Audio book recommendations

Das Kitty · 30-09-2015 10:24am #1

I spend about an hour and a half in the car every weekday, so I've taken to listening to Audio books.

I'm currently listening to "We are all Completely Beside Ourselves" by Karen Joy Fowler, which I'm enjoying so far.

I had to stop listening to "A Brief History of Seven Killing" by Marlon James, not because it isn't a good audio book (It is. It has multiple narrators and is a class production) but because it's a bit too brutal for me right now. I'll come back to it again.

There are a couple that stood out for me. "All my Puny Sorrows" by Miriam Towes. It's gorgeously read and loses nothing from the text in the narration. And also "Nora Webster" by Colm Toibin.

Does anyone else have any recommendations? I have an Audible credit burning a hole in my pocket.

Manach · 30-09-2015 10:35am

Urban Fantasy Fiction: either first of Jim Butcher's Dresden files read by James Marshalls (Spike in BTVS) or Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles read by the excellent Bronson Pinchot.

Non-fiction, the following are good:
Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It Marc Goodman
A Mind for Numbers Barbara Oakley
You Only Have to Be Right Once Randall Lane
Spam Nation Brian Krebs
The Glass Cage Nicholas Carr
How Google Works Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
Insanely Great Steven Levy
Who Controls the Internet: Illusions of a Borderless World Jack Goldsmith, Tim Wu
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets Nassim Nicholas Taleb
What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data Adam Tanner

It would be evil of me to say that there is a 3 credit discount deal going ... only saying.

Das Kitty · 30-09-2015 10:59am

Manach wrote: »

Urban Fantasy Fiction: either first of Jim Butcher's Dresden files read by James Marshalls (Spike in BTVS) or Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles read by the excellent Bronson Pinchot.

Non-fiction, the following are good:
Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It Marc Goodman
A Mind for Numbers Barbara Oakley
You Only Have to Be Right Once Randall Lane
Spam Nation Brian Krebs
The Glass Cage Nicholas Carr
How Google Works Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
Insanely Great Steven Levy
Who Controls the Internet: Illusions of a Borderless World Jack Goldsmith, Tim Wu
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets Nassim Nicholas Taleb
What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data Adam Tanner

It would be evil of me to say that there is a 3 credit discount deal going ... only saying.

Thanks for those!

I've been playing with Audible's emotions and threatening to leave them. They offer me all sorts to stay on!

Bulbous Salutation · 30-09-2015 11:01am

I, Partridge: We Need to Talk about Alan is the funniest audiobook I've ever listened to.

Das Kitty · 30-09-2015 11:03am

Bulbous Salutation wrote: »

I, Partridge: We Need to Talk about Alan is the funniest audiobook I've ever listened to.

Yes! Someone else mentioned that to me a while back and I totally forgot. Thank you.

Carawaystick · 02-10-2015 4:25pm

Murphy's revenge by Colin Bateman, read by James Nesbitt

Barely There · 07-10-2015 9:26am

Would anyone have any Science Fiction recommendations?

I've recently started commuting a couple of hours a day in a car and am mainly listening to podcasts at the moment (can't stand the majority of the crap that's on Irish radio) and am looking to give audio books a try.

Das Kitty · 07-10-2015 9:47am

Barely There wrote: »

Would anyone have any Science Fiction recommendations?

I've recently started commuting a couple of hours a day in a car and am mainly listening to podcasts at the moment (can't stand the majority of the crap that's on Irish radio) and am looking to give audio books a try.

I heard that the Martian's audiobook is great.

kirk buttercup · 07-10-2015 9:54am

The Martian Audiobook is great I read the book before I listened to it, A friend told me about the AB so had a listen I enjoyed it more than the book (and the film)to be honest. The hitchhikers guide is brilliant.

Crooked Jack · 07-10-2015 10:02am

World War Z is tremendous.

So is 1984, fairly stripped down, nothing gimmicky about it, just a great narrator and terrific use of classical music.

A short history of nearly everything is good fun. If you dont have much of a grasp of science it's pretty eye opening but accessible and funny.

American Psycho is worth getting just to see the reactions of people when they get into your car. Gave a female colleague a lift to work one morning. Turned on the car and the cd came on automatically and started playing. When i realised what was it it I frantically tried to switch it to radio but before I could Patrick Bateman announces " I roll her over, and spreading her ass cheeks, I nail a dildo that I’ve tied to a board deep into her rectum, using the nail gun."

So that was a long awkward journey. On the plus side she never asked for a lift again (she was something of a liberty taker)

Barely There · 07-10-2015 11:49am

I'd been looking at The Martian, so based on the recommendations here I've just downloaded.

There was a good tip on a separate thread which worked a treat in terms of getting 2 free credits for Audible.

Just need to decide on a second download now.

El Guapo! wrote: »

I thought this may be of interest to some people in here if you enjoy listening to audiobooks or are interested in giving them a try.

I recently signed up to Audible.com

It's an Amazon company and is actually a bit pricey in my opinion but there's a way to get free books if you sign up.

If you join through the Audible website, you get 1 free audiobook of your choice. Don't do this.

Go to Amazon.com and search for a book you want. Then select the audio version and sign up to Audible through that link. This way you'll get 2 free audiobooks of your choice. Then download the (free) Audible app.

That's what I did and you can cancel at any time and still keep the two books.

As I said, I think the service is pricey. If you decide to keep the membership they charge you at the end of the first month. It's around $15 a month. For this fee you get membership which gives you a discount on audiobooks but they can still be expensive.

If you do like the service, however, and would like to keep the membership, you should go ahead and try to cancel anyway. They immediately offer you half price membership for 6 months.

And if you refuse that and click on "Continue Cancelling" they then offer you a 12 month membership for just $9.95. (I think you lose benefits like discounts and such with this plan though.)

Anyway, I just thought I'd give you guys a heads up about it.

As one of my two free books I chose Stephen Kings "On Writing". It's narrated by the man himself and I'd highly recommend it.

wreade1872 · 07-10-2015 9:44pm

Barely There wrote: »

Would anyone have any Science Fiction recommendations?

I've recently started commuting a couple of hours a day in a car and am mainly listening to podcasts at the moment (can't stand the majority of the crap that's on Irish radio) and am looking to give audio books a try.

Not a book exactly but i thought the play R.U.R aka Rossums Universal Robots was pretty good on Libravox. Literally the origin of the word robot.
https://librivox.org/rur-rossums-universal-robots-by-karel-capek/

I've also been checking out old timey radio shows
http://comicbookplus.com/?cid=2792
also
http://www.otrfan.com
I haven't listened to it yet but just downloaded 'Journey into Space: Operation Luna', an old bbc radio drama.

Its amazing the stuff you can get for free provided you don't mind Ye Olde books or shows, which i don't cause their awesome :cool: .

Captain Havoc · 11-10-2015 11:29pm

Just went through Frederick Forsyth's autobiography which I thought was excellent.

Audio book recommendations

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