Hooked on Audio

My evil cunning has now hooked my daughter on....Dracula!

A few years back I took a road trip to Ohio. Prior to leaving I went to the library to find a nice long audio book or two to listen. I settled on Bram Stoker's Dracula for the few times the kids were asleep and several of A Series of Unfortunate Events series for when they were awake. The trip made me an addict to audio books...especially anything the narrator Robert Whitfield or Tim Curry reads. After a few large library fines, I decided to check out Audible.

Recently, Audible offered to give me a 1 GB nano iPod (that Mary was wanting for Christmas) if I would prepay a year of audible instead of paying my subscription month by month. For me, this was a deal. I find myself looking for loooong listens....just to make it even more worth my while. I began with a recommendation from Expat Yank - 25 hours of The Three Musketeers (which I havejust finished), followed by 18 hours of A Short History of Nearly Everything (which the family enjoys on our weekend drives to the grandparents), weaved in with 14 hrs of Dracula (which Mary & I listen to in 30 minute increments every night). I'm also listening to The Whistling Season on Radio Reader on the way to work and Black Elk Speaks on the way home from work. Somehow I'm also managing to read a couple of chapters of Children of Dune each day and whatever my son requests for bedtime.

I'm proud to say the benefit of all this is that my kids love reading. My 5th grade daughter was just evaluated and her reading comprehension is on a 10th grade level....Wow!