I need something to listen to while at the gym. Any suggestions?
My interests are probably pretty typical for this board. I like pretty much all genres of fiction, and most nonfiction as well.
Hitch Hikers Guide!
Well the BBC version at least.
Yes, the Hitchhicker’s Guide radio show was great. The audiobook was actually quite boring compared to the radio drama.
Yeah I dunno how many parts they made but I heard the first book and its A+. Its very very entertaining.
Either “The Screwtape Letters” or “Dante’s Inferno” read by John Cleese.
Also, audio courses from “The Teaching Company”. They pick the best professors in the country and have them record multi-lecture courses on various topics. (Usually averaging around 20 hours for a particular course).
Go here, http://www.teach12.com/teach12.asp?ai=16281 and start learning.
Or if you want free lectures, Berkeley is podcasting many of their courses. Granted some need the visuals (like Alex Filipenko’s brilliant “Introduction to General Astronomy” course), but some work fine with audio
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/index.php
Also, anyone with even a slight interest in Astronomy needs to watch Filipenko’s course.
Yes this is what I do for fun
Some of my recent favorites:
A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Actually, any of Bryson’s books. A Song of Fire and Ice by George Martin if you haven’t read them already. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubne. Either Blink or The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell. You also can’t go wrong with the classics, which you can often find for free in your local library.
I ended up getting His Dark Materials off iTunes. I’ve already read 'em but I really like them so they’re a good choice.
Thanks for all the recommendations, keep 'em coming.
I’ve always has a fondness for Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series read by Patrick Tull. You can also find them at Borders.
Freakonomics is fun and interesting to listen to, but the last CD features an observation about how parents choose first name for their kids; while it’s an interesting view point, listening to serveral lists of first names is sort of a drag. Other than that, it’s a great 6 CD set that’s easy to listen to.
How do audiobooks and iPods work anyway - do they have to be “official” iTunes audiobooks to get neat features like bookmarking or what have you? I’ve never tried it on my new iPod.
Podiobooks has a crapload of audiobooks in podcast form, though it appears most of them are by “amateur” authors.
The first, or best known “podiobook” is probably Scott Sigler’s Earthcore, which sounds pretty fun, actually. He’s working on a few other podcast novels at the moment.
Audible.com sells it’s entire library (it seems) through itunes, which is huge. I have recently listened to a bunch of them. Most recently, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and a couple of Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire books. Both were quite good, although the unfortunate “sexy” bits in ice and fire were even more creepy bad when read to you by some random british guy.
I have no idea what you have and haven’t read, but I usually go with mystery or thriller books for listening. I usually can’t focus on non-fiction in the car or on the treadmill. They aren’t great literature, but I usually enjoy Stuart Woods, Jeffery Archer, Phillip Margolin, Michael Connelly (particularly Void Moon), and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels (consecutively numbered for your convenience).
The Series of Unfortunate Events books are also interesting, particularly those read by Tim Curry rather than the author. The reader can make the book in many cases, like Jim Dale reading the Harry Potter books.
You can also just put audiobooks in plain jane .mp3 format on an ipod. I frequently check out books on CD from the library and then rip them to .mp3 for my iPod.
Yeah, I’m working my way through these at a slow pace, popping one in when I feel like a light-hearted break from other stuff. Curry is a great reader, but the author is just hard to listen to.
I enjoy Poirot, read by David Suchet, of course.