11 Books in 4,000 Miles: What to Listen to on Road Trips






My car automatically locks the doors when it sees me coming. Enough already it seems to be screaming…
Four thousand miles in 2 weeks is just too much…
But I have a lot going on in my life.
My 4 siblings and I split time between with my elderly parents in Florida, so I try to get down there every 4–6 weeks.
My daughter’s husband has been diagnosed with a serious cancer and they are in Jacksonville, FL at the Mayo Clinic for the past 3 weeks and the next 2 months — at least. More trips…
And I have a business that requires me to travel occasionally. I’m leaving Thursday for our 3-day bootcamp in Atlanta.
Then of course, my wife and I try to throw some fun travel in there since it’s college football season and we love to go to games.
In the past three weeks, we’ve driven to:
√ College Station, Texas (football game — we won)
√ Tuscaloosa, Alabama twice (football games — we won)
Family travel has been:
√ Jacksonville, FL twice (my son-in-law Rick’s Mayo Clinic adventure with my daughter Jen)
√ The Villages in Florida (a week helping Mom take care of Dad)
And of course, we live in the woods in the middle of nowhere in north Alabama. It’s 12 miles to town. If we go to the gym, grocery, restaurants, or to visit my 96-year old mother-in-law, it’s a minimum trip of 45 minutes.
That’s a lot of time in the car…
Thank God for audio books and podcasts! Otherwise, I’m doomed to listen to the news and… Let’s just say, that makes me a little crazy.
I’ve been an Audible audio book subscriber since they first started delivering books about 20 years ago with a little blue mp3 player.
Now, I listen to Audible and podcasts on my phone. I love to read, but since I have little extra time these days, I’m delighted to incorporate books via the airwaves.
Some people can’t listen to books because their mind wanders too much. Mine did too in the beginning, but I’ve found the right listening speed combined with good stories really keeps me engaged. So much so, that I’ve been known to take the long way home to finish a chapter.
Optimal listening speed for me is 1.5 (where 1.0 is normal) unless it’s dense information, then it’s 1.25.
To keep my attention, I’ll mix up the type of books — flipping from one to the another when I start to lose focus.
My favorite genres are historical, business books, self-help, spiritual, and fiction… I guess that’s everything but annual reports and animal husbandry.
I don’t really like to shop for books, but I love recommendations, so drop your recommendations in the comments if you would.
And let me know what you thought of these below if you’ve read them. (If you click the link, it will take you to Amazon through my associate link.)
√ UnF*ck Yourself — HATE the title. LOVED the book. I’m a sucker for real self-help, the kind that gives you action steps to get out of your own head, and Scottish author and narrator Gary John Bishop has hit this one of the park. I’ll listen to this one several times.
√ The Power of Myth: Programs 1–6 with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers — This is an oldie from the mid-80s, but it’s still as great as ever. I loved this as well. Highly thoughtful, old-school journalistic approach to pulling some Campbell’s great insights. New perspective on old stuff.

√ The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Jackson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple — Wow! This book was released this summer after five years of research and writing. It’s all about the first president to be impeached after the civil war. And it’s jam-packed with information about a time that I was completely unfamiliar with. EXCELLENT historical book.
√ The Outsider — I’m a Stephen King fan, even though the quality can be all over the place. Sometimes, I feel like his books are first drafts. And sometimes they’re great. But he’s a storyteller, not a creator of great literature. So, if the story doesn’t capture me, the book goes nowhere. This one was pretty good. Not his best but very entertaining.
√ The Institute — Another Stephen King book. And did this ever suck! I listened to the whole thing waiting for something to happen and when it did, it was so predictable and cliched — ugh. Good thing I was driving. I’d want all that time back otherwise.

√ Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know — Like Stephen King, I’m a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell. His research and storytelling is usually brilliant. And parts of this book are awesome. Other parts — especially when he gets bogged down in the statistics in the middle of this book — are just so, so. My least favorite Gladwell book for sure, but he really set the bar very high with his other books.
√ Suspect — My first experience with mystery writer Robert Crais, I loved this book. It’s a great story of two damaged characters. One is a cop. The other is a war dog. And I’m a sucker for a great dog story. This slips from the viewpoint of the cop to the dog and back and forth. It was very entertaining. I’ll read more of him.

√ Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens — My mother wouldn’t let up. Every time I talked to her, she asked if I’d read this book yet. She loved it and wanted me to read it. Finally, I did. And she was right. After the first 30 pages or so, I was planning extraneous car trips so I could listen to this story. Outstanding story.
√ Building a Storybrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen — Author Donald Miller is really a genius. This is one of those foundational business books that I’ll dip into again and again, to mark up, and notate. Highly recommend it.
√ The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership by Sir Richard Branson — Part biography, part leadership training, part contrarian philosophy, and part marketing case studies for his businesses, Branson spins an interesting story. And he really lets us inside his head a bit. Worth the listen.

√ Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps — I wasn’t expecting this. Author Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest and scholar. He is also a huge admirer of Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Rohr compares and contrasts the spiritual approach of AA with that of the teachings of Jesus to create a complete picture of spiritual reinvention that too many Christians are missing in the world today. Really insightful book for anyone, not just people interested in recovery.
That’s a lot of listening!
And, of course, there are my favorite podcasts.
If you’d like to know which of those I schedule during my long walks and short drives, just say so in the comments. I’ll do that next.
And I’d love your recommendation for additional books that I should line up in my listening library.
After all, I’ll be back on the road very soon.
