Audio books

I adore audio books. I wouldnt get any non college reading done without them. I probably run through about 3/4 audible credits a month.

I tend to use them while commuting mainly but tend to mix it when doing something else.

I've run through most of the Game of Thrones Series (Got really dull around book 4).

The Dresden file series is read by James Masters (Spike from Buffy). A perfect example of a good author & good reader

Bill Bryons set is execellent.

Maybe it's a subject/voice issue?


Try a few non fiction books if you want. Non ficition can be a bit difficult to listen to in the begining in my experience. I have had to dial back infrequently if i missed something but not too often.

Posy wrote: »

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I don't think I could listen to anything too complex or 'heavy' though.
My only problem was that I'd fall asleep and wake up the next morning with no idea of where I'd gotten to in the book and take ages to find it again. At least if I fall asleep reading a 'real' book it's easier to retrace my steps!

Set your ipod (or whatever) on a 15 minute sleep clock. If you are still awake then set it again. If & when you fall asleep you know you are within a 15 min window at max...much much easier to find where you are.

.. I used to have the exact same problem.

I love audio books. Have a 45 - hour long commute so I go through a book and a half each week and dont know how id manage the commute without them. You can pick them up in the library too.
As for the narrator they can be a little annoying to begin with but once your 40 minutes into a story itd have to be a very poor one for me to even notice the narrator.

Yeah all the libraries have them on cd

I love audiobooks but also suffer from many problems already mentioned here. They are most useful to me when I am pottering about the house cleaning on some nonsense, even doing the dishes. Much will be missed of course, and your understanding or enjoyment will probably depend on you being an auditory listener. It appeals more to some than others. I listened to Shawn Achor's Book on Positive Psychology whilst at the gym and I missed bits and pieces but got the whole gist and loved it keep spitting facts out at people. I have listened to One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest twice. Absoloutely loved it, even better than the book; the narrator voices are so engaging. You'll be lost in the story. Some lectures work great as audiobooks. (though they may not technically be audiobooks).

So, what am I saying. If you like audiobooks you'll probably move to loving them. But they are clearly flawed for comprehension and it is very boring to sit down and listen to a book, as opposed to simply reading it, but listening whilst doing something mundane it's great and good audiobooks can be wonderful and a rich experience. (A large part will probably depend on how much you can tolerate the voice: some are dreadful and some are hypnotic).

r3nu4l wrote: »

However, I also downloaded all of the John la Carré giveaways from the Guardian and I can't get into them at all, I find the narrator really boring and my mind keeps drifting away to other things.

I figured out what it is I don't like about these books! The way the narrator voices the dialogue is really not how I would imagine the voices of those characters to be. When I'm reading a book I have my own 'pace' for the dialogue and this narrator voices his dialogue far too slowly for me, even in the urgent conversations.

So my opinion hasn't really changed. These books are good but the narrator has pretty much ruined them for me...

The narrator is vitally important to an audiobook and therefore a preview is vital too imo.

calex71 wrote: »

Edit: Pet hate though is when you listen to a series of books back to back and they change the readers Someone mentioned Game of thrones / song of ice and fire earlier, the change of voice from Storm of swords to feast for crows was most unpleasant.

Try 10+ books of the Dresden files with James Marsters as the Narrator.
Then on book 13 they change to John Glover(No disrespect) but i want Spike back!