Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. My first blog post was about some of the books that have changed my life. I have also made it known that I rely on audiobooks to help me reach my reading goals. (BTW, as soon as I finish my current audiobook, I will have met my goal for the year.) I know there are endless podcasts and playlists and other things that I could be listening to… but I often find myself returning to some of my favorite audiobooks time and time again.
Naturally, I love fiction audiobooks. Some of my family’s road trip picks have been Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and Good Omens. My youngest even read a Percy Jackson book aloud to me and sister once. And I must appreciate the vast public domain library at Libravox.org for getting me through my English degree. However, many of the audiobooks that I return to repeatedly are non-fiction favorites.
I own most of these in multiple formats, and the audio version deserves to be as dog-eared as the paper copy. Others I simply request repeatedly from the library’s Overdrive app.
I recently heard someone mention that they have certain books that they read once a year. I realized that I was doing this as well, only my perpetual perusal wasn’t official. So… in the words of everyone’s favorite Starfleet captain, I decided to “make it so.”
The Commit List
- The Places That Scare You
- Bright Line Eating
- Better Than Before
- Atomic Habits
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
- Think and Grow Rich
- Trigger Warning (Introduction)
I hereby solemnly swear to listen to each of these books once per calendar year.
Books That Saved My Life
Two of these books can be credited with saving my life. First and foremost, The Places That Scare You saved me at what I consider to be one of the darkest times of my life. There have been more difficult times in my life, but something about the winter of 2006 was particularly bleak. I talked about the book here, and started the audiobook again while writing that post. This is a sacred text to me, so I feel it is appropriate to ritualize my relationship with the book by putting it at the top of the list that I commit to “read” annually.
The second book that gets credit for saving my life is a bit misleading, because I encountered the boot camp and program before the book was released. I cover my success of losing 100 lbs in 500 days here. I simply cannot say enough about how this program has changed my life. When I met the author and creator, Susan Peirce Thompson, I thanked her, not for saving my life, but for giving me the tools and knowledge that allowed me to save my own life. Susan reads the audiobook herself, and her passion for the science and her compassion for the people comes across the audio loud and clear. I wish that my brain still retained information the way it did a few years ago, because I would love to be able to recite the scientific facts from this book. I’m just going to listen repeatedly until those facts stick.
Books for Better Habits
My previous post was about habits and inspired this post. I appreciate Better Than Before because it taught me that, when it comes to dealing with expectations from myself or others, I am a Rebel. This means it is really hard for me to get myself to do things, and it is hard for me to form good habits. Learning this about myself changed how I approach everything. I regret to admit that I have not heard Gretchen’s newest book specifically about The Four Tendencies, but I have BTB on the library app right now, and I am on the wait list for the new one. I like the wide variety of topics covered in BTB. If you want to learn a lot about yourself, I highly recommend it. You can discover your tendency here.
Last week’s blog name drops Atomic Habits but doesn’t get into much detail. One reason is that I listened to this audiobook during a very distracted time. I managed to pick up a lot of great information, but this is definitely one I want to commit to revisiting. This is also the book someone else committed to reading annually that gave me the idea to formalize my committed annual audiobook list.
Then there’s Marie Kondo. The queen of tidying. I love her and everything that she stand for, yet my home has not come close to being Konmari’d. I own this audiobook and I have listened to it a few times. If I make it an annual commitment, then the Konmari’ing will happen eventually, right? #IBelieve
Maybe what I really need is a personal habits-coaching squad goal to get Gretchen Rubin, James Clear, and Marie Kondo to simultaneously help me get my act together… A gal can dream.
Books for Better Thinking
The next two books help me look at things differently. I sang the praises of The Subtle Art here. It is simply a delightful read, and sometimes I need to be reminded that I have permission to DGAF about the things that are not core values for me. I also mentioned core values last week. When I am working towards my best life, it looks like being focused on Authenticity, Balance, and Connection. All the rest can slide.
A book I have not talked about before, which I also did not finish when I previously had it from the library, is Think and Grow Rich. I ran out of time to finish this book and put myself back on the wait list for it. This book is touted by everyone. Experts in everything recommend this book. I cannot foresee any downside to putting this book on the annual repeat list. Only good things can happen.
Neil Gaiman
This is a tricky one. Trigger Warning is not a non-fiction book, but what I really commit to listening to over and over is the introduction. This is, without a doubt, the best introduction to any short story collection ever. Okay, it’s my favorite anyway. No one can argue with that. And I used to skip introductions. Until I went to college for a degree in Literature, I had no idea what wealth was hidden in those introductions.
There are so many facets to what is good about this intro. There’s the part where it is an absolute love letter to short stories. There’s the section where Gaiman explores what it means to be triggered. And then he talks about Ray Bradbury. #SOLD I feel like that part of the intro and “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury” should be read at my funeral. Please note above where I mentioned that I am having trouble retaining information. You can listen to Neil reading the monologue here, but don’t forget that the introduction is even better!
I should also mention that, after listening to this intro numerous times, I finally got my hands (ears) on The View from the Cheap Seats, which is collected non-fiction by Neil Gaiman. You can’t go wrong listening to something by Neil, especially when he’s reading his own. Some of the NF I liked more than others, but there’s another great introduction. I feel like this guy is a bit too good if I keep gushing about his mad introduction-writing skills, but seriously.
#Goals
These eight books will set me on my way to next year’s reading goal with the added benefit that several will also help me reach other goals in my life. I will pencil these into my Dreambook and Planner (partner link) so they stay on my radar. I also hope to revisit a few of my old favorites from the world of fiction next year. Thanks to book clubs, there will be no shortage of books to explore. Let me know in the comments if you have favorite non-fiction that you would like to read again, or do you have a favorite audiobook from any genre?
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