I know I've mentioned this before,

but I'm an audiobook junky. My gateway drug was Harry Potter books read by Jim Dale.

You see, a couple of years ago, I bought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on CD to give to That Stud Muffin I Married for Christmas. I thought he might enjoy listening to the story during his morning train ride. Or perhaps during his afternoon train ride---I'm not particular.

At any rate, I forgot the important thing, which is that unlike me, my husband doesn't enjoy re-reading books. Yes, he loves Harry Potter, but he doesn't want to read all the books and then--for pure excitement! listen to the story all over again on CD.

Neither is he particularly crazy about watching the same movie over and over again.

This attitude of his--combined with his secondary sexual characteristics--provide me with all the proof I need that he is not me.

No, he's a one-time-through, read-for-the-plot kind of guy. Whereas I'm capable of re-reading my favorite books on an annual basis. After all, how else is a girl going to memorize the first page of Little Women? Need proof?

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug."

This explains why I own all the Harry Potter books both on paper and as audiobooks. Ditto Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels. And pretty soon, Anthony Trollope's Barchester novels.

So tonight, having finally realized that my iTunes audiobook expenses were getting a little ridiculous (with the Trollope novels running $30 a pop) I justified buying a year's subscription to Audible.com, which offers a couple of attractive packages that allow me to fill my crack pipe iPod with high-quality literature. I picked the deal where if I paid for a year's subscription in advance, I could get 24 prepaid audiobooks a year, plus a discount on any extras that I buy. In case 24 audiobooks a year isn't enough (And it isn't.)

And so I'm browsing through their catalog, which is much bigger than the audiobooks selection on iTunes. And the excerpts they offer are much longer, too, which means the books practically sell themselves. Which explains why after being an Audible member for a matter of minutes, I've already got The Three Musketeers, Queen Lucia, Psmith in the City, Psmith, Journalist, Sharpe's Tiger, and Sprig Muslin in my shopping basket.