A self serving suggestion for the quarantine: blow money on Audible.
I know there are Public Library options, but the books I look up are always checked out – or just straight up missing. And the interface… just isn’t as good. As further enticement, Audible gives you 2 free books a month that are proprietary to the format, and I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of them.
Highlights of the ones I picked up, include Hi Bob! and Where Should we Begin. Hi Bob! is a This American Life style cut and paste conversation between Bob Newhart and various contemporary comedians. Esther Perel’s Where Should we Begin blew my mind, and absolutely changed how I view relationships for the better.
I know we publish podcasts, but honestly, I vote for audio books over podcasts 8 out of 10 times. There’s a delving into the nitty-gritty, a complete understanding of a subject that you get from a book that just… even in a long form article, or a 7 part docu-series, isn’t possible.
Audible has access to the vast majority of the Great Courses material, and once a year the courses are sold 2 for 1 if you’re a subscriber.
The last thing I’m going to point out, because I know I have a ton of Harry Potter Fans in the feed, is that right now all of stories.audible.com’s content is free. This is a way better way to dip your toe into Audible than even doing the free 14 day trial period.
The plan is to start doing book reviews with links to their audible counterparts. We’ll be talking about Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, and a number of storytelling Great Courses.
