The nice people at Audiobooks.com contacted me to ask if we’d like to provide you with a list of their best-selling audio books (sure!) and also some info on how you could win a free audio book (that sounds nice too.) I’ve never done the books-on-tape thing myself (except for when I was a kid and my dad read EVERY WORD of The Lord of the Rings into a tape recorder for us so we could take them on car trips) but I know Mallory does!
Here’s what was ear-worming its way into subscribers’ brains last month! You will be SHOCKED to hear that Fifty Shades of Grey continues to be a popular choice for people who do not want to carry around Fifty Shades of Grey. And, of course, delicious YA escapism will never be unseated in our hearts and minds.
Last month’s bestsellers!
- 1. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
- 2. Lone Survivor: the Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell
- 3. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
- 4. The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
- 5. Divergent by Veronica Roth
- 6. Sycamore Row by John Grisham
- 7. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
- 8. Insurgent by Veronia Roth
- 9. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
- 10. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
This would be a great opportunity to talk about books-on-tape in general! Do you like them? Which are your favourites? Who is the best narrator, and who is the worst?
***
Audiobooks.com Wants to give you a FREE Audio Book! – How to Win:
Add @Audiobooks_com on Twitter and Tweet us your favorite book of the month. Include #bookreport #givememybook @Audiobooks_com and be sure to mention where you read yourAudiobooks.com Book Report.
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Tags: audiobooks, books, giveaways, we did not get paid for this but they buy ad space a bunch!
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Veronica Roth on fiyaaahh. Are those books any good?
I don’t like audiobooks, but I’ve never really tried them, and a lot of times I don’t like things but then I try them and they turn out to be great (see: bananas, Spotify) so I’m interested to hear other takes.
1. I love bananas and Spotify being grouped together in any way. Satisfyingly random.
2. Yes, they’re good as long as you don’t mind not knowing the ending and agree to stop reading after the 2nd book.
I just read Allegiant this month, and I really wish I had not finished the series. But, I am a completist, and sometimes it bites me in the face.
Like, seriously?! Ugh.
I… can’t remember if I finished this series or not.
If you cannot remember, you probably didn’t finish it. Bad disappointing ending because of essentially one thing that didn’t need to happen and IMO was just lazy storytelling on Roth’s part.
Agree, agree, agree. You didn’t finish the series. If you did, you would remember.
Ha, I just looked up the ending because I don’t care at all, and you’re right, I don’t think I read the last book. Probably a good thing, based on the seething vitriol it seems to be getting from approximately the entire internet.
The entire last book is just off-the-rails terrible and completely incoherent. I guess I should not have expected much more from a series whose societal system is set up in 5 factions with grammatically un-equivalent names (3 NOUNS AND 2 ADJECTIVES, WHY??)… but the first books were really promising!
They’re sort of an AU where the Hogwarts Houses (plus one) covered the entire society and also it was a dystopia. They have some good points, some very poorly conceived ones, and a very controversial ending (which I liked, or at least I liked the controversial bit, if not the ending overall).
I think they’re doing really well now because of a movie.
I will admit that it wasn’t until I saw the movie preview that I got the book. I ultimately did not finish the book, but might still see the movie. Should I be ashamed of that? Perhaps.
The only time I’ve ever listened to an audiobook is when my friends and I were driving from Atlanta to Vancouver, and we rented “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer” from Cracker Barrel. It was good times.
(Did you know that Cracker Barrel rents audiobooks that you can take with you on your road trip and return to any other Cracker Barrel in America? Or at least they did in 2007. It’s amazing!)
I was just about to say, Cracker Barrel rents audiobooks? That’s brilliant!
That is a brilliant marketing tool. Who thought of that, seriously.
That’s really cool! They still do, apparently: http://www.crackerbarrel.com/travel/books-on-audi…
I have a sometimes-suspended audible account that fills in the gap for me whenever (rare) I can’t find what I want for free download from one of my libraries or from audiobookjukebox.com (they are a clearing house for review copies of audiobooks, like Net Galley kinda.) But I’ve begun investigating audiobooks.com since I’ve seen them on the ad banners here so much.
I love audiobooks. I mostly listen to them in the car – I do fairly regular long trips and I get bored of music for that long – or on the horse.
My one tip (learned the hard way) is not to get ‘difficult to read’ books – I got Northern Lights but get quite emotional when the shit goes down with Roger and Lyra and Mrs Coulter, and it does distract me in the car. Same for The Once and Future King – I am driving down the motorway and find myself starting to sniffle about Gwen and Lance!
So I mostly stick to books I know aren’t going to rip my heart out, as I need to be able to focus on whatever else I’m doing.
I’ve been meaning to start listening to audiobooks when I’m just kicking around with my kid, because it’s obviously good for her to randomly listen to books and I feel bad resting my feet on her while I flip lazily through paperbacks.
Start with Bossypants by Tina Fey!
I love listening to books when I’m goofing off around the house.
