What's on My Playlist? Books!

I don't know why, but I really like running to audio books when the weather's cold. Maybe it seems cozy, like curling up by a fire and listening to a storyteller. Maybe Fall leaves remind me of listening to a classroom lecture (I was a school nerd). Maybe the lonely winter makes me long for company on my runs.

Leave it to me, a former bookstore manager — and bookish child who always picked the library over the playground — to turn a running blog into a book review. Here are my top five audio books to run to:

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN IV
I recommend all Klosterman's books and essays — they're funny but not cheesy, smart but not snarky. He reads the audio, which is pretty cool, and it heightens the feeling that you're in on an inside joke. This is mainly a collection of essays — a great place to start if you don't listen to audios much, since you'll make it through one or two complete stories during each workout.

MONEYBALL
It's baseball! It's business tactics! How can you go wrong?! Seriously, I wasn't interested in business or baseball when I picked up this audio, and I LOVED it. Michael Lewis is the all too rare non-fiction writer whose writing style is actually compelling. During play by plays of specific games in Moneyball, I loved running along my trail as the characters ran the bases. I laughed. I cried (really). Most importantly, I ran.

ARTEMIS FOWL and SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
Ha! I snuck two in one! Smart adults love well-written children's books. They're fairly short (yeah, five CDs is short for an audio book — get used to it), the readers on both series are strong (Tim Curry reads a bunch of the Lemony Snicket books and he's amazing) and the plots are great. You probably haven't heard of the Artemis Fowl books, but they're just as good as Unfortunate Events, and Colfer does for science and computers what Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) did for books and grammar.

JOHN ADAMS
Tired of Joe Plummer and Joe Six Pack? Aren't we all. Here's a politician with a strong sense of right and wrong who actually lived and voted what he believed in. By all accounts, he preferred his wife to interns, and he hated slavery and supported women's rights (sort of) in an age where those stances should've been political suicide. It's election time, and I think we could all use a reminder of what our country actually stands for (which, oddly, has very little to do with the Dow).

WICKED
Gregory Maguire is, in my opinion, fairly hit or miss, but he hit big with this fairy tale for grownups that's extremely addictive and just a little bit sick. He takes the familiar Wizard of Oz story and turns it on its head — repeatedly. The reader is excellent. The story is great. And the musical based on the book comes to Birmingham this April, so catch the story, then go see the show.

Jonathan Benton, Bookseller (in Mountain Brook Village) has a great audio book policy: Buy the audio book at regular price, then return it and get half that price applied toward your next audio book purchase. If you listen often, you effectively get the books at half price. Email jbbookseller@gmail.com or call 205-870-8840 to order a book or check their stock. And don't forget, cheapskates — there's always the library.