I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I can’t just listen to any old book via audio. My attention span or whatever is needed to comprehend a story through listening is not anywhere near as great as when I read. I can tackle even the toughest classics each night while reading in bed, but feel completely lost if a story is too complex while listening; be that in number of characters, too detailed an account of setting, complex dialogue, etc. When reading at night, my attention is devoted to my book (and my two warmth-hungry cats), but when I listen to an audio book, I am also engaged in other activities. Stephen King is perfect for this type of listening. His stories are so horrible (good horrible?), you can’t help but be engrossed and they aren’t hard to comprehend. So even while passing a semi or referring a fight between my kids in the backseat, I can still get the gist of the story. And King is a master storyteller – his writing is so crisp, even my somewhat addled brain can take it all in.

So, my dilemma is, what next? I’m almost out of King’s books, and currently have 2 credits available on Audible.com. I have some awesome books on my to-read list, but don’t want to risk missing out on a great book because my mind can’t take in all the details.

What are your favorite audio books? Do you pick different books for audio versus reading?