YES! I like audiobooks for memoirs of funny people– I had to pull over when I listened to the Bloggess memoir because I was laughing and snorting so hard. The key is to find books read by the funny person themselves. I also like audiobooks as a way to revisit titles I’ve read before and want to re-read again but don’t have the at-home time for.
Bloggess was an amazingly funny audiobook. Sedaris is similarly delightful, obviously (do not drive and listen to The Youth in Asia at the same time).
I listen to classics / reread with audio b/c the language is delicious and being familiar with the story makes it easy to stay on board.
Audio is the reason I’m so into romance, now, and mysteries and YA are also so good for it. I could listen to an Agatha Christie every day, or a Wodehouse. They’re so accessible.
Like @Es_Petal recommended, stick with lighthearted stuff for audio books! At least for me, that’s what works best. When I had a car, I got audiobooks on CDs from the library, and I’d listen to them even on my commute, which wasn’t more than 20 minutes. It was a more productive way to pass the time than listening to awful radio DJs or trying to get my ipod to work w/ the car radio which it never did. But I only listened in short bursts, and sometimes I’d zone out if someone cut me off or whatever, which is why light books were best.
I particularly enjoy when authors narrate their own stuff, and for audiobooks I lean toward nonfiction and specifically funny memoirs. Tina Fey narrates Bossypants! It’s fantastic.
I WANT THE VERSION OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS READ BY YOUR DAD
He did all the voices and sometimes dropped coffee on his lap accidentally and said “oh, fuck!” and then went back to being, like, Elrond or whatever. It took literally dozens of cassette tapes.
This is amazing.
I desperately want this.
I had a sort-of audio book – the BBC did The Lord of the Rings (with Ian Holm doing the voice of FRODO – how cool?!) that I adore with sound effects and voice actors and I think it had Bill Nighy.
God, why don’t I have this anymore? Oh wait, I remember, cassette tapes. So a better question is why haven’t I bought this on CD YET??
Oh my god. Do you still have them?? I assume no because, cassette tapes, but oh MAN.
It’s your brother! It’s 26 and a half tapes, and I still have them!
EVERYONE, this is my brother! MIKE WHERE ARE THEY??? I have to hear them again! How come you got them? Our parents have always liked you more, and I’m the one with a successful ladyblog. All you have is a hot nerd-wife.
I took them with me when I went to school, and of course kept them ever since! It’s just about my only valued possession that isn’t beer or food related. Last time I listened to them they still worked, but it has been awhile since i owned a cassette player. Dad said I should have trashed them when I moved to the States, but I refused.
If they’re still working, I will try to get them into a digital format somehow!
Yes! YES. I cannot wait to hear them.
http://lifehacker.com/222394/alpha-geek-how-to-di…
Turns out the aforementioned hot nerd-wife was planning to secretly digitize them for me as a present sometime in the future, so we just sent her back to the drawing board. Thanks for the link! We’ll do that and send you a copy if it works. I’ll admit, I kind of kept them for your kids as much as for myself, so I’d really like us to be able to keep them.
Jenna is literally the perfect woman for you. xoxoxoxox
This is possibly the best conversation I have ever read.
He’s not Nicole’s dad, but some guy on youtube made a complete recording of Lord of the Rings with music and different voices and sound effects and everything. I’ve never been much of an audiobook person but I’m partway through The Two Towers now and am completely addicted.
I misread as The L Word of The Rings, which, wow, possible inroad into fantasy for resistant me.
Possible future Femslash Friday post?
My friends and I listened to Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White during the drive(s) from Boston to Atlanta and back and it was narrated by Roger Rees (aka Robin Colcord from “Cheers” or Lord John Marbury from “West Wing” [his two greatest roles and I won’t hear a word otherwise]) and it was pretty great. Highly recommended A+++++ 5 stars.
I love that I can so clearly picture him in both those roles and I’m giggling. I wouldn’t have been able to name that actor for the life of me, but now I’ll remember him.
Sorry, I know this is creepy, but hello friend/fellow curmudgeon! (This is C, by the way.)
That was an excellent audiobook, wasn’t it? I suppose it was a blessing in disguise that those Sherlock Holmes CDs fizzled out in New Jersey.
HELLO! Yes, the Sherlocks were OK but Roger Rees was better, IMO. It ALMOST distracted me from the unbelievably agony of that sunburn I incurred.
Oh man, that was awful! That Georgia sun was nuts.
Also I confess that I did not know who Roger Rees was until just now. Whoops.
I enjoy books on tape. As a child, my dad would make up fabulous stories in the car (which featured my sister and I as the protagonists, of course). When we got older, audio books were the replacement, especially for long road trips.
But, on another note, I AM SO ANGRY that the World War Z audio book is abridged. They cut out some amazing stories (like the one about the K-9 unit, I believe?) which is an utter travesty. I don’t know why horrific events like this happen.
I mean, I get that recording audio books is hard; I recorded books on tape for hard-of-learning middle schoolers as my Girl Scout Gold Award project. But come on.
Boo to abridged audio books!
Definitely boo to abridged ones – not the same!
There’s an unabridged version now! http://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/world-war-z-t…
WHAT
I LOVE YOU
I love audiobooks! I walk half an hour to work, so I listen to them most days. And sometimes I listen while I’m knitting or doing the dishes. I have to be doing something though, if I just sit and try to listen, my mind will wander off. It is true, light-hearted books are better, and I try to stay away from overly complicated stuff because it’s a lot harder to scan through audio when I want to go back and reread a certain part.
One of the best narrators is Anna Fields, who has done a lot of Louise Erdrich’s books. Her voices are the best! I love narrators when it feels like they’re just sitting around telling me a story instead of performing.
Also Wil Wheaton has done audiobook narration and that is fun.
The worst narration experience I have had is with Katie Heaney’s book. What I love about her writing is the conversational tone, when I read her stuff I feel like I can hear her voice because she sounds like the way my friends and I talk. The narrator did not capture this for me, and I found myself playing the lines back in my head with the intonation I would have put on them. (Also she pronounced “ugh” like “ug” when to me it’s more like a sound you make in the back of your throat than an actual word.) The book itself is great though, I recommend it!
I never knew I NEEDED this until now!
Ugh, I agree re: Katie Heaney’s book. The narration just isn’t doing it for me, but I love Katie’s writing.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… best audiobook ever is Stephen Fry’s reading of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Pretty much any audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry gets my vote. Haven’t heard this one yet, will check out!
Oh shit. I’ve listened to my recordings of the original BBC radio broadcast enough times to almost memorize it – I think I’ll have to switch it up with this one.
I’ve only ever listened to the originals too – I am not sure I can tear myself away even for Fry!
I have several fond memories of listening to mass market mysteries (can’t even remember which ones) on CD while on long car trips with my mom. (MEM > PGH and MEM > NOLA, mostly). We could easily talk over them and pay attention to the road, but they provided some interest and humor along the way. We had one that was a pretty unengaging mystery but had, for some reason, richly detailed descriptions about furniture and interior design. Captivating!
I don’t drive, though, and I don’t like to have my ears plugged up on my relatively short commute, so in adulthood I just see audiobooks as a playground for audioslash, which was memorably introduced to me at an academic conference. (Harry/Umbridge slash in Stephen Fry’s voice?!)
When my husband was gone for two months last year I got DEEPLY into audiobooks! I had two main categories: nonfiction read by the author (I listened to all of Bill Bryson’s travelogues, that he read, and it was excellent) and classics. I listened to the first five Anne of Green Gables books all read by the same author (and an ANCIENT recording that was super scratchy), and Little Women, and a bunch of other classics that are just lovely to listen to. Many many many long walks, those were the best.
My dad loves audiobooks as well and apparently the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency audiobooks are read by a spectacular South African voice actress who nails all the Setswana words perfectly and they’re just a delight.
Yup! I love Bill Bryson’s audiobooks as well. It’s like he’s just in the car with you, telling you some stories like a friend would.
Oh yes! I made a 14-hour road trip alone in my car while listening to Bill Bryson tell me about Australia. It was lovely.
Yes! Lisette Lecat! She’s got the best rhythms to her work and really gets the tone of those books (the small details of life that occupy your brain to the exclusion of so much else.)
Bill Bryson’s ones are lovely! Though I tend to find myself more enthralled by his accent than his actual words sometimes, but that’s okay since his stuff is all rambly anyway.
My family regularly listens to audio books on long car rides. I still remember my mother being annoyed about the fourth Harry Potter book’s sudden foray into YA grimness, because she bought the book on tape for a long car ride with my (at the time) five year old sister. What’s funny is that I remember several far more inappropriate audio books from my childhood.
I have a very vivid memory of a long car ride where we listened to this book on tape of a novel about some kind of horrific disease. I recall the symptoms were kind of like Ebola (may actually have been Ebola) and it started with a bunch of vignettes about early patients in various different locations dying horribly. I think most of the second half was about the main characters going to some remote location in Africa where there were some people who had a cure for the virus? Anyway, I found the whole thing very traumatizing.
Also, I was significantly older at the time, so I actually enjoyed it, but on the way home from girl scout camp with my dad, we listened to what I’m pretty sure was Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror.
Possibly Outbreak by Robin Cook? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outbreak_%28novel%29
In the YA Fantasy genre, I enjoyed Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. It is read by Kate Reading, who pretty much has the best name ever for an audio book narrator.
Hi.
I listen to over 100 audiobooks a year.
Yeah.
I really really like audiobooks.
(My job involves a lot of numbers: I justify my at-work listening by claiming that both sides of my brain can work independently.)
I paused Elizabeth Hoyt’s Duke of Midnight to type this reply.
I really, really, really like audiobooks.
SO: Favorite narrator (the one my spouse recognizes now and says ‘you’re going to bed with another man again’ about) is Simon Vance. He wins for all mystery, classics, and whenever I’m willing to listen to SFF stuff. The whole Patrick O’Brien Aubrey-Maturin series! BLISS. He’s got a complete Sherlock Holmes collection out now that I’m drooling over.
Favorite narrator, YA division: Katherine Kellgren, hands down. GENIUS with voices, can sing wonderfully, in character, which makes her rendition of LA Meyer’s Jacky Faber books just stunning. (Also check out Maryrose Wood’s Incorrigible Children series, tons of fun w/ howling & yipping & seriously delightful to the youngsters as well as their parents.)
Others I will always listen to, no matter the genre (well, just about, but I discover new types of books by following these people across the audio world): Xe Sands, Juliet Stevenson, Simon Prebble (my other Simon), Jim Dale (duh! HP narrator), Ralph Cosham (his readings of Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache books make me weep), Rebecca Lowman (oh, she does all of Rainbow Rowell’s stuff to perfection!), Cassandra Campbell, Edoardo Ballerini, Kate Reading, Mark Bramhall, Rosalyn Landor (best for historical romance), Lorelei King (for funny contemporary romance), Davina Porter (I am in love with her character work – check out her Josephine Tey stuff & also Alexander McCall Smith. Oh, and Elizabeth George!)
Authors reading their own stuff: sometimes amazing (Tina Fey, Libba Bray w/ Beauty Queens), sometimes excruciating (George Saunders w/ Tenth of December, I’m looking at you. And unfortunately, listening to you, which: stop.) Ditto with the whole celebrity narrator thing. Sure, Anne Hathaway had fun with The Wizard of Oz, but Elijah Wood’s Huck Finn was kinda tedious. Sometimes it’s best to just let the people who narrate all the time do their thing, you know?
I have an inexhaustible supply of things to say about audiobooks. I’ve listened to #s 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 & 10 from the above list – all great. I even was willing to stick with the end of the Divergent books (despite what I’d heard about the end of the trilogy) thanks to the narration.
YES! Rebecca Lowman is so good with Rainbow Rowell, and Jim Dale is amazing (like that even needs to be said, but I’ll say it anyway because the Harry Potter audiobooks saved my brain during my mad dissertation-writing phase last year). John Green reading John Green is also pretty great, and Jayne Entwhistle does the Flavia de Luce novels to perfection. I prefer listening to them to reading them, actually.
Oh, how I love audiobooks. ::happy sigh::
I listen tons too. what else can you do with a long commute? Faves:
Simon Prebble and Tony Britton reading Dick Francis.
Simon Brett, reading his own work. Everyone please start listening to the Feathering mysteries. I need someone to talk to about them.
Michael Beck reading John Grisham. (I know. Grisham. But…. But his voice is just so…. soothing.)
Davina Porter! Everyone must go out and buy her reading of The Ladies of Missalonghi immediately. Or I can make you copies of my cassette version, but the last 10 minutes is cut off so I will have to tell you how it ends.
Ubiquitous readers I don’t really care for:
-Scott Brick. A little whiny. (But somehow keeps getting work reading great books, so I own several and just have to put up with him.)
-Most American women reading in the 1990s. I don’t know why, but it seems as a nation, we had a brief love-affair with a listless, monotone style.
Simons Prebble and Vance are the dual audiobook kings of my heart. Simon Slater also does a bang-up job on Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (although they got Simon Vance for Bring Up the Bodies–trouble in Simon paradise???). I recently listened to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Simon Prebble) and it is maybe the most fun I’ve ever had listening to an audiobook. I highly, highly recommend it. However I afterwards tried to recapture the high by listening to Little, Big, which was narrated by its author, John Crowley, and that was TERRIBLE and maybe the least fun I’ve ever had listening to an audiobook. Crowley’s natural voice sounds like Droopy Dog, he can’t do character voices, he mispronounces words (which like what??? You teach at YALE.) and the story is incredibly meandering, 25 hours long, and has only the barest sliver of plot. So of course if you try to listen for longer than 30 minutes at a time your (or at least my) mind wanders like crazy. It’s a terrible choice for audio, even if you have a pretty good attention span.
Anyway, TL:DR, Never listen to anything not narrated by someone named Simon. And please dear god if you care for your sanity do not listen to Little, Big on audio…it’s been a week and I haven’t even downloaded anything new because I’m still recovering.
I’ll be happy listening to whatever Simon Says (<– see what I did there?) (I know, I am hilarious. Pick yourself up off the floor now.) I don’t know Simon Slater’s work (he’s not a Vance or a Prebble, so I read Wolf Hall instead of listening.)
Hahaha I searched him on Audible and apparently the only other things Simon Slater has ever recorded are the audiobooks of several “for Dummies” books. Definitely a minor Simon.
I just downloaded The Ladies of Grace Adieu though, so I’m geared up for more Prebble time.
