My Running List of Audiobooks...

Since I am in the car A LOT and don't have as much time to read as I would like, I decided to try my hand at audiobooks and have been LOVING IT! So I want to keep a running list of the books I've read, more as a reminder to myself than any thing else. (Listed in no particular order.)

1. Macbeth - Shakespeare (narrated by Alan Cumming) (Play)
2. The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith (Mystery)
3. Eragon - Christopher Paolini (YA)
4. Leaving Time - Jodi Picoult (Contemporary Fiction)
5. The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult (Contemporary Fiction)
6. Testimony - Anita Shreve (Contemporary Fiction)
7. Horns - Joe Hill (Horror)
8. The Snowman - Jo Nesbo (Horror)
9. NOS4A2 - Joe Hill (Horror)
10. Fated - Alyson Noel (YA)
11. The Silent Wife - A.S.A Harrison
12. Big Girl Panties - Stephanie Evanovich (Women's Fiction)
13. If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) - Betty White (Memoir)
14. Black God's Kiss - C. L. Moore (Fantasy)
15. Guts - Kristen Johnston (Memoir)
16. Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie (Mystery)
17. Dark Lover: Black Dagger Brotherhood - J. R. Ward (Romance)
18. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay (Crime Fiction)
19. The Maze Runner - James Dashner (YA)
20. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (Literary)
21. The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick (Humorous Fiction)
22. A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness (Contemporary Fantasy)
23. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon (Historical Romance)
24. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (YA)
25. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (YA)
26. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins (YA)
27. Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah (Contemporary Fantasy)
28. Caught - Harlan Coben (Mystery)
29. The Alchemist - Paul Coelho (Fantasy)
30. The Road - Cormac McCarthy (Post-apocalyptic Fiction)
31. Dear John - Nicholas Sparks (Romance)
32. The Lucky One - Nicholas Sparks (Romance)
33. The Last Song - Nicholas Sparks (Romance)
34. Cinder: Book One of the Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer (YA) *nab
35. Scarlet - Book Two of the Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer (YA)
36. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova (Fantasy/Horror)
37. The Other Boelyn Girl - Philippa Gregory (Historical Fiction)
38. If I Stay - Gayle Forman (YA) *nab
39. Delirium - Lauren Oliver (YA)
40. Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver (YA)
41. Requiem - Lauren Oliver (YA)
42. Just One Day - Gayle Forman (YA) *nab
43. Just One Year - Gayle Forman (YA) *nab
44. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J. K. Rowling (YA)
45. Vision in White - Nora Roberts (Romance)
46. UR - Stephen King (Sci-Fi)
47. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Johnathan Safran Foer (Contemporary Fiction)
48. Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography - Rob Lowe (Memoir)
49. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling (Memoir)
50. One Good Dog - Susan Wilson (Contemporary Fiction) 
51. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman (YA)
52. Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton (Sci-Fi)
53. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green (YA)
54. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon (Historical Fiction/Speculative)
55. Misery - Stephen King (Horror/Thriller)
56. We Were Liars - E Lockhart (Contemporary Fiction)
57. Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell (YA)
58. Paper Towns - John Green (YA)
59. Yes, Please - Amy Poehler (Memoir/ Nonfiction)
60. Mockingbirds - Chuck Wendig (Urban Fantasy) *nab
61. Missing You - Harlan Coben (Mystery) 
62. Caught - Harlan Coben (Mystery)
62. The Martian - Andy Weir (Sci-Fi)
63. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights - Salman Rushdie (Fantasy)
64. Cartwheel - Jessica Du Bois (Contemporary Fiction)
65. Bossypants - Tina Fey (Memoir/Nonfiction)
66. Love Life - Rob Lowe (Memoir/Nonfiction)
67. The Shack - William Paul Young (Christian Fiction)
68. The Identicals - Erin Hilderbrand (Women's Fiction)
69. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt (Literary Fiction) 
70. The Identicals - Elin Hilderbrand (Women's Fiction)
71. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins (Thrilled)
72. Me Before You - Jojo Moyes (Women's Fiction)
73. Paris for One - Jojo Moyes (Women's Fiction)
74. The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters (Women's Fiction)
75. The Shack - William Paul Young (Contemporary Fiction)
76. Heartless - Marissa Meyer (Young Adult)
77. Truly Madly Guilty - Liane Moriarty (Contemporary Fiction)
78. How to Stop Time - Matt Haig (Contemporary Fiction)
79. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle (Young Adult)
80. Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology - Leah Remini (Non-Fiction)
81. My Life in France - Julia Child (Non-Fiction)
82. The Magicians - Lev Grossman (Urban Fantasy)
83. Geekerella - Ashley Poston (Women's Fiction)
84. Where She Went - Gayle Forman (Young Adult)
85. The Best of Me - Nicholas Sparks (Women's Fiction)
86. Into the Water - Paula Hawkins (Contemporary Fiction)
87. Perfect is Boring - Tyra Banks (Non-Fiction)
88. I'll Be Gone in the Dark - Michelle McNamara (Non-Fiction)
89. Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain (Non-Fiction)
90. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore - Matthew J. Sullivan (Contemporary Fiction)
91. The Good Daughter - Karin Slaughter (Contemporary Fiction)


