I have listened to 100 audio books!

I just reached a milestone in my intellectual journey  - I completed listening to 100 nonfiction books!

When I mentioned this milestone to Lily, she did not believe in me "how can it be possible?" 

However I have my reading journal on my phone to prove it - I have every title I listened recorded, with brief comments and a rating.

I started listening audio books in 2019. As described in the blog audio books, The books I listen to are mostly nonfiction, which falls into category of biography, outdoor adventures, popular science, and societies.... There are thousands of audio books in the online library, but many popular ones have long waiting time. I typically pick nonfiction books with status "available now". This makes me not reading the most popular books, but there are so many "available" books, there are always some good books among them that I enjoy. I also get on waiting lists for books Lily or others recommended.

So far I checked out 116 books, some were so bad, 14 of them, I did not finish. I finished the rest, a couple of them I listened once and read once. 

In my reading journal, I list the book sequentially, current reading at the top of the list, each book has a rating from me in the following rankings:

💗💗💗 resonate

💗💗      love

💗           like

◯ ok

⬤ don't like

⯀ did no finish

¿   good book gone bad

There are 4 books that got 💗💗💗   from me:

1. The Fundamentals - Frank Wilczek (listened once, read once)
2. The Emperors of all Maladies, a biograph of cancer - Siddhartha Mukherjee (see Lily's comments in the blog; my comments were similar to hers, and she recommended the book to me!)
3. The Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
4. The Wright Brothers - David McCullough (see my comments in the blog Audio books)

There are quite a few books I loved 💗💗

• Thinking fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman
• Created Equal -Clearance Thomas in his own words - Michael Pack, Mark  Paoletta
• Mating in Captivity - Esther Perel (listened once, read once)
• Into the Nest - Laura Erickson, Marie Read (for a more meaningful bird watching)
• Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
• Rebooting AI - Gary Macus, Earnest Davis
• The body - Bill Bryson (about human anatomy)
• How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie
• Washington  - Ron Chernow
• Darwin's Ghost - Rebecca Sott
• Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
• The rise and fall of the dinosaurs - Steve Brusatte
• Reagan - the life - H. W. Brands
• North - Scott Jurek (see my blog audio books for comments about the book)
• Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow
• The Art of War  - Sun Tszu
• French Lessons  - Peter Mayle  
• Made to Stick  - Chip Heath, Dan Heath (read)
• The Thorn Birds -  Colleen McCullough (read)
• Pandora's Lab - Paul A. Offit
• Above the Line - Urban Meyer (read)
• It is your ship - Michael Abrashoff (read)

The books I listened/read are quite broad in topics. Some of them are beyond my typical interests. I stumbled upon a biography by a long-haul driver, I was drawn into his world. I finished listening the book of 8 hour audio in 4 days on a 14 day loan. The book got a 💗 from me. I also listened to Nomadland (💗), I saw a different world, a subculture,  than where I live! Nomadic life sounds romantic, permanent nomadic is unsettling, it was a sad and despairing story. I intentionally picked some books for topics or persons I have strong opinions on, and finished listening so I can see things from different angles. For example I believe that AI and Autonomous vehicles are hyped, but I finished listening books from proponents of the technologies, AI 2041 (💗), and Autonomy(💗), and learnt a few things, even though I did not agree with some of their assertions.

To me, an intellectual journey is not only about acquiring knowledge, expanding my horizon, it is also about improving my critical thinking skills, expanding my understanding of the world via exposure to others' insights and perspectives, in addition to my own pondering.