Yes! Fellow 2 hour commuter here. I’m listening to Bring Up the Bodies now, and Simon Vance is terrific. The Simons in general are killing it. Will check out Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell based on this endorsement!
Other good ones: Edwina Wren reading People of the Book, and Robin Sachs reading Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series/other Scandinavian mysteries. But he just died 🙁
When we did long road trips around the Southwest when I was a kid, we listened to a ton of Tony Hillerman books on tape. (and now I’m having all kinds of feeeeeelings)
My very favorites are the CS Lewis books as read by Very Important British Actors. From there, Derek Jacobi reading The Dawn Treader, or Kenneth Branagh reading The Magician’s Nephew. They do all the voices! And Derek Jacobi doing the Reepicheep voice is the cutest thing ever.
I’m really into audiobooks, but only very specific ones. I cannot stand to be read to (only exception was when my dad read all The Chronicles of Narnia books and everything written by Laura Ingalls Wilder), but for some reason nonfiction audiobooks are exempt from this hatred. I’m currently working my way through all the Caro LBJ books, and I drove through Johnson City a few weeks ago during the section on his terrible childhood which was exciting.
I just bought BJ Novak’s new book on audiobook but only because Mindy Kaling narrates some of it. Had she not, I definitely would have just waited for it to show up at the library.
You just inspired me to put the audiobook on hold at the library.
I am totally on board with audiobooks conceptually and harbor a deep hatred for them in practice. Your voice doesn’t sound like my voice! Don’t do those sounds at me! Get off my lawn!
YESSS me too! I’ve listened to exactly two, Tina Fey’s and Mindy Kaling’s, but I refuse to touch any others.
No Twitter, no Facebook, no free audiobook for me. 🙁
The voice is critical to the audiobook’s quality. I borrowed an Alice Munro audiobook from the library recently; either Munro doesn’t make for a good audiobook or the non-Canadian readers made the material sound dry as dust. I think I would rather hear an author read from their own work.
Librivox.org has free audio books for everybody! At least if you like books in the public domain read by volunteers.
And some of them, especially now that Librivox has been around for some time, are quite good! One of my favorite podcasts, Craftlit* often uses Librivox recordings for the audiobook portion of her podcasts so I’ve gotten a lot of exposure.
*If you are at all into classic lit, especially if you were any kind of an English/literature class nerd as a kid, I would HIGHLY recommend Craftlit. I think the lady behind it, Heather Ordover, describes it as an “audiobook with benefits”. One book at a time, each episode is a chapter or two or three of the book. Episode starts off with a little crafty chat, then she talk about that part of the book you’re going to listen to, then she plays the book audio. Heather is a former English teacher/curriculum writer/current writer of miscellany, so she knows her stuff and is SO good at teaching the important stuff in a fun way. She’s been doing the show since 2006 or 2007, so there’s a huge back catalog (though the early audiobook audio isn’t great, since it relied on early Librivox stuff which was…less than stellar).
LOVE audiobooks. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts pretty much anytime I’m doing anything that requires movement but little thinking (driving, walking, getting ready, working sometimes).
Lighter ones are generally better, but there are times when denser books are really enjoyable – case in point, spending most of this past Sunday vaguely hungover in bed listening to Hild. I love the narrator’s accent, too – it adds a lot to the story!
Tamora Pierce narrates many of her own books, at least in the full-cast audio (so she’ll narrate the text but different actors will do the dialogue), and does it really well. The ones she doesn’t read have great narrators too.
There are only two of hers on Audible UK and I’ve never heard of either of them! Bah. I do like dense books too – I’ve got all the Mars trilogy books and a couple of Umberto Eco’s which I love, it’s just the ones that make me cry I can’t deal with!
UGH regional differences in content availability! Rude, Audible UK.
What are the Mars trilogy about? I don’t know those, but I’d love more space books in my life.
OH but the worst is when there’s a really dense book that seems interesting, but the narrator is terrible. I never made it through The Devil in the White City because I couldn’t get into Scott Brick’s narration, even though you’d think all that murdering would be gripping.
They really are rude – they’ve got all of the Dark is Rising except the actual Dark Is Rising. I’m about to crack and buy it on a million CDs from Amazon instead.
The Mars trilogy are Red, Blue and Green Mars – Kim Stanley Robinson. They’re about a mission to Mars to colonise it and what happens next. Not *really* spacey, more about the mechanics of worldbuilding, shaping the planet, the tension between making the planet habitable and leaving it Mars-y, the relations between the people, how the environment affects them, how they start a political system, etc etc. I love them – I know many people who find them really tedious.
YOUR DAD IS MY HERO. (Seriously, I’m in awe.)
I love audiobooks. It took me a while to get into them, but now they’re the main thing I listen to when I’m driving (two hours of commuting each day!) and running and washing dishes. I mean, you can read books with your ears EVEN WHEN YOUR EYES ARE BUSY. Mind. Blown. Also, they make me notice different things about books than I pick up on with book-books, and they force me to go at the pace of the book, not at the pace of my racing-ahead eyeballs. This works great for some books (The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter has been a particular favorite for this reason), not so great for others (The Golem and the Jinni just seemed to drag onnnnnnnnnnnn).
