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Do you listen to Audiobooks?

[Deleted User]

I've found myself really getting into audiobooks. When I was younger, I used to think that they were only for old people, because of the sheer amount of ones my grandmother used to listen to. However recently I've really turned around and have seen the merit to them. Some of them are absolutely incredible, especially when done right.

So far, my favourite ones have been -

World War Z & The Lost Files: The original audiobook and the Lost Files, which was released in conjunction with the movie adaptation, is absolutely incredible, with both featuring an all-star cast: Nathan Fillion, Simon Pegg, John Turturro, Mark Hamill, Martin Scorsese, Alan Alda, and many many more.

American Gods Tenth Anniversary Edition: For anyone who has not read this incredible book by Neil Gaiman, then go out and get it now. The Tenth Anniversary edition of the audibook features a full-cast, similar to World War Z, who take up the task of reading the mammoth amount of lines that comes from the epic novel.

Bossypants: The Tina Fey autobiography is my favourite biography so far. It is incredibly well written and voiced by Fey herself, which is a funny listen throughout.

Next on my list is the Harry Potters, as read by Jim Dale as opposed to Stephen Fry.

So, what audiobooks have you listened to and what are your favourites?

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_Brian

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Never used it but Audible is very popular and I think it's a monthly sub rather than paying for each individual thing.

Thing is a typical bookmis ~ 15 hours.
I drive at work and I’d say I could manage three books a month, for the Audible sub you get one book a month. Still, I use Audible and love it. The American Library mentioned above sounds interesting.

[Deleted User]

With Audible, you get a monthly membership which gives you anything between 1 - 3 credits, depending on how much you pay. If you're going with it, go with the .com and not the .co.uk - there's a much larger volume on the .com.

You also have the option of purchasing other audiobooks of your choosing outside of your membership.

A good tip would be: you can actually returns books and get that credit back to use towards another book. Even if you've finished listening to it. There's a certain window of time in which this can be done, but can't remember it.

Don't abuse it though - they'll notice and temporarily block you from doing it.

Oldtree

mike_ie wrote: »

I listened to quite a few audiobooks when I was driving long distances across Australia a few years back - found them great for keeping my attention, and not letting my mind wander while driving outback roads. that being said, a lot has to do with the person narrating the book.

Can't imagine listening to them in any other situation though - I prefer to read, and can do so far quicker than any audiobook.

If the audiobooks were keeping your attention, what about the poor kangaroos???

Yes, the oh listens to them driving to and from work as she has had enough of the radio.

El_Duderino 09

I love a good audiobook fir pottering about and doing housework.

The best reader (is orator the term?) I’ve come across is Frank Muller. He’s dead now but he reads some real classics and puts great energy into the performances.

My favs by him are nineteen eighty-four, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank redemption, the green mile, great expectations and silence of the lambs.

And the Alan partridge autobiography was class. I, Partridge. We need to talk about Alan.

Akrasia

_Brian wrote: »

Thing is a typical bookmis ~ 15 hours.
I drive at work and I’d say I could manage three books a month, for the Audible sub you get one book a month. Still, I use Audible and love it. The American Library mentioned above sounds interesting.

You can get loooong audiobooks for your audible credits

The Game of Thrones books are all over 30 hours each with A Storm of Swords being over 47 hours (and all very well narrated)

If you like non fiction, Stephen Pinkers book 'Better Angels of our Nature is 36 hours long and 'How the Mind Works' is 26 hours long

'Behave: The biology of humans at our best and our Worst' by Robert Sapolsky is 26 hours long

'The Fabric of the Cosmos' by Brian Greene is 22 hours long

'Thinking Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman is 20 hours long, but really 60 hours long because it's so good you'll want to listen to it 3 times.

Tokyo

Oldtree wrote: »

If the audiobooks were keeping your attention, what about the poor kangaroos???

Far greater chance of me drifting off just staring out the windscreen at mile after mile of gunbarrel straight road, with no distractions. Audiobooks let me keep my mind on something.

[Deleted User]

If you're looking for a recommendation then I cannot recommend The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin enough - The Passage, City of Mirrors, and The Twelve. It's this sprawling post-apocalyptic story that spans hundreds of years.

The basic story is that there's a botched US Government experiment that turns people into vampires. It's so much more than that. The narration is fantastically well done by Scott Brick. Each book is crazy long too - the first, The Passage, is 36 hours. City of Mirrors is 29 hours. And The Twelve is 26 hours. That's well over a few months of listening.

yeppydeppy

I liked the Hornblower books and the Aubrey-Maturin books. I'm about to listen to the Graham Greene's books and then on to Agatha Christie.

_Brian

I’m listening to “Expidetionary Force” by Craig Alanson.
The Alien AI character Skippy has me bursting out loud laughing at parts.

