A Quandary

I belong to Audible.com. I will download and listen to maybe a book a month depending on how much long-distance driving I do.

The quandary is whether or not I get to count these books as books I've read. I'm polling the readers in my classes... and so far the answer seems to be a resounding NO.

I've found that sometimes I will lose the thread when listening rather than reading. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in particular. I couldn't keep track at all... maybe it was all the footnotes. And I've also noticed that the reader can actually 'improve' a book. An example would be the Bartimaeous Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud read by Simon Jones. Jones turned an otherwise somewhat ho-hum juvenile fantasy series into a series that my family and I could hardly wait to get the next installment. We listened on long drives, and believe me, it helped with boredom, kids fighting etc.

Books I've listened to (but not read...and thus NOT counted):

- The Amulet of Samarkand and The Golem's Eye by Jonathon Stroud
- The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks; I plan to actually reread (read) this excellent first novel. Twelve Hawks (and here) claims to live "off the grid" and has combined fantasy and conspiracy theory into a believable Matrix-like world. I'm halfway through listening to the sequel, Dark River and will post more when I finish.
- Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber
- Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
- Twelve Sharp and Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich; another example of how a reader can really make the experience more enjoyable. Lorelei King's characterizations are nothing short of hilarious.
- The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson
- The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly