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I found I don't consume enough audiobooks to justify an Audible subscription (and I don't like their subscription scheme) so I'm clearing out 6 credits before cancelling. I got some comedy from Armando Ianucci, all 4 Churchill books mentioned by Mister Macys and was about to get the one about the credit crunch but it's not there. What gives? Audible's search engine seems to be crap but the book is definitely gone from the .com site (is there on .co.uk). Is it normal for titles to suddenly disappear for a while, maybe pending updated versions? Maybe I'll get one of the other ones on the topic.
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Mar 8, 2011 23:53
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Not sure. Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is no longer up there, either. Just his follow up "In Defense of Food". And as they cover different areas of the industry, they really go better together. Given that there's five or six different versions of "The Jungle Book" hanging around, they probably have the room.  It must be the specific website (.co.uk, .com, etc.), as Audible.com does indeed have "The Big Short" available. http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B003B2ZV8K&qid=1299644270&sr=1-1 Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Mar 9, 2011 |
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Mar 9, 2011 05:07
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I'm seeing both Omnivore and Big Short on audible.com. I'd guess it's a country/distribution rights thing with their IP address geolocation database not being the best, making them think you're in the US or not in the US as the case may be. I'm not sure which is more annoying: having it not show up in a search, or having books show up that tell you "this book is not available in your region" like they used to do. (I'm a US goon and used to occasional have searches for Terry Pratchett give me UK books listings I couldn't buy.)
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Mar 9, 2011 16:14
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Tunahead posted:Someone already mentioned them earlier in the thread, but you really can't go wrong with the Rob Inglis reading of The Lord of the Rings. He's got a good speaking voice, a good vocal range for doing different voices, he sings all the songs, he speaks all the languages, it's just top notch stuff all around. Also it's unabridged, which is nice. If you want to go deeper into the Middle-Earth mythos I heartily recommend The Children of Hurin, Narrated by Christopher Lee. http://www.amazon.com/Children-Hurin-J-R-Tolkien/dp/0007263457/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299686144&sr=8-1 Christopher Lee is, of course, amazing and it's worth listening to just for his voice and characterizations alone.
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Mar 9, 2011 16:59
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Just finished a Paolo Bacigalupi marathon, and The Wind-up Girl sucked me in like no other book has for a long time. I hadn't read any science fiction for a long time, and put this on my ipod on a whim(free credits on Audible ftw) and it seems to have rekindled my interest in good science fiction.
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Mar 17, 2011 02:13
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So I've been struggling to figure out how to get BeyondPod to work on my phone, but in the meantime I tracked down some old-favorite audiobooks (which are free.) tl;dr incoming: The Rookie, by Scott Sigler Science fiction coming-of-age story about a racist human kid playing football with aliens. I can't stand football but loving loved this book (enough that I bought the sequels, "The Starter" "The All-Pro" etc). You can download the entire thing for free in a number of places, including iTune' podcast area. Sigler also has a ton of other free audiobooks. His writing is pulpy and the character he acts like in his podcasts is ridiculuos and can annoy some people who think he's being arrogant, but really he's just putting up a front to get people enthused over his work. Fair warning, most of his other audiobooks are fangoria-style stuff, I couldn't handle listening to "Infection" when a character was busily digging an alien parasite out of his leg with whatever sharp objects he could find in his bathroom. But Earthcore was pretty fun, Ancestor was stupid and fun, and Sigler's very prolific and shares most of his work weekly on his podcast, so if you keep up with it you can pretty much listen to all of his books for free if you can find when he read them out on his podcast.. He hates iTunes and says they take 80% of the purchase price, so only a couple of his older books are on the iTunes store, but you can find them on a variety of online retailers' sites. The Terrible Business of Salmon and Dusk: How to Disappear Completely (and sequels) by Myke Bartlett. Similar to Neil Gaiman's 'Neverwhere', the first novel is about a woman who fades out of reality and into a fantastical undercity while hanging out with a pair of strange hoodlums. I loved the first one and listened to it a couple times. Haven't gotten to the sequels, but the last time I listened to 'HtDC', the sequels were nonexistent, so I'm pumped to track them down or buy them, whatever. I've probably mentioned these before, but Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood and the following novels are a blast, as well as Harwood's A Long Way from Disney (pt I and pt II) are really poignant excerpts from the life of a (presumably) fictional boy as he grows up and - later - functions as an adult. Jack Wakes Up is basically the story of a Jason Statham analogue who gets caught up in a bunch of heavy duty eastern bloc mobster stuff. ALWfD can be pretty hard-hitting, fair warning. I loving love this author, he's got a great voice, great attitude, and really nails it in most of his readings. Crescent by Phil Rossi is pretty fun, a sci-fi horror novel about a 'haunted' space station. There's a followup Crescent Vignettes which has a bunch of short stories which are pretty good. Not excessively creepy or scary, but great production and atmosphere in the Crescent novel especially.. The rest of the books on that page are new to me but I'll listen to them eventually. How to Succeed in Evil by Patrick E. McLean. I haven't listened to this one in years - since it was in rough draft form on a serial podcast. It's finished and remastered, now. I don't recall a lot about the book except that I remember I thought it was a heck of a lot of fun. I think you can DL the full book from iTunes store - I know the rough draft is there. Also it's on audible or podiobooks or one of those sites as well. The Failed Cities Monologues by Matt Wallace was a blast (and too short, I want more!) to lsiten to, and is easily available for free all over. It's a sort of a gritty post-apoc series of vignettes from a half-dozen different characters who swap back and forth between chapters. Reminded me a bit of Dhalgren (without all the gay sex) and very much of Sin City. Pretty good quality production with a number of readers, matched to the different narrators. Protip: do not go anywhere near Mur Lafferty's free audiobooks. She's got a voice like an old truckstop waitress, and she writes like a crazy Wiccan catlady. Her subjects are approximately at the level of a comic book character fanfic, except without any art, and without any good writing. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Mar 25, 2011 |
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Mar 25, 2011 22:39
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Anyone have a recommendation for a really riveting/can't put down type book? Fiction in the vague area of scifi, horror, suspense, etc. It doesn't have to be incredibly sophisticated, since I won't be able to give it my full attention. I'm at the tail end of a work project I'm really burned out on, and the right audiobook helps my keep me putting the hours in. I'll probably grab two or three to listen to this week on Audible.
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Mar 29, 2011 01:34
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They've been mentioned in the thread previously but The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher definitely fit the bill for me. They're about a private eye in Chicago who also happens to be a wizard. They're really funny and action-packed. I binged through the entire series over a several month period during my commutes to and from work and it got to the point where I was leaving home extra early and arriving back super late because I was making my trips as long as possible so I could listen to them longer. For some reason I can't listen to audio books unless I'm on the move.
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Mar 29, 2011 03:18
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That series is loving great. And as the books progress, you can actually hear both the author and the narrator steadily improving with each new title. Books 10-12 are amazing. Locus posted:Anyone have a recommendation for a really riveting/can't put down type book? Fiction in the vague area of scifi Orson Scott Card presents: Ender's Game (listened to a dozen times) Speaker for the Dead Xenocide Children of the Mind Ender's Shadow (listened to a dozen times) Shadow of the Hegemon Shadow Puppets Shadow of the Giant Ender in Exile (Takes place immediately after Ender's Game, and in the second half, after Shadow of the Giant- relativity, and all that) _____________ Empire Hidden Empire Near future books with (prototype) hovercycles and mechs, involving a pseudo-civil war between the polarized Repubs and Dems of America. It's got some cool  conspiracy sub-plot stuff too, and is related to the Shadow Complex XBLA game.Strangely it's more plausible than Homefront (anything would be, however), or Tom Clancy's newest novel. Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Mar 29, 2011 |
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Mar 29, 2011 15:38
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Thanks for the recommendations guys. I did end up grabbing a Dresden book. I remember listening to some a while back, and thinking they were pretty entertaining. Although, the "everything bad happens and every character in the book including the main one blames Dresden for no reason" thing kind of annoyed me in previous books, but I'll get over it. I actually do like the narrator style, since the "flaws" with the reading fit the tone of the books. I read a lot of the Ender books as a kid and thought they were good too, but I'm a little leery of Card in general due to his weirdness and politics. Empire/Hidden Empire look interesting from the descriptions though, so I'll keep them in mind in the future.