Tl;dr: YAY AUDIOBOOKS.
YOUR DAD IS MY HERO. (Seriously, I'm in awe.)
I love audiobooks. It took me a while to get into them, but now they're the main thing I listen to when I'm driving (two hours of commuting each day!) and running and washing dishes. I mean, you can read books with your ears EVEN WHEN YOUR EYES ARE BUSY. Mind. Blown. Also, they make me notice different things about books than I pick up on with book-books, and they force me to go at the pace of the book, not at the pace of my racing-ahead eyeballs. This works great for some books (The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter has been a particular favorite for this reason), not so great for others (The Golem and the Jinni just seemed to drag onnnnnnnnnnnn).
Tl;dr: YAY AUDIOBOOKS.
The best audiobook I’ve listened to is The Secret History read by Donna Tartt. She does the absolute best voice for Bunny and I catch myself saying things like, “all right old man” in Donna’s Bunny voice more often that you might think (or about exactly as often as you might think, depending on how amused you are by funny voices.)
I want to hear the audio version of Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being since she read it herself, but haven’t bothered to track it down.
I used to listen to audio books while commuting to and from work in a rural community where I was spending 2+ hours in the car each day. Now I have an urban commute (that is still stupidly long because of commuter traffic), but have shied away from audiobooks in favor of NPR and sports talk radio. At this point, I only listen to audiobooks when I’m on drives that are 3+ hours in length one-way.
I got A Tale for the Time Being from my library, and it was fantastic! All the languages and the songs and the chanting. It was a great audiobook (although she had this note at the end about footnotes and other things that were part of the physical book and couldn’t be included). Highly recommended!
Here is where I lay down and wail into the void: why is there no downloadable audiobook of The Silmarillion WHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY …
I listen to many, many audiobooks because I work a mostly-menial-labour job at a bookstore early in the mornings, and it a) assists with product knowledge and b) passes the time enjoyably. I just finished Bethany Frenette’s YA books Dark Star and Burn Bright which were actually really well written and interesting! I never thought of myself as an audiobook person, but it turns out I definitely am.
It’s pretty weird how narration can make or break a book for me; if the narrator’s voice is off-putting I will leave the book forever. Conversely, often the reading-out-loud makes me realize how terrible the writing is (I couldn’t get through the Lunar Chronicles because Marissa Meyer turns her phrases slightly wrong all the time and it made me SO CRAZY; I also wince whenever I hear the word ‘splayed’ in a Susan Elizabeth Phillips audiobook (so often)).
The Star Wars EU books I have listened to all have really great narration with sound effects and pretty awesome voices. The Redwall audiobooks are all done with a full cast, even though they get boring and repetitive for adults after four or five. Every Terry Pratchett audiobook is incredible; I can’t count the number of times I have been caught either giggling or teary-eyed midst the shelves by a coworker.
I HAVE NEVER EVEN THOUGHT OF LISTENING TO TERRY PRATCHETT. Mind. Blown.
Two more things (of the many millions more things I could probably say about audiobooks):
1. Not all nonfiction is a winner on audiobook, but Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear was terrific. I never wanted to stop listening to it.
2. librivox.org collects recordings of public domain books by volunteers. The quality can be hit or miss, but they’re free, and they don’t require library software to download or listen to. I can still hear the voice of the guy who read Babbitt, and I miss him sometimes.
I looove librivox! I listened to so much Wodehouse that way. And the Pickwick Papers, which I never would have listened to otherwise. Debra Lynn is one of my favorite readers- her voice takes some getting used to, but she’s great at the dry humor in Wodehouse and Dickens.
I loved LOVED the Velveteen Rabbit audiobook as a kid. It’s been awhile. BUT, with those good ole days of listening about scarlet fever and the heartbreaking sacrifice of one worn bunny I will only listen to an audiobook if read by Meryl Streep. Very specific demands, I know, there will be no budging.
Meryl Streep reads Nora Ephron’s _Heartburn_. It was to die for.
Yaaaaaaaaay! Thanks for the tip.
I am just getting into audiobooks since I started having to make really long trips. Two weeks ago I had to drive somewhere for 8 hours (6 of which were out of radio range) and then back and I probably would have had to spray myself in the face with bearspray to stay awake otherwise. I listened to The Handmaid’s Tale read by Claire Danes and the Graveyard Book read by Neil Gaiman. Both of them were really good and highly recommended.
Gaiman reading is always, always a treat.
I got really into audiobooks a few years ago when I was having problems concentrating on reading; I wasn’t very fond of them before because I tend to listen to stuff while multitasking (which is not so great for paying attention to an audiobook), but when I didn’t feel like doing much else besides staring at the ceiling, listening to someone read me a story really made me feel a lot better. YA fantasy is fun but humor essays work even better for me.
