts of characters anticipating the coming eclipse.

So why not try listening to an audio book while driving rather than listening to music, staring in silence, or talking or texting on a cell phone? You may be surprised at how fast you can go through a book this way.