They’re ridin’ in their cars, they turn on the radio ...

SALISBURY — The Northwest Corner has benefited from lots of roadwork this summer. While most drivers agree that the buttery smooth new roads were a sufficient reward, that doesn’t erase the many extra minutes most spent  waiting patiently in their cars.

The signs along Main Street in Salisbury last week suggested finding “alternate routes.” There aren’t many of those around here, and the only solution, many agreed, was simply to find something interesting to listen to in the car.

The Lakeville Journal did a random and unscientific survey of favorite audiobooks, podcasts and radio stations from this summer. Herewith, the results.

Patrick L. Sullivan: During the summer’s roadwork, I listened to the same things I always listen to: Imus in the morning and whatever CD comes to hand; lately that’s been Stereolab, Green Pajamas, Brian Jonestown Massacre and The People’s Temple.

Robert Seber: While the pace of the construction work on Route 41/44 might suggest Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, the music program in our car is actually dominated by the tastes of our 8-year-old son, Mathias.  He is working through musical history in reverse chronological order. To my delight, but less so his mom’s, we are currently engaged in a thorough study of classic rock, with an emphasis on Queen, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Steppenwolf. Deep Purple’s “Child in Time,” lasting 10:20 minutes, is particularly inspiring in the car, whether driving at the speed limit or waiting for the light to change.

Jeanette Montgomery Barron: I’ve been listening to Alec Baldwin’s Here’s the Thing, the TED Radio Hour, Fresh Air and Stuff You Should Know, all in podcasts. Also a couple of episodes of The James Altucher Show.

James Barron: When I need to chill, with traffic or construction, I always go to late ’60s music or blues. Duane Allman never disappoints.

Jeannette [Montgomery Barron] has podcasts such as Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin, which I like, depending on who he is interviewing.

Doro Bachrach: I love books on tape. The best audiobook I EVER heard was Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections” read by the remarkable New York actor Dylan Baker.

Mac Gordon: We listen to National Public Radio, either 90.3 (talk) or 88.5 and 88.7 (music). On Saturday morning at 11, WMHT (88.7) plays an hour of some of the best movie music.

Anne Day: I ALWAYS have a book in the car. I just finished “The Girls” by Emma Cline, which is a pretty good novel by a beautiful writer and first-time novelist. I also always try to listen to This American Life and Fresh Air on NPR. I love Saturday mornings in the car because I can always find  Car Talk.

Mimi Harson: “A Walk in The Woods,” the audiobook version, because it is read by author Bill Bryson who has a wonderful voice (and it’s a great story).

Tory Jadow: I’ve enjoyed tuning in to PRX on Sirius Radio. It is a public radio station but is only material and not news (sometimes you just need a break). It kind of curates a selection from podcasts and other radio shows. You never know what you’re going to get but I almost always find myself quite riveted. 

 Bruce Murkoff: My wife [artist Suzanne Caporeal] was listening to the audiobook “The Hemingses of Monticello,” and we have friends who were trying (with many pauses) to get through “Moby-Dick.”

Peter Schuyten: Audiobooks I’ve recently listened to are Daniel Silva, “The Heist,” very good, well-plotted, as are all his books featuring art restorer, assassin and Israeli spy Gabriel Allon in a story of international intrigue revolving around a stolen Caravaggio. I was sorry when it was over. 

My favorite audiobook so far this year: “They Eat Puppies, Don’t They?” by Christopher Buckley. Hilarious. A rollicking tale wonderfully read by actor Robert Petkoff and featuring a pair of D.C. lobbyists, a secret weapons system, the Dalai Lama, the president, Congress and the Chinese politburo. I highly recommend it.

Also outstanding is Alex Berenson’s “The Counterfeit Agent,” in which ex-CIA agent John Wells goes undercover as the threat of nuclear war skyrockets between the United States and Iran.  Read by the always excellent George Guidall. I highly recommend all his John Wells books.

I’m currently reading Oliver Potzsch’s “The Dark Monk,” a Hangman’s Daughter novel in which a parish priest is poisoned in a 1600s Bavarian town in the dead of winter. Good atmospherics and characters in a tale that ultimately leads the Hangman and his daughter back to the Middle Ages and the Knights Templar.  It’s the second book in the series, and has an excellent narrator in Grover Gardner.  I’m liking it a lot.

Rick Roso: In August I dug out from a dusty corner in the closet a CD I hadn’t listened to in a while: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ “Live Anthology,” a four-disc set of live stuff from 1980 (when they still hadn’t “broken” nationwide) up through 2004. The recordings are raw — not touched-up or overdubbed, simply what was recorded straight to tape — and it’s terrific.