Audible and general audiobook recommendations

Thx Tin. I need to do a search before I comment. TY.

I was just discussing this book on Tom’s stream so I am … I guess I am bumping it.

I’m a little over an hour in. It’s different. I loved the line “See you at heat death.”

(Marq we may be in the wrong thread for this book … but keep me posted. What the author does regarding consciousness versus intelligence can make you change how you think about everyday life afterward. Be warned)

I am trying to listen to Murakami’s Wind/Pinball, but the words keep slipping through my mind. I will have to find something else to listen to.

I will mention this only because it just came out. It is the sequel to that great novel about spiders and human colonization (“Children of Time”). I will be listening to this next.

Sigh sometimes I think I am the only one here that listens to books. You all do realize that there are some AWESOME narrators out there–and you can mow the lawn and listen to some epic stuff at the same time…

There’s dozens of us! Dozens!

Seriously though, I don’t tend to post here because I still count an audiobook as a “book” and tend to post in the book thread about it. I will typically add a note about the narrator at the end of a “review”, just to show solidarity with my audio-consuming brothers and sisters.

I listen to a lot of books. I just can’t do it for fiction books. I just can’t pay attention to everything that’s happening well enough. For non-fiction books and lectures, I have no problems paying attention. For fiction books, I just need to be able to read it and go back over the paragraph again if my mind starts drifting.

I wonder --and let me theorize a bit… do some narrators make a “book” a better “book” if read out loud?

I find myself skipping parts (the new audible interface has me beffudled sometimes)

We need to get you a good fiction book. I wonder…

I’ve expressed many times that I tend to listen to at least one audiobook a month, if not more.

But…not a science fiction fan. At all.

I don’t read books or even ebooks much any more. They’re less relaxing, cause more fatigue, etc. The main issues I have with audiobooks are 1. my headphones are not comfortable when I am lying on my side, and 2. the audiobook apps on my phone are a little flaky. One sometimes starts playing on its own when I put the device down unless I exit the app completely, causing me to lose my place. The other will not advance to the next track automatically.

Oh absolutely. I’m in firm agreement with Stephen King, who famously reads all his book-drafts aloud to himself to make sure that they would sound “natural” if read over the radio. I find that historical books especially benefit from a narrator who can speak any foreign words/names cited in the book.

A good example is one that I’m listening to right now, a translation of an Icelandic Poetic Edda – basically some Norse myths in poem form.

I was at first dismayed when I found out that the author was doing the reading (since writers are very rarely good narrators), and indeed the guy does not have all the traits I like in a good narrator like being able to vary his timbre or accent to indicate who is speaking. BUT he speaks Icelandic and his pronunciation of many of the Nordic names (e.g., Brot af Sigurtharkvithu) is fantastic and far better that what I would have done in my head if I were reading it in dead-tree form.

I’ve only gotten into audio books in the past year and pretty much always have one going when I’m driving. One thing that did surprise me is how much a bad narrator (or one whose voice I simply dislike) can ruin a book that I know I would enjoy otherwise.

If anyone has suggestions for great narrators, who make the words come alive, please list them so I can look for them.

I’m the exact opposite!

Whilst driving I can consume fiction audiobooks no problem, often at 1.5x speed. I own loads of bon fiction things on audible, but I just can’t listen to them in the car, as I find I want to concentrate too much of them .

One of the best non-fiction books I have ever heard. Eisenhower in the Rose Garden still makes me tear up.

So, if you haven’t been grabbing your two free Audible Originals that you get with your Audible subscription every month, you’ve been missing out on some pretty great content. I just listened to A Grown-Up’s Guide to Dinosaurs, which is an audio production structured into 6 podcast-like episodes, and it was really fun. It featured a British paleontologist going over the latest dinosaur science by interviewing a wide variety of experts in the field from around the world (including and on purpose, many women.) Last month I listened to Alien III, which was a full-cast audio production of an unfilmed script by William Gibson for the third film with Michael Biehn and Lance Henrickson reprising their roles from Aliens. (The only misfire there was that they had an American actress play Newt, which was weird.) It was pretty enjoyable, though not devoid of the silliness (hybridization, new alien forms, etc) that pervades much of the Alien mythos these days.

Informative article here on the audiobook narrator biz:

I just signed up and only got 1 free credit for a regular audiobook. How do I access the 2 free Audible Originals?