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(AUDIO) BOOKS

Last Year My Ears Enjoyed These Thirty-Nine Books

When there’s no time for sitting down to read a book, audio books still allow you to ‘read’

I started listening to audio books in April 2020, after an upsetting incident on Twitter, which left me suffering from panic attacks and had sleepless nights for months. A fellow writer told me how it helped her to fall asleep when she concentrated on an audio book.

I tried it, and it worked!

There’s a vast range of audiobooks on YouTube which was the recommendation I received. The only thing was when you chose a book, you first had to watch the adverts, before the book would start.

A subscription

I think it was in April 2022 that suddenly adverts also cut in on my listening. For several books, I could cancel out the adverts but did not know how I did it. It just happened and I could carry on listening to the book without interruptions.

Then, in the second half of May 2022, there was an advert every ten minutes. Seriously. Every. Ten. Minutes.

Now don’t get me wrong… I understand why there should be adverts. It was just so distracting from the story and became incredibly irritating. I had been listening to audiobooks for free for two years, and I knew it was time to pay for it.

So, on 6 June 2022, I subscribed to Audible… and never looked back.

Audible allows you one credit per month, which means you can ‘buy’ one book from them. However, you can either buy more credits to listen to more books or browse through books Audible has included in the membership as I do.

I finished listening to my twenty-first book on Audible on the last day of 2022.

Book reviews

It was in 2021 that I decided I wanted to do a book review of all the books I had listened to. I wasn’t keeping track of the books (I only started doing that in my bullet journal in 2022) I listened on YouTube, so have done no reviews of those I listened to in 2020 and for the bigger part of 2021.

I am also running behind on reviews, but intend to catch up in 2023.

Why book reviews?
I am a writer, and as a writer, I want to be read. (Writers should read, as it improves their craft. But that’s a story for another time.)

I believe all writers when we put our work out there, want to be read. We want interaction, want to know people read our stories, and want feedback on those stories. I can’t let the authors know personally whether I have enjoyed their books, but I can do a book review to point others to their books.

Writing book reviews (as of this writing, I have written twenty-one reviews) makes me think of the writing style, think of what worked and what didn’t. Were there parts of the story I wish were shorter or longer? Should the author have written it in the first instead of third person narrative or vice versa? Is there anything in the story — positive or negative — that helps me improve my writing?

See, book reviews aren’t only to recommend books I have enjoyed, but also to help myself.

The books I listened in 2022

In 2022, I listened to these books on YouTube:

1. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
2. Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
3. The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Tiffany Brooks
   (no idea why I never did a review for this one)
4. The Memory by Lucy Dawson
5. Her Final Breath by Robert Dugoni
6. Lies by T.M. Logan
7. The Black Book by James Patterson
8. Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich
9. The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea
10. The Retreat by Mark Edwards
11. The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton
12. The One by John Marrs
13. Pretty Little Wife by Darby Kane
14. The Housewarming by S.E. Lynes
15. Play Along by T.L. Swan

And these are the 21 books I have listened to from early June to end December on Audible:

1. The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan (Narrated by: Olivia Poulet)
2. Safe with Me by K. L. Slater (Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis)
3. The Coroner by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush (Narrated by: Sophie Amoss)
4. Unnatural Causes by Dawn Eastman (Narrated by: Amanda Dolan)
5. The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh (Narrated by: Adam Sims)
6. Last Girl Gone by J. G. Hetherton (Narrated by: Laura Jennings)
7. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (Narrated by: Louise Brealey, Jack Hawkins)
8. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (Narrated by: Art Malik)
9. The Snow Killer by Ross Greenwood (Narrated by: David Thorpe)
10. The Soul Killer by Ross Greenwood (Narrated by: David Thorpe)
11. The Ice Killer by Ross Greenwood (Narrated by: David Thorpe)
12. Think of a Number by John Verdon (Narrated by: Jeff Harding)
13. Cavendish & Walker: Volume 1 (Three books: Deadly Games & Fatal Justice & Death Track) by Sally Rigby
14. Sisters of Mercy by Caroline Overington (Narrated by: Hazem Shammas, Mantshologane Maile)
15. The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond (Narrated by: Tom Taylorson)
16. The Teacher by Gemma Rogers (Narrated by: Georgia Maguire)
17. The Widow by K. L. Slater (Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis)
18. The Mistake by K. L. Slater (Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis)
19. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (Narrated by: Louise Brealey, India Fisher, Clare Corbett)
20. The Photographer by Craig Robertson (Narrated by: David Monteath)
21. The Cabin on Souder Hill by Lonnie Busch (Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen)
22. The Secret by Gemma Rogers (Narrated by: Georgia Maguire)

As you can see, there are more reviews to come, although I might combine some of them into one. And of course, I am already listening to my first book of 2023!

I want to highlight three articles dealing with audio books:
* The Joy of Audiobooks by Duncan Klein
* Audiobooks saved my life by Samantha Bryant
* Is Audible Worth It? by Megan Story

Which books have you read or listened to in 2022?

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