For the last year or so, on an off, I have cultivated the habit of playing an audiobook at fairly low volume as I drift off to sleep.
At first, I was using the opportunity to 'collect' books I had read previously, mostly from long ago, and re-capture them. I also listened through all of The Dark Tower again, as well as some Middle Earth and Narnia tales.
Primarily, I was listening via EverAnd, a book app I subscribe to, until I realized that most of the audiobooks on that site are subject to a limited number of hours of listening, so I was blocking my access for my commuting and other reading opportunities - and so I switched my night-time listening almost exclusively over to my good friend Libby!
Subject to availability, I have been listening to whatever the rest of Milwaukee (shhhhhh!) hasn't been lately that strikes my fancy, but also, fairly firmly strikes me that at this point in my life I fully expect not to read in its entirety... Including:
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, by Matthew Perry (Read by the Author)
When Chandler Bing's memoir came out in the fall of 2022 I was driving drugs and listening to more audiobooks than I had at any point in my entire life, so I thought to put the memoir on my Holds list at the library, but it seems the entirety of Milwaukee County had the same idea.
Perry had always been my favorite of the Friends, and his comedic work in The Whole Nine Yards and even his brief stint on The West Wing were brilliant, and there had always been a deep sense of pain and cynicism at the core of his art.
The book came out almost a year to the date before Perry died, age 54. Hearing him read his own memoir, now 3 years past his death, may seem a bit ghastly, but it also made the sometimes tea-spill-y Hollywood nature of the book have a bit more gravity. Perry was fully aware how fraught his situation was - although the book (as memoirs almost have to do) ends on a hopeful note - and that fraught-ness and exploitative network around him makes his story all that much more sadder. Rest in Peace, my Friend.
(15 - 23 September 2026)
Spare, by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex (Read by the Author)
When I heard Prince Harry had written a memoir I almost could not have cared much less. I knew a little bit about Harry and Megan's precarious situation (I think there was a The Oprah Interview that we watched). I don't have anything particularly against Harry (if I had to choose he would probably be my favorite of the current Royals). And it has been a particularly good time for English Harrys these last couple of decades (tho Prince Harry probably ranks last for me amongst the Harrys Potter, Kane, Styles who are bubbling about our culture at present).
But the book is actually quite good. It is a bit spare - fairly flatly told - an epically weird family comes off frequently looking not only weird, but also bad... mean, really.
The book is also a parallel chronology - The Princes are of ages that would make them Elder Millennials, and I am a Gen X (theYounger) (I think of myself as a 'Cusper, but we can figure that another time) - so hearing his resume, where each line is like, several chapters, matched up with my own personal history of questionable professional, social, and familial choices... so that's fun.
(23 October - 5 October 2026)
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