Oldtree

mike_ie wrote: »

Far greater chance of me drifting off just staring out the windscreen at mile after mile of gunbarrel straight road, with no distractions. Audiobooks let me keep my mind on something.

slightly ot but cant resist it. Reminds me of song by Kate Bush that could well have been the theme tune for your drive

[Deleted User]

There's quite a large selection of audiobooks on YouTube, if anyone wanted to see what they can be like.

Morpork

Ready Player One - Read by Will Wheaton is excellent in terms of the book itself and Will's reading. I didn't have to shout "Shut up Wesley!"

[Deleted User]

John Lee's narration of Ken Follett's novels is just sublime.

Fall of Giants is a masterpiece.

[Deleted User]

Morpork wrote: »

Ready Player One - Read by Will Wheaton is excellent in terms of the book itself and Will's reading. I didn't have to shout "Shut up Wesley!"

I love Wil Wheaton as a narrator in general. He's got such a lovely way about it. If you're interested, check out Red Shirts and Lock In - though it looks like the Wil Wheaton reading of it has been replaced by Amber Benson.

He also did the author of Ready Player One's follow-up book, Armada, but is nowhere near as good as the former.

siblers

Only got into them recently:

All Quiet On The Western Front was superb, I was actually a bit annoyed with myself for not reading it as the use of language is beyond anything I heard before, the narrator did an outstanding job though.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nightime was also brilliant, great story but the narrator was excellent.

11/23/62 was enjoyable but the story dragged at times

Ready Player One was well narrated but it's a stupid story

mikemac2

I like John Grisham books but the whiny American women who reads the new releases needs to be fired.

The earlier Grisham books are read by a chap named Michael Beck who did a few small TV acting jobs but found his calling here , loooooove his style

la ultima guagua

Oldtree wrote: »

Yea get some through the public library here but selection v limited really.
.......

'Suppose it depends what you like.

Catalog for the country as at

https://librariesireland.iii.com/iii/encore/?lang=eng

Generally its possible to order audiobooks from libraries not in your own local authority area

Auldloon

Thank to this thread I downloaded my first audiobook world war z which I've long wanted to read but never got around to. 2 hr listen yesterday on my current weekly commute and I find myself looking forward to the return trip tonight which isn't normal! So thanks op might have just opened up a new world to me!

[Deleted User]

Auldloon wrote: »

Thank to this thread I downloaded my first audiobook world war z which I've long wanted to read but never got around to. 2 hr listen yesterday on my current weekly commute and I find myself looking forward to the return trip tonight which isn't normal! So thanks op might have just opened up a new world to me!

Is it the full cast read? If at all possible, track down that one. I know there's a full cast and a regular narrator. The full cast one has a surprisingly hefty celebrity cast.

zweton

Deleted User wrote: »

With Audible, you get a monthly membership which gives you anything between 1 - 3 credits, depending on how much you pay. If you're going with it, go with the .com and not the .co.uk - there's a much larger volume on the .com.

You also have the option of purchasing other audiobooks of your choosing outside of your membership.

A good tip would be: you can actually returns books and get that credit back to use towards another book. Even if you've finished listening to it. There's a certain window of time in which this can be done, but can't remember it.

Don't abuse it though - they'll notice and temporarily block you from doing it.

keeps directing me to the .co.uk site. How do i get to the .com one?

zweton

Esse85 wrote: »

See below

what app are you using for that?

airuser

Have many audio books on my iPhone. Mainly Thrillers, but some History. Get them from ITunes.

Haven’t tried other companies as reports are very variable.

Ghost Train

I find it okay just to use standard ebooks, if I'm in the car I use text to speech plugin to listen. Fbreader works well.

123shooter

I cant read books or anything really as I can't concentrate for more than a few seconds and just drift off skipping large amounts.

But I used to love listening to radio plays/stories while I was working. I could really get into most of them and enjoy them unless they were trying to message some propaganda or something.

Are audio books like these radio stories/plays or is it just one person reading from a book?

Ghost Train

Anyone remember the storyteller magazines and audio tapes back in the eighties. I think that was my first experience of audio books

123shooter

Are ebooks, story books, audio books, plays with multiple people or just one person reading a story?

Ghost Train

123shooter wrote: »

Are ebooks, story books, audio books, plays with multiple people or just one person reading a story?

Just digital books... For reading on Kindle or screen.

123shooter

Ghost Train wrote: »

Just digital books... For reading on Kindle or screen.

So an audio book is same but one or multiple people?

Ghost Train

123shooter wrote: »

So an audio book is same but one or multiple people?

Audio book is something you listed to, can be one voice or multiple. An ebook you have to read yourself on a screen. However an ebook can be converted to audio with text to speech software but you lose most of the human feel and expression

[Deleted User]

123shooter wrote: »

So an audio book is same but one or multiple people?

Varies. Some can have full-cast reads, with multiple people voicing different characters. Some can be a single person.