*nab - not audiobook

A "Life-Sharing" Moment...

Aside from working like a fool, much to my dismay, I haven't really been doing a lot. I work as a makeup artist during the day and on the weekends and teach as an Assistant Professor of Foundational Writing at night. Pretty exciting, eh?

Long story short, I haven't had many blog-worthy experiences to speak of over these past few months. Except for the other day. 

I had a day off and decided to spend it in Princeton, having some lunch, walking around the shops, and doing a little writing on campus in the brisk fall air. I went to lunch at the BEST Indian restaurant ever called Cross Culture. (If you ever get a chance to go, GO! It is Ahhh- MAAAZing!) At lunch, I brought my iPad and earbuds to do some reading while I ate. I wasn't looking for a friend, a conversation, a pal... I was looking to eat my lunch, in quiet, with my book. So when a small, old, Indian man sat alone at the table three inches from mine, I smiled politely and then returned to my book.  Every so often he would say something to me, and I would respond politely, yet briefly, and then resume my reading. He told me that he came to this restaurant every week with his friends and they sat at the big table in the corner. He told me that he had lost his wife last year and that they had been planning a big trip to Australia before she had gotten sick. He told me that he didn't order off the menu and instead the chef made him a special item because he was such a regular at the restaurant. 

When his food came out he turned to me with the cutest little smile and a twinkle in his eye and asked if I would like to try some of his dish. I politely refused - not because I didn't want to try it, but more because I felt a little odd digging my spoon into a stranger's meal. But when I declined he looked at me and said that he insisted and fixed me a little plate. And as he handed it over to me and I thanked him, he looked me straight in the eye and said, "No need to thank me. Life, my dear, is meant to be shared." 

I smiled and truly appreciated his gentle eyes and his toothy grin. His adorable face, paired with his generous offer, immediately made me tear up. I tried to hide from him the fact that his little pearl of infinite wisdom had made me so emotional. Here I was trying to disconnect from the world and from others and it took a chance encounter with a stranger to reminder that that's not what life's about. 

This encounter reminded me that some of the greatest chance encounters I've ever had happened when I was dining alone. I would start my meal alone and then would end up making a new friend. It happened several times when I was living in Europe, and I allowed it to happened there because, in my mind, I was on "adventure" and that's what adventurers do! But why did it need to be different just because I was home and living in the land of the familiar? Maybe this was that way to infuse some newness into my ordinary and routine life! By stepping outside of my comfort zone, by opening myself up to something different, something outside of my expectations, maybe I'd be pleasantly surprised that life isn't all that ordinary or routine. 

Afterall, Pruesh, my Indian friend is right - "Life is meant to be shared."