I managed to read or listen to audiobooks more than i thought. I listened to my audiobooks mostly on my commute, and with biking a lot this summer and autumn i got at least a bit more than 2 hours of it on my bike commute.
I read a lot of series that year, beginning with the “Blossom Street” series of Debbie Macomber, which is a very light reading, but it is also very relaxing. I also like Stephen King, so i listened to the Mr. Mercedes series on audible, read by my favorite reader David Nathan (sorry, its in German).
I started the Harley Merlin series, but gave up after the fourth book, i could not find myself in this alternate universe, although i am a diehard Harry Potter fan. I thought the series lacked a bit of charm, and there was too much fighting for my personal taste.
I also heard the complete “Into the Wilderness” series by Sara Donati, that was not too bad and then dived into the Sumpflochsaga (Amuylett series in the english translation). Usually i am not a big fan of Fantasy, but this self published series was quite good and i read it to the end. Note, that the sequels get longer and longer, so the later ones were more than 1000pages long.
I read “The Fifth Season”, but did not enjoy it much, which astounded me, because i usually like SF. I also really disliked “Rosewater”. The best SF i read was “Children of Time” by Tchaikovsky, because of its really special perspective, written from the view of a strange arachnid people.
I listened to Richard Russo´s “Empire Falls”, that is a great book, although a bit depressing and “Behold the Dreamers” from Mbue, that made a great impression on me. I also finally listened to “The Help”, that i gave up on some years ago. This time i managed to get into the dialects better, but sometimes it was a hard listening for a german native.
I am still listening to “100 Years of Solitude” by Garcia Marques and in the beginning of “City of Girls” by Elisabeth Gilbert, which is a really great fun read.
Alltogether i read and listend to 42 whole books (i did not mention all of them..) and have to finish two more. I hope i will keep up my reading list that long for this year too.