I’ve always been an avid—nay, avari­cious—read­er of books. But I have not been a listener of audiobooks.

I read quickly, much more quickly than anyone can speak, and I enjoy burying my head in a book. I’ve seen little reason, therefore, to listen to audiobooks. Lately, however, we’ve listened to some audiobooks on long car trips, as Emma, unlike me, has an Audible sub­scrip­tion. We enjoyed The Hot Rock, the first of the comic crime-caper Dortmunder books. Before that, I had read another Dortmunder novel, Bank Shot, aloud to Emma, while she drove us back from Portland, which both of us had enjoyed.

On our trip to Vancouver earlier this week, we started listening to The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, the first of the Mary Russell novels about the protégé and wife of Sherlock Holmes. The recording is 12 hours long, so we’re continuing to listen to it even though we’re back in Seattle.

I won’t be giving up reading any time soon, but I do foresee listening to the occasional audiobook.