I am ahead of schedule… sort of.

To date this year I’ve read:

• The Millionaire Next Door*
• David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants*
• The Joy of Less
• The 4-Hour Workweek*
• The Art of War*
• Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People*
• Warren Buffett’s Management Secrets*

I am currently Reading:

• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• Shepherding a Child’s Heart
• Le Miserables*

*Denotes audiobook

That is why I feel I am only ‘sort of’ ahead of schedule. Six of my eight completed books were audio books. I haven’t been reading as much as I’d intended, but I have really been enjoying my waterproof iPod during my training bikes, swims & run (plus the occasional car trip).

I had intended to stick to non-fiction for audiobooks, but I was cruising through them. Some are only 3-4 hours long which means one to two workouts. To slow the pace of audiobook consumption a bit I’ve decided to consume some more dense material. My current audiobook is Le Miserables which is 60 hours in length. That should last at least a few weeks. I’ll probably follow that with a few other hefty 60+ hour classics – War & Peace, Atlas Shrugged, Crime & Punishment, etc.

On the topics of audiobooks, I wanted to briefly touch on my source. What I had hoped for was a Netflix type service where I could pay $10 a month for unlimited consumption. I wasn’t able to find anything quite like that so I tried out Audible.com. Their subscription service is $15 a month and lets you pick one book free and then get discounts on others. Obviously longer books optimize your cost/listening-hour. I’ve since cancelled that and am going to check out Librivox & my local library. Librivox offers public domain books read by volunteers while the library offers free rentals that are compatible with my iPod. I’ll report back.