I have a tremendous fondness for Alex Jennings as a narrator because I fell completely in love with his work on the Dark Is Rising books and have since tracked down other audio work that he’s done, but I also really like some of the dramatisations of novels that the BBC has done. I guess technically those aren’t quite books on tape, but sometimes I just need someone to summarise John le Carre novels with a full cast for me, okay? And my local library shelves them with audiobooks, so I say close enough!
Yes, I like the BBC dramatisation of the Honourable Schoolboy better than either the audiobook or the actual book!
Surprised no one’s mentioned His Dark Materials: Philip Pullman narrates, with a WHOLE CAST of people playing the characters in the books. During high school, I borrowed them from the library every summer and spent a month playing the tapes on my stereo (I’M OLD) before going to sleep.
I will always be absolutely obsessed with the audiobooks for the His Dark Materials trilogy. They’re narrated by Philip Pullman with a full cast, and they could not be more perfect. I’ve listened to them so many times that when I read anything at all that Pullman has written, I can hear him reading it to me in my head. Plus the rest of the cast is perfection, and when the Golden Compass movie came out, my biggest problem with it (apart from the fact that it was, you know, horrible, and also RUINED EVERYTHING) was that the voices were all wrong!!
For those of you who have not read Code Name Verity, I LOVED the audiobook of that, and the narrators did a really excellent job (Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell). Rose Under Fire by the same author was also good.
Oh, I will burst into spontaneous tears just from you mentioning that book. The audio was STUNNING; one of my most memorable listening experiences. Lots of sitting in the garage because I couldn’t tear myself away with that one.
Yes! One of the best audio productions I’ve listened to and I was totally engaged right from the start. But oops, I shouldn’t have listened to the end while on public transport…
The other best narrations I’ve listened to are Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys, read by Lenny Henry and Melina Marchetta’s On The Jellicoe Road, read by Rebecca Macauley.
I spend about 2 hours in the car a day, and audiobooks are pretty much the only way I get any fun reading in. My very very favorite ones are the Dresden Files series, read by Spike, er, James Marsters.
My mother rents As I Lay Dying every summer and listens to it on her little stereo while she gardens or works around the house, humming and like, mouthing the words.
I heard Slaughterhouse 5 for the first time over a January in high school, my mom would play it every time we drove together and I remember reaching the end in a parking lot of a staples with my mom, my mom’s friend, my boyfriend, and myself all just stock still and waiting for the last bit. Despite this, I have never really listened to them on my own, much like my language study CDs I pause them and then leave the room FOREVER
Alan Rickman made Thomas Hardy (the Return of the Native, even!) enjoyable. I fully expect Benedict Cumberbatch to start reading audiobooks soon to take up the slack.
Last year there was a project where famous people each read a chapter of Moby Dick, and he read one. http://www.mobydickbigread.com/
dakiman already mentioned Rebecca Lowman reading Rainbow Rowell BUT I want to re-iterate! The audio version of Eleanor & Park is so, so perfect, heart-breaking, funny, etc. etc. etc. that I created an account just to recommend it. If you like (80s pop culture, teen romance, things that make you cry, stories about outcasts, the Beatles) i.e. if you have a heart, go get it. I think I listened to about 60 audiobooks last year and it was definitely my favorite.
I LOVE audiobooks! My job affords me a lot of quiet time and I’ve learned that I don’t hate jogging so much when I have a good book to listen to. Plus, I’d rather read to the exclusion of all other things so this allows me to do chores while still enjoying myself.
The first book I listened to was The Night Circus. I don’t think I would have loved reading the book itself but Jim Dale read the book and it was AMAZING (why can’t Jim Dale narrate my life?)! Since then I’ve used Podiobooks.com, Librivox, and in the last few months dropped some bad habits and picked up an Audible subscription in their place.
Ahh! My mom and I listened to a LOT of audiobooks when driving around when I was in middle school/early high school. It was so great, except for when we got into a traffic snarl and my mom would have to rewind a little because she stopped paying attention to the story. I tend to get really restless when I’m listening to audiobooks/podcasts, because I need something to do with my hands, but I will always think fondly of audiobooks, particularly books on tape. (36 tapes of Gone With The Wind! Thirty-six! Oh man.)
I’m addicted to audiobooks. I recommend listening to them while cleaning, or gardening, or doing any kind of mindless, menial chores (putting on makeup!). I would not have enjoyed a quarter of the books I “read” in the past ten years without audiobooks.
I appreciate all the great recommendations here and will add a few of my own. Neil Gaiman reading anything is amazing but especially _American Gods_ and _Anansi Boys_. And you have not lived until you’ve heard Jonathan Cecil read Jeeves and Wooster books. My husband almost crashed the car laughing.
