the lake - listening to books

dear lazynet,

i stopped shooting photos in the tube a while ago, which means i now have between 1h30m and 2h to fill everyday. i started listening to some podcasts (mostly stuff from twit.tv - this week in law, this week in tech, macbreak - but also rocketboom, slate's daily podcast and cnet's buzz out loud) but that runs out pretty fast.

since i listen to so much twit stuff, i eventually ended up at audible's site (yes, the advertising worked, leo and friends can be really persuasive... must... buy... hoodies...) and picked up my free book, dune, because i wanted to be able to compare audible to something i'd already read (and dune was top3). well, i fell asleep. deeply. and no, it was not because of the monochordic tone of the reader (there are several, a main one and one for each character), and there's even this smooth music background for paul's dreams (hmmm, could be this...). i had in the past tried to read terry pratchett's the colour of magic and just plain didn't like it (i'm a huge fan of the book). for some years now melo has been preaching the audible gospel as well, but he mainly listens to magazines and those silly wizard books for kids that have been doing the rounds (i hate them with a passion, especially the one i read).

i want to give audible another chance before i have to cancel my account, but not in fiction this time, as i seem to be unable to listen to those (i guess fiction requires too much attention for just listening to it). so i'm thinking something along the lines of science, politics, history, etc. the problem is i'm way behind in my readings in this respect, and always will be, so this would be a really good area to catch on in the tube. so any suggestion along these lines is welcome, if you've read e.g., the blair years, a history of modern britain, the god delusion or similar, and found them very good, please do tell (yes, i am this late).

much love,

pedro