Listen here...

My 3 times a week drive to work takes about 45 minutes each way. Even for this radio veteran, most (much?) of what’s available by terrestrial radio isn’t exactly scintillating. (And AM? Sheesh!)

Knowing that I’m an auditory learner, I do better remembering what I’ve heard compared to what I’ve read. One hack I discovered in college was to read my class notes into a tape recorder and listen to them as part of studying for an exam. My scores went up significantly.

So I’ve joined with just over 50% of Americans who have listened to audio books. It makes the commute a whole lot more pleasant.

In the case of the recent thousand page plus Sam Tanenhaus biography of William F. Buckley, I picked up BOTH the book and the audio edition as the notation and documentation is extensive and that latter section is available in print. As one who came of age back in the 70s, revisiting those times is great fun. (Andrew Sullivan said something like, “This material is CRACK for me!”) Agreed.

As he announced his recent retirement, Warren Buffett said he has started to notice that-while reading the newspaper—it feels like they should have used more ink. Tell me about it. And Warren has a quarter century head start on me. Things get blurrier after 9 pm.

My current pick is The Fate of The Day by Rick Atkinson. Another terrific book about America’s early years.

I’ll keep reading, but listening to a well done narration is also a big plus. And a significant number of pages can be covered in an otherwise routine work commute.