I’ve always been very jealous of anyone who could read in the car. I got motion sickness when trying to focus on anything in a moving vehicle. As I’ve gotten older, I listened to music in the car and eventually podcasts. I’m not what people would call a “chatty commuter”.
Recently, I’ve started listening to audiobooks that I’ve borrowed from the library while on my commute to downtown. Altogether, my normal commute takes an hour each day either way. The library here in Seattle uses the Overdrive program, so I can download books and keep them on my phone and enjoy listening to a novel as I’m coming or going from work. Most recently, I’ve listened to The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden and it was wonderful (a good choice since it reads so much like an adult fairytale). As of right now, I’m listening to Fledgling by Octavia Butler.
I don’t know which I retain better, but I certainly feel like I’m doing more reading during the week. When I only have 30-40 minutes on my lunch break or a few minutes as I’m drifting off to bed, I feel like I’m enjoying more stories on a regular basis. I’ve heard that there’s no real difference between reading a paper book versus listening to audiobooks. but there are those who argue there’s a difference. Either way, for me, audiobooks make the commute in the morning one of the better parts of my day.