2022 Audiobook Challenge -- My Wrap-Up Post

 THE 2022 AUDIOBOOK CHALLENGE

WRAP-UP POST

COMPLETED

I blew past my challenge goal of reading 50+ audiobooks this year! I've read 63 books with my ears in 2022 and will probably finish 65 before the the new year. See list below.

CHALLENGE

Caffeinated Reviewer and That’s What I’m Talking About host a popular audiobook challenge every year, although 2022 was only the second time I participated. I signed up at the Marathoner level to read 50 or more audiobooks in 2022. 

I love reading with my ears! I download audiobooks from the library to my phone using the Libby app and listen all the time. In good weather, I like to walk to work, which gives me a good hour of audiobook reading in a day. I also listed when I drive, cook, fold laundry, and do other chores. In 2021, I read 131 books and 70 of them were audiobooks. 

One thing I started doing in 2022 was to combine my love of audiobooks with my desire to clear book books off my TBR shelves. I went through my TBR list, found which ones were available as audiobooks from the library, and put them on my Libby wishlist. It may seem odd to listen to the audiobook when I have the physical book already, but I have soooooooooo many book books on my shelves that it would take me years to get to all of them. If I can free up shelf space (and brain space) by reading a book with my ears and getting rid of the paper book, I'm happy. 

MY 2022 AUDIOBOOKS

Here is the list of books I read as audiobooks in 2022, in the order I read them. Do you see any of your own favorites here?

• Katherine by Anya Seton (TBR shelf) 

• The Bostonians by Henry James (TBR shelf) 

• A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym (TBR shelf) 

• Murder at the Mill by M. B. Shaw 

• Dangling Man by Saul Bellow (TBR shelf)

• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz 

• The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty 

• A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris 

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney 

• The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth (TBR shelf)

• In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park (Book Club) 

• The Falls by Ian Rankin (TBR shelf) 

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Book Club) 

• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (TBR shelf, reread) 

• The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz 

• Little Big Man by Larry McMurtry (TBR shelf) 

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (TBR shelf)

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl 

• Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty 

• The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth (TBR shelf)

• The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz 

• Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (National Book Award)

• Trio by William Boyd

• As Husbands Go by Susan Isaac 

• Lucky by Marissa Stapley (Book Club) 

• The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James (TBR shelf)

• Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel (TBR shelf) 

• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci (Book Club) 

• Only in Naples by Katherine Wilson 

• A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz 

• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (TBR shelf)

• Holy Orders by Benjamin Black 

• Blue Moon by Lee Child (TBR shelf)

• The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

• Broken Harbor by Tana French (TBR shelf)

• The Counterlife by Philip Roth (TBR shelf)

• Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie

• Mr. Majestyk by Elmore Leonard (TBR shelf)

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Book Club) 

• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

• Woke Racism: How a New Religion has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter

• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (TBR shelf) 

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Book Club)

• Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty 

• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (TBR shelf)

• The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

• The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie (TBR shelf)

• Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro (TBR shelf)

• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Victober)

• The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie (TBR shelf)

• The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor (TBR shelf)

• The Underdog and Other Stories by Agatha Christie (TBR shelf)

• The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City by David Lebovitz (TBR shelf)

• Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron

• Literary Life: A Second Memoir by Larry McMurtry (TBR shelf)

• What to Read and Why by Francine Prose

• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater (TBR shelf)

• Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston (TBR shelf)

• Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick (TBR shelf)

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith (TBR shelf)

• One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell (TBR shelf)

• The Mistletoe Murder: And Other Stories by P. D. James (TBR shelf)

• The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier (buddy read)

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

I can't believe that it will be September next week! Kids are going back to school. It is still full-on summer here in Oregon. I haven't had a twinge of autumn yearning yet and it usually hits me by now. Are you still in summer mode or thinking of sweater weather? 

It doesn't matter if you are still reading your beach books or have made a seasonal switch. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week here on Book Beginnings on Fridays. You can also share from a book you feel like spotlighting. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

“To be born again,” sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die.”

-- The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.

This book has been on my TBR shelf forever. I finally decided to read it with my ears and put the audiobook on hold at my library several months ago. But I kept delaying the hold because I didn't have the energy for a 22 hours of magic realism, which is not my favorite genre.  

