Cracker Barrel Audiobooks

Yes, I have insomnia.  Let’s just get that out there.  I’m blogging at 1:51am.  I figure I’m my most sarcastic at this time of day.  Probably because I don’t have to set a good example for children or something.

But, I did want to tell you folks who may be traveling in the next few months about a great program set up by Cracker Barrel – yes, the restaurant.  We were planning to listen to The Fellowship of the Ring on our trip South, but we found that the library discs were in worse shape than usual.  Our new plan was to just be bored.  And listen to music.  That we’d listened to a zillion times before.  We weren’t terribly happy.

Then, we had lunch at Cracker Barrel.  Don’t ask me where.  They all blend together after a while.  Anyway, they have a big display of audiobooks, which they’ve had before.  This time, though, they had an advertisement that said that we could buy the book, but if we returned it within a week, they would refund all but $3.49 of the purchase price.  The longer you keep the book, the more of your money they keep.  Still, it’s a pretty fair deal.

We decided to get The Half Moon Detective Agency by Eoin Colfer (author of the Artemis Fowl books).  Yes, it’s another book about a preteen. It’s just as funny as the Artemis Fowl books, although the protagonist is not a genius, and just as family friendly.  We finished this book by the time we got to Baton Rouge, so we then got Peter in Scarlett about Peter Pan, the renewal of Captain Hook, and, of course, Wendy and the lost boys.  This is, apparently, the only authorized sequel to Peter and Wendy.  Yet another winner.  Could we be so fortunate again?

Indeed we were – to a certain extent.  We next got  Endymion Spring, a fascinating book about Gutenberg, Fauste, and ancient books.  But, the nearest Cracker Barrel to our house is in Madison, so we had to return the book after the fourth disc – and we were only halfway through.  So, the book is now on hold with our regular library system so that Mr. Math Tutor can read it to the family.

I enjoy Cracker Barrel’s food rather well, and I find it nice to have a sit-down meal in the middle of traveling all day, but the audiobook rental is a real treat.  They do have more than children’s books.  In fact, there were a number of books that I would have enjoyed that were either not kid-appropriate or just not kid-friendly.  In any case, there are fiction and non-fiction, and just about every fiction genre you can imagine.  So, on your next trip, give it a try.  It really helps the miles pass in the states with so many wheat fields!