The Audiobook thread

[Soln]

There seems to be a growing number of cool audiobooks that have been digitized.  I really would like some examples, since some books have to be edited for audio.

I have some Dickens, the Silmarillion, and I intend to grab Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter and Oscar Wilde's short stories some time.

[satael]

Max Brooks - World War Z is pretty good especially as an audio book.

[Engels]

A good number of Reginal Hill british police mysteries have been put on Audible that have very good narrators. Its a challenge because the author likes to emphasize the Yorkshire 'dialect' quite a bit. My personal favorite is Death's Jest Book.

[Numtini]

Max Brooks - World War Z is pretty good especially as an audio book.

Another vote. Really good job with a full cast.

[naum]

John Hodgman - The Areas of My Expertise
C.S. Lewis - The Screwtape Letters (read by John Cleese)

[K9]

Stephen Fry and Tony Robinson are very comforting voices to listen to. I enjoyed the Discworld audiobooks when I was a lot younger, now I'd generally prefer to actually read the book.

[Moaner]

The first 6 Dune books are phenomenal as is the Song of Fire and Ice series.  Both have excellent narration and are well worth your money at 16+ hours each (per book).  Others I have really enjoyed include The Rise and Fall of Alexandria by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid (if you are into ancient history), I, Claudius by Robert Graves, and last but not least the Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix and narrated by Tim Curry.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and narrated by Ethan Hawke is perhaps the best audio book I've listened too.  The narration is fucking perfect and it's my favorite book.

EDIT:  Audible rule.  I canceled my cable television about a year ago and picked up an audible subscription.  The DRM sucks but god damnit I can't get enough.  I listen on my way to work, while gaming, or just whenever.  It's wonderful.

[Sky]

Libraries do carry audiobooks. We have CD and cassette tapes.

 

[Hawkbit]

Our system (Columbus Metropolitan Libraries) is phasing out cassettes, but our CD selection is pretty good.  I'm in the car for about 1.5 hours a day, so I do more audio than I do text. 

I put Dune and the Slaughterhouse Five selections on order from this thread.  Thanks!

Can't recommend too much, don't think I've listened to many good ones.  At the end of Stephen King's Lisey's Story which although I've enjoyed it I can't recommend it.  Yann Martel's Life of Pi was done very well though. 

[Samwise]

C.S. Lewis - The Screwtape Letters (read by John Cleese)

 

[gryeyes]

Just discovered audio books, been listening to them while i job. Listening to a New Spring by Robert Jordon (never read it). Previously i listened to A Feast of Crows which was excellent. But I would stick to reading in any situation it was viable. Spoken word is too slow for me.

[Murgos]

Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is, if you have any interest in the history of science or even just history, a really, really good audio book.  Well told, humerous, easy to listen to, thought provoking and educational.

David Sedaris is also a great story teller, When You Are Engulfed In Flames is pretty much brilliant.

The Freakanomics audiobook was also very enjoyable and interesting.

[chargerrich]

Currently have William Gibsons Neuromancer on my IPod Touch and it is great, read by author.

[naum]

…But I would stick to reading in any situation it was viable. Spoken word is too slow for me.

Recently, read Will Durant's Heroes of History and happen to own it as an audiobook too. Noted that the audio book is ~15 hours (unabridged) but took me nearly a couple months to complete, whereas reading the book took a couple of reading sessions spaced out over 2-3 days. And total "reading time" was probably 1/3 - 1/2 of the audio time.

But on iPods/iPhones you can speed up the audio (2X) and it works well for a lot of books (no, it doesn't transform speech into chipmunk sounds…)… …and for some works, it actually increased my attention and comprehension as typical speech speed is too slow for me…

Audio > Books (and video) though in one aspect that you can have it playing while you are doing other stuff (even reading) like working or physical tasks…

[bhodi]

How do you speed up audio? I never saw that option.

I listen almost exclusively to audiobooks while I'm doing other things. Mostly in the car, during lunch, while on the bike, sometimes for 15 or 20 minutes before bed, cleaning the house, stuff like that. It's pretty much what I use in place of music.

I have a high threshold voice actors, though - there are only two that I've been unable to listen to. Fahrenheit 451 that was voiced by some horrible wheezing overweight guy that took 3 liquid-sounding breaths per sentence and I just had to turn it off. The second was recent, I believe it was Raymond E. Feist's Magician from the riftwar saga which also featured a guy with such an annoying voice (high pitched and whiny this time) that I couldn't stand it.

Currently on the reality dysfunction, thanks to sky's recommendation.

[naum]

How do you speed up audio? I never saw that option.

If you have the v3.0 OS.

If < 3.0 OS, there is a setting in Settings under iPod I believe, titled something like Audiobook speed (with options for "slower", "normal", or "faster)…

[bhodi]

Noooo, it doesn't work with regular MP3s. Left icon is repeat, middle is genius, right is randomize.

All my audiobooks are mp3s that I just put in their own playlist.

[naum]

Noooo, it doesn't work with regular MP3s. Left icon is repeat, middle is genius, right is randomize.

All my audiobooks are mp3s that I just put in their own playlist.

Oh, only works with podcasts or audiobooks…

And incidentally, the middle button is "go back 30 seconds" button and the left icon is "email link" (only for podcasts, audiobooks show repeat icon…).

[satael]

Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher are another example of books that are actually good in audio format (they are read by James Marsters).