Reading/Audible update

We're into February and I only have one book in my books read list for 2017. This is why I never get around to reading big fat books like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It just takes so long! JS & Mr. N is even longer than its 850 pages suggests. The book is full of footnotes that use a much smaller font than the main text. If all of these were expanded to the main text font, they would probably take up another 50 or so pages. And it's not like they can be skipped. Key descriptions and details about the story are in the notes. I've read 80% of the book, footnotes and all. I will likely finish it next week. Then it will be on to the Handmaiden's Tale. That book looks so small and insignificant next to Jonathan Strange. Hopefully that one won't take me a month to read.

I am very, very close to finishing my current audiobook. Originals. I read one of Adam Grant's other books, Give and Take, a few years ago and found it suitably useful and interesting to give Originals a chance. I've grown tired of the business book sub-genre that cobbles together stories of successful (and usually famous) people with findings from various academic research papers to tell a story of why certain behaviors win in the marketplace. Maybe I've just never tried to fully internalize and apply the lessons from those books, but I've found that I get much more from reading literature. Originals is a strong offering in this sub-genre. Grant's academic background gives him much more authority when discussing academic research papers than a journalist or some other productivity or entrepreneurship writer. The book still feels kind of worthless in the end. I'm happy to have it nearly complete. I'm ready to get back to the fun of sci fi and fantasy books. I will also be able to add another book to my Goodreads list. I don't include audiobooks in my annual list, but it will contribute to my read list (542 and counting).

The desire to buy books is very low at the moment.  The audiobook escape valve is definitely helpful in keeping my acquisitiveness under control. I have an Audible credit waiting to be used. I want to finish Originals before I use it for the lame reason that my unread audiobook tally will remain constant rather than going up when I use the credit. I'm planning to use it on Chernow's Hamilton bio. I've been tempted to get that book in the past, and listening to the Hamilton cast album has pushed that book into the I want to read it pile (as opposed to the that might be kind of interesting pile). The audiobook is over 30 hours. I've been listening at the 1.25 playback speed so it will be more like 25 hours assuming I keep it at that speed. A big unknown with audiobooks is the quality of the narration. I have listened to Hamilton's narrator before so I know that the narration will be solid. 

I could make a big dent in whatever audiobook I choose to listen to next while I'm driving around tomorrow. (Even if I use my credit on Hamilton right now, I'm not going to listen to that one next. Originals was a recent purchase. It's time to go back and listen to something I've had for awhile.) My wife is running an ultra tomorrow. I will be spending tons of time in the car as I get her to the race, pick up my kids, drive back home to drop one of my kids off for a birthday party, and head back up to the race (which is about an hour from my house) to cheer her on as she finishes her run. Well, assuming my daughter stays with my mom while I'm dropping off her brother. I could have a couple hours of solo driving time. I'm thinking of going with Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson as my next audiobook. I've had it for awhile and it feels like the right time for another Sanderson book. I absolutely love his Stormlight Archives books. I have listened to the first two volumes. I'm considered going back through them in preparation for the release of book 3 later this year. That is a very substantial time commitment as each book is something like 40 hours long. I don't expect Warbreaker to come close to either of those books, nothing I've read by Sanderson has come close to the Stormlight Archives, but his books are reliably entertaining. Now if I could bring myself to read the third book of the Mistborn trilogy.