But after Rushdie was viciously attacked earlier this month, I knew I had to finally read it. My library hold popped up again, so I am listening to the audiobook. Like Midnight's Children, Rushdie's other famous novel, The Satanic Verses is magical, complicated, funny, outrageous, and brilliant. I should have read it earlier. I'm glad I'm reading it now. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the linky box below and use the #bookbeginnigns hashtag if you share on social media. Thanks for playing along!

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THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through your e-book or audiobook, on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Satanic Verses:

Damn you, India, Saladin Chamcha cursed silently, sinking back into his seat. To hell with you, I escaped your clutches long ago, you won’t get your hooks into me again, you cannot drag me back.

Have you read The Satanic Verses? What did you think?

2022 Audiobook Challenge -- My Sign Up Post

 THE 2022 AUDIOBOOK CHALLENGE

MID-YEAR CHECK IN

So far in 2022, I've finished 34 audiobooks, so I'm on track to reach my challenge goal of reading 50+ audiobooks this year! See list below.

ORIGINAL POST

Caffeinated Reviewer and That’s What I’m Talking About host a popular audiobook challenge every year, although 2022 will be only the second time I have participated. I am signing up at the Marathoner level to read 50 or more audiobooks in 2022. 

I love reading with my ears! I download audiobooks from the library to my phone using the Libby app and listen all the time. In good weather, I like to walk to work, which gives me a good hour of audiobook reading in a day. I also listed when I drive, cook, fold laundry, and do other chores. In 2021, I read 131 books and 70 of them were audiobooks. 

One thing I started doing was to combine my love of audiobooks with my desire to clear book books off my TBR shelves. I went through my TBR list, found which ones were available as audiobooks from the library, and put them on my Libby wishlist. It may seem odd to listen to the audiobook when I have the physical book already, but I have soooooooooo many book books on my shelves that it would take me years to get to all of them. If I can free up shelf space (and brain space) by reading a book with my ears and getting rid of the paper book, I'm happy. 

MY 2022 AUDIOBOOKS

I don't know which books I will read yet for this challenge. But these audiobooks are on my phone or my hold list on Libby right now, so they are likely first candidates. I put them on hold because they are the books my Book Club picked for our 2022 reads, they are on my TBR shelf, I went down a Lian Moriarty rabbit hole, or pure whim.

• Katherine by Anya Seton (TBR shelf) FINISHED

• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (TBR shelf)

• The Bostonians by Henry James (TBR shelf) FINISHED

• The Falls by Ian Rankin (TBR shelf) FINISHED

• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz FINISHED

• Murder at the Mill by M. B. Shaw FINISHED

• Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile (Book Club) DNF

• Little Big Man by Larry McMurtry (TBR shelf) FINISHED

• A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym (TBR shelf) FINISHED

• The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty FINISHED

• In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park (Book Club) FINISHED

• Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel (TBR shelf) FINISHED

• Lucky by Marissa Stapley (Book Club) FINISHED

• A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz FINISHED

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Book Club) FINISHED

• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci (Book Club) FINISHED TWICE

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Book Club)

• Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty FINISHED

• Woke Racism by John McWhorter

• Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (TBR shelf, reread) FINISHED

OTHERS I ADDED

• Dangling Man by Saul Bellow FINISHED

• A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris FINISHED

• The Counterlife by Philip Roth FINISHED

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney FINISHED

• The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth FINISHED

• The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz FINISHED

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon FINISHED

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl FINISHED

• The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth FINISHED

• The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz FINISHED

• Trio by William Boyd FINISHED

• Hell of a Book by Jason Mott FINISHED

• As Husbands Go by Susan Isaac FINISHED

• The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James FINISHED

• Only in Naples by Katherine Wilson FINISHED

• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton FINISHED

• Holy Orders by Benjamin Black FINISHED

• Blue Moon by Lee Child FINISHED

NOTE

Updated July 7, 2022 in time for the Mid-Year Check In. So far, I've finished 34 audiobooks in 2022, so am definitely on track to read over 50 for the year. 

2020 CHALLENGE - Audiobook Challenge, Wrap-Up Post

 2020 AUDIOBOOK CHALLENGE

hosted by Hot Listens and Caffeinated Reviewer

COMPLETED

I signed up for the 2020 Audiobook Challenge hosted by Hot Listens and Caffeinated Reviewer. It was my first year for the challenge because I love audiobooks and read a lot of books with my ears. Then 2020 happened and I forgot I had even signed up. I didn't keep track as I went along. Thanks to LibraryThing, I can go back and piece together my list.

