Life Is Too Short To Listen To Boring Audiobooks

It's true. I walked to work this morning at the crack of dawn. It was a rainy day, the first we have seen in ages (we are desperate for rain here). I have been listening to The History of The World, Updated by J. M. Roberts off and on for about six months. Its 54 hours long, and very, very, very detailed. I have had enough. I am tired of the Babylonians and the Phoenicians, The Roman and Greeks. I have listened to 20 hours and we are just about done with the Byzantium Empire. So I gave up today.

I started listening to The Professor and the Madman. It's the story of Professor James Murray, the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, and Dr. William Chester Minor, one of its most prolific contributors. Turns out that after many years of Murry's repeated attempts to meet Minor, he finally discovered that Minor was a convicted murderer, locked up in Broadmoor, England's premier asylum for the criminally insane. It's an excellent tale and very well told by Simon Winchester, who is also the narrator.

This morning's fine mist and dark, overcast skies set the perfect scene for this wonderful story and my hour and twenty walk slipped by in pleasure.