Throughout high school, college, and early adulthood, I struggled and failed to fully board the "reading books" bandwagon. This is partially because I'm a slow reader (who would have thought?) but mostly because sitting in one place to read a paper book, without being able to multitask because "reading" requires my eyes stay focused on the page - ain't nobody got time for that. Then in late 2011 I discovered audiobooks, and my world changed.
In 2015, I read 4 old-fashioned paperbacks, and listened to 60 audiobooks, a new personal record. Some were phenomenally amazing (Blue Like Jazz, Ready Player One, William Shakespeare's Star Wars); some were phenomenally boring (Howards End, Monte Christo); a few were just plain "bad" (*my opinion; I'm looking at you, Maze Runner trilogy; and also that Joyce Meyer book, and also Chuck Wendig's Aftermath); some were classics (Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes, Dune, Monte Cristo, To Kill a Mockingbird, Dracula, Animal Farm, et al); and 22 were Star Wars books :) Beggars In Spain was a re-listen because it was life-changing for me the first time; and William Shakespeare's Star Wars I listened to twice in a row, because it was just that good.
The average length of these audiobooks was 11 hours and 9 minutes (thrown off slightly by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 70+ hour complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories; without Holmes, the average length of my 2015 books drops to 10 hours and 8 minutes). My average amount of listening per day was 2 hours and 4 minutes.
| Title | Author | Audiobook length |
|---|---|---|
| Star Wars: William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back | Ian Doescher | 3:25:25 |
| Star Wars: Aftermath | Chuck Wendig | 12:16:00 |
| Star Wars: Backlash (Fate of the Jedi book 4) | Aaron Allston | 11:10:20 |
| Star Wars: Abyss (Fate of the Jedi book 3) | Troy Denning | 11:19:03 |
| Star Wars: Omen (Fate of the Jedi book 2) | Christie Golden | 8:25:51 |
| Star Wars: Rule of Two (Darth Bane book 2) | Drew Karpyshyn | 10:12:00 |
| Ready Player One | Ernest Cline | 15:40:00 |
| Star Wars: Dark Disciple | Christie Golden | 11:12:00 |
| Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | 8:00:02 |
| Animal Farm | George Orwell | 3:11:46 |
| Star Wars: Outcast (Fate of the Jedi book 1) | Aaron Allston | 10:12:11 |
| Star Wars: Path of Destruction (Darth Bane book 1) | Drew Karpyshyn | 12:16:00 |
| Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation | Drew Karpyshyn | 9:39:27 |
| Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan | Drew Karpyshyn | 10:52:23 |
| The Fate of Ten | Pittacus Lore | 10:41:25 |
| Dracula | Bram Stoker | 14:32:38 |
| Star Wars: William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return | Ian Doescher | 3:35:00 |
| Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived | Paul S. Kemp | 9:25:59 |
| The Screwtape Letters | C. S. Lewis | 3:36:38 |
| Star Wars: The Clone Wars | Karen Traviss | 7:47:14 |
| Star Wars: Red Harvest | Joe Schreiber | 7:56:10 |
| Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance | Sean Williams | 13:47:44 |
| William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope (listened again, because it was that good) | Ian Doescher | 3:29:15 |
| Peter Pan | J. M. Barrie | 5:39:49 |
| William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope | Ian Doescher | 3:29:15 |
| Go Set a Watchman | Harper Lee | 6:57:00 |
| My Ántonia | Willa Cather | 7:19:57 |
| Star Wars: Crucible | Troy Denning | 12:08:00 |
| The Death Cure (Book 3 in the Maze Runner series) | James Dashner | 8:55:19 |
| Star Wars: Scoundrels | Timothy Zahn | 13:57:27 |
| The Kill Order (prequel to Maze Runner trilogy) | James Dashner | 10:02:00 |
| I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: Rebel Allies | Pittacus Lore | 8:04:13 |
| The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | 9:24:00 |
| Howards End | E. M. Forster | 11:04:14 |
| To Kill A Mockingbird | Harper Lee | 12:17:00 |
| The Scorch Trials (Book 2 in the Maze Runner series) | James Dashner | 10:23:03 |
| The Battlefield of the Mind | Joyce Meyer | 6:27:08 |
| Mere Christianity | C.S. Lewis | 5:52:41 |
| What We Talk About When We Talk About God | Rob Bell | 4:25:20 |
| Star Wars: Tarkin | James Luceno | 9:27:13 |
| Maze Runner | James Dashner | 10:50:27 |
| Star Wars: Lords of the Sith | Paul S. Kemp | 10:56:53 |
| Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived | Rob Bell | 3:39:27 |
| Children of Dune | Frank Herbert | 16:51:10 |
| The Count of Monte Cristo | Alexandre Dumas | 46:56:39 |
| What on Earth Have I Done?: Stories, Observations, and Affirmations | Robert Fulghum | 6:15:39 |
| Dune Messiah | Frank Herbert | 8:57:00 |
| Dune | Frank Herbert | 21:02:12 |
| Life Together | Dietrich Bonhoeffer | 3:37:54 |
| Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile | Rob Bell, Don Golden | 3:25:10 |
| Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson | Patricia Briggs | 14:53:09 |
| The Normal Christian Life | Watchman Nee | 7:42:56 |
| Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void | Mary Roach | 10:27:52 |
| Dead Heat: Alpha and Omega, Book 4 | Patricia Briggs | 11:25:48 |
| Star Wars: The Clone Wars: No Prisoners | Karen Traviss | 7:10:39 |
| Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë | 21:47:32 |
| Blue Like Jazz: Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality | Donald Miller | 7:00:57 |
| Beggars in Spain | Nancy Kress | 16:10:52 |
| Brentwood's Ward | Michelle Griep | 10:24:19 |
| The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle | 70:48:20 |
And the paperbacks:
- Shadows of the Empire, by Steve Perry
- The Grimjinx Rebellion, by Brian Farrey
- The Shadowhand Covenant, by Brian Farrey
- The Vengekeep Prophecies, by Brian Farrey
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