Simons Prebble and Vance are the dual audiobook kings of my heart. Simon Slater also does a bang-up job on Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (although they got Simon Vance for Bring Up the Bodies–trouble in Simon paradise???). I recently listened to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Simon Prebble) and it is maybe the most fun I've ever had listening to an audiobook. I highly, highly recommend it. However I afterwards tried to recapture the high by listening to Little, Big, which was narrated by its author, John Crowley, and that was TERRIBLE and maybe the least fun I've ever had listening to an audiobook. Crowley's natural voice sounds like Droopy Dog, he can't do character voices, he mispronounces words (which like what??? You teach at YALE.) and the story is incredibly meandering, 25 hours long, and has only the barest sliver of plot. So of course if you try to listen for longer than 30 minutes at a time your (or at least my) mind wanders like crazy. It's a terrible choice for audio, even if you have a pretty good attention span.
Anyway, TL:DR, Never listen to anything not narrated by someone named Simon. And please dear god if you care for your sanity do not listen to Little, Big on audio…it's been a week and I haven't even downloaded anything new because I'm still recovering.
When my parents were done reading to me around the age of six/seven, I wasn’t ready to stop listening, so they got me a tape player and then a CD player. I’d listen to it past lights out (before I learned to sneak a flashlight) and fall asleep to it… I listened to Jim Dale narrate Harry Potter so much throughout my childhood that if I have trouble sleeping now, I find a copy and it makes me feel safe and protected, like a kid, again. Nightmares begone!
I still listen to books while going to sleep or in the car. Aural and oral cues make some older works a lot more accessible, I think… there’s no way I could have made it through Dorian Gray by sight alone.
Some of my favorite audiobooks have been Shannon Hale’s Books of Bayern, OSC’s Enderverse, David Sedaris reading his own work, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, Artemis Fowl, Graceling, Protector of the Small, the Bartimaeus books (Bartimaeus is hysterical on the page, but the narrator gets the inflections *perfectly*)… most recently I’ve heard Maggie Stiefvater’s “Raven Boys” and now I think I have a Chekov short story and Beka Cooper loaded on my mp3 player. (I read anything, but I prefer lighter stuff when going to sleep, for obvious reasons… hence all of the YA.)
It kills me that, to this day, I’ve not found an audiobook of anything by Megan Whalen Turner.
Hahaha I searched him on Audible and apparently the only other things Simon Slater has ever recorded are the audiobooks of several "for Dummies" books. Definitely a minor Simon.
I just downloaded The Ladies of Grace Adieu though, so I'm geared up for more Prebble time.
Roy Dotrice does quite a bad job of narrating the Song of Ice and Fire books. He does 'voices' for the characters which would be fine if he could keep the voices and the characters straight, but he can't. He changes accents for the same character, sometime within one chapter. He puts on inappropriate regional-England voices. People who have listened to these books will know what I mean. Brienne sounds like a hobbit most of the time.
YESSS me too! I've listened to exactly two, Tina Fey's and Mindy Kaling's, but I refuse to touch any others.
I’m late to the party, but I <3 audio books and here are my recommendations:
The Jacky Faber series (read by Katherine Kellgren, the best narrator in the world)
N0s4a2 (read by Kate Mullgrew, who somehow is also the best narrator in the world)
Outlander et seq. (read by Davina Porter, who comes in third)
Bossypants
The Power of Vulnerability (Brene Brown, she’s giving a talk)
The Sookie Stackhouse series
How to be a Woman (read by Caitlin Moran, the author)
Then Again (read by Diane Keaton, the author)
I’ve listened to a bunch more that were good but nothing particularly special. The Hamish MacBeth and Agatha Raisin audiobooks aren’t bad, but print is probably better. The Hunger Games trilogy was a big disappointment — the narrator makes an effort to sound like a teenager for the first few minutes of the first book, but then comes across (to me, anyway) as a middle-aged woman for the rest of it.
Twitter link https://twitter.com/MsCarolsueA/status/4410809372…
I mentioned I liked The Goldfinch!
Love, love, love audiobooks. I listen to them while cooking, doing chores, walking around, shopping, anything. I tend to only get books I’ve already read, in case my mind wonders, but they always bring a new dimension to the stories.
Favourites so far are all the Harry Potters by Stephen Fry, all the Pratchett Witches of Lancre by Nigel Planer (so so so good), and the Tiffany Aching series by Stephen Briggs.
Witches Abroad is particularly impressive – in a novel where 95% of the characters are women, Planer (a man!) manages to give them perfect voices, accents, and personalities. It’s wonderful.
Love, love, love audiobooks. I listen to them while cooking, doing chores, walking around, shopping, anything. I tend to only get books I've already read, in case my mind wonders, but they always bring a new dimension to the stories.
Favourites so far are all the Harry Potters by Stephen Fry, all the Pratchett Witches of Lancre by Nigel Planer (so so so good), and the Tiffany Aching series by Stephen Briggs.
Witches Abroad is particularly impressive – in a novel where 95% of the characters are women, Planer (a man!) manages to give them perfect voices, accents, and personalities. It's wonderful.