Forbidden reading... er... listening

When I finished uni last year, I joined a local writers group. I am not sure what I expected but I didn't expect to stumble across the odd opinion that you can only read a book. Heaven forbid you should buy an audio book and listen to it while doing things that don't mix too well with reading (such as walking the dog or driving- although I did see a guy riding a bike and reading a newspaper the other day). The scorn was palpable, which was quite ironic given the lady later admitted to not doing as much reading as she would like due to a busy schedule. Hmmm

I have found new joy in getting through all the books I want to read but never seem to find the time for (just finished Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton, couldn't believe the ending and have just finished downloading the follow on book- Judas Unchained in time for Jack's afternoon walk). I am still waiting for the last book (Owner's Share) in the Golden Age series by Nathan Lowell (which is free by the way) and have about a million books on the waiting list to either listen to (The Red Queen), read (Steig Larsson's Millenium Trillogy) or buy (Wolf Hall).

If anyone has any great books they have recently read (or listened to) to recommend I would love to hear them. Unless its 1984, a book I was patronisingly told to read and found it incredibly trite, and afterwards wished I could claw back the time that was lost on it- not unlike Dirt Music which bored the crap out of me and I only finished due to a friend constantly gushing about how great it is.