My plan was to find as many audiobooks from my library that are on all the book lists I'm working on, with the goal of getting through at least 30 audiobooks in 2020. I ended up reading 61 audiobooks, so far surpassed my goal of 30!

BOOKS READ FOR THIS CHALLENGE

Circe by Madeline Miller

The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Women's Prize)

The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics By Kevin D. Williamson

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (Costa Book of the Year)
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Warlight by Michaele Ondaatje

Calypso by Davis Sedaris

The Overstory by Richard Powers (Pulitzer Prize)

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

Radical Kindness: The Life-Changing Power of Giving and Receiving  by Angela Santomero

Patrimony by Philip Roth

Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry 

Come Hell or Highball by Maia Chance

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (National Book Award)

Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn (Wodehouse Prize)
Never Mind: Book One of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
Bad News: Book Two of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
Some Hope: Book Three of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
Mother's Milk: Book Four of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
At Last: The Final Patrick Melrose Novel by Edward St. Aubyn

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (National Book Award)
Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile
The Likeness by Tana French
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Pulitzer Prize)

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block (Edgar Award)

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild (Wodehouse Award)
The Invitation by Lucy Foley

The Drowning Season by Alice Hoffman (Erica Jong List)

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Classics Club)

The Underground Railroad by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize)

The Nickel Boys by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize)

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (Edgar Award)

The White Album by Joan Didion

The Stranger by Albert Camus (Classics Club)
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (Classics Club)
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Murder Room by P. D. James

The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan

Writers & Lovers by Lily King
For the Sake of Elena by Elizabeth George

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Just Like You by Nick Hornby
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker
The Hanging in the Hotel by Simon Brett
A Venetian Reckoning (aka Death and Judgment) by Donna Leon

Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding
The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

Jump the Gun by Zoe Burke

Almost all of the audiobooks I read I got from my library, using the Libby app, and listened to the on my phone. I have a bare-bones Audible account and got a few books using it. I find that most of the books on Audible are available through the library, although you have to waitlist many of them. 

2020 CHALLENGE: The Audiobook Challenge

2020 AUDIOBOOK CHALLENGE

hosted by Hot Listens and Caffeinated Reviewer

I'm signing up this year for the 2020 Audiobook Challenge hosted by Hot Listens and Caffeinated Reviewer. The goal is to listen to more audiobooks in 2020 than in 2019. I love audiobooks and read a lot of books with my ears. I listened to 42 audiobooks in 2019. It might be hard to top that.

I am signing up for the "My Precious" level 30+ audiobooks in 2020, with the goal of getting to at least 43 and beating my 2019 number. I don't have any in mind yet. I keep a wish list on my library account, and keep several holds going, so I often take pot luck of what hold comes up first.

My usual method of adding to my wish list or library holds is to go through all the book lists I'm working on and see what's available from my library. They add audiobooks all the time. I've gotten through a number of Must Reads and Prize Winners this way, which appeals to the list ticker in me.

BOOKS READ FOR THIS CHALLENGE

I will list my books here as I read them.

MY THOUGHTS ON AUDIOBOOKS

First, I am firmly in the camp that counts an audiobook as "reading" a book. (As long as it is an unabridged edition; but I don't count reading an abridged edition with your eyes as reading the book either.) If the words of a book go into your brain through one of your sense receptors - eyes, ears, or fingertips - that counts as reading the book, in my book.

Second, I love audiobooks. Especially now that they are available for instant download, they are so convenient! And the download versions have the nice added features of being able to back up in 15 second bits if you miss something and listen at faster speeds, which is really nice. I find 1.25 is good for most books. I listen while I fold laundry, cook, walk to work, drive, or putter around the house. I can't listen while I do anything that requires verbal thinking.

Finally, audiobooks have helped me get through several chunky classics I probably wouldn't have tackled in paper. I prefer audio books for older literature. Someone else has parsed the dense, long paragraphs and figured out the proper phrasing; the use of different voices for the characters make them more engaging; and the books are just more lively. It's like the difference between trying to read a Shakespeare play -- difficult -- and watching one performed -- enjoyable.