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Apr 3, 2011 01:59
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Locus posted:I read a lot of the Ender books as a kid and thought they were good too, but I'm a little leery of Card in general due to his weirdness and politics. Why would that matter? The religion and politics of a fiction writer shouldn't be worth caring about any more than those of Tom Cruise (actors  ) or Justin Bieber (singers).Anyways, here's last month's wallet drain: The Modern Scholar: Astronomy I The Modern Scholar: Astronomy II Auth: Professor James Kaler Narr: Professor James Kaler The first one is about the history of Astronomy and the solar system, the second is about all those things outside the solar system. 5/5 Baseball: A History of America's Game Auth: Benjamin G. Rader Narr: Joe Barrett Great book, includes the Steroid era, and interesting details about a game I just can't bring myself to actually watch. 4/5 Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Apr 3, 2011 |
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Apr 3, 2011 02:04
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Mister Macys posted:Why would that matter? The religion and politics of a fiction writer shouldn't be any more meaningful than those of Tom Cruise (actors Well, in the case of Tom Cruise, he's just a living puppet, more or less. In the case of an author, they create and shape the entire universe, and all the characters speak through them. So if an author has weird views on sexuality, politics, etc, that can tint a story a great deal. This started grating on me to a minor degree during Stieg Larsson's series for example, in a sort of way.I'm not one of those people that just assumes Orson Scott Card loves Hitler or something based on shaky reasoning, and I'm definitely not someone who starts burning books the second anyone dares to say that politics and science are too close when it comes to environmental issues. I just know that Card and I are not in the same realm when it comes to world views and political goals, so I'm a little wary about books by him that heavily revolve around those things. Locus fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Apr 3, 2011 |
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Apr 3, 2011 02:17
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Locus posted:I'm not one of those people that just assumes Orson Scott Card loves Hitler or something based on shaky reasoning, and I'm definitely not someone who starts burning books the second anyone dares to say that politics and science are too close when it comes to environmental issues. I just know that Card and I are not in the same realm when it comes to world views and political goals, so I'm a little wary about books by him that heavily revolve around those things. Card's world view does start to slip in to his writing as time goes on. And the post-Ender's Game novels aren't exactly riveting per se: Speaker for the Dead is a classic of science fiction for good reason, but the books that come after it get steadily worse. Ender's Shadow and its "sequels" have a similar problem. Has anyone listened to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms? It's been getting good reviews, but I'm skeptical of the narrator based on the preview.
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Apr 3, 2011 05:27
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I just finished listen to At Home: A Short History of Private Life read by the author himself, Bill Bryson It's a interesting book where we have the pleasure to get a tour of the authors home in England where he guides us trough the history of each of the room and the history if housing in general.
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Apr 3, 2011 20:17
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Driving to Vegas tomorrow, need something fun and easy to get into that's about 8 hours or so long. Last time I did this I got World War Z, which was a perfect selection. Any suggestions?
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Apr 3, 2011 23:09
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Comrade Flynn posted:Driving to Vegas tomorrow, need something fun and easy to get into that's about 8 hours or so long. If you like hard sci-fi combined with military (think Horatio Hornblower in space) combined with an excellent imaging of first contact with a well-realized alien race, listen to the first eight hours of Niven and Purnell's The Mote In God's Eye. You'll most likely want to finish listening to the rest as it goes well over eight hours. If you want hard sci-fi that is probably about eight hours, listen to Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. If you don't like sci-fi then neither of those will help you!
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Apr 3, 2011 23:34
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jeeves posted:If you like hard sci-fi combined with military (think Horatio Hornblower in space) combined with an excellent imaging of first contact with a well-realized alien race, listen to the first eight hours of Niven and Purnell's The Mote In God's Eye. You'll most likely want to finish listening to the rest as it goes well over eight hours. I've seen Mote recommended a few other times, so I'll grab that! Thanks!
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Apr 4, 2011 00:09
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Comrade Flynn posted:I've seen Mote recommended a few other times, so I'll grab that! Thanks! It is very military-scifi, but in a good way and not in a horrible way. It is definitely where a lot of other things stole from, such as the exact phrase of "Action stations, set condition one throughout the ship" ala re-imagined Battlestar, or the more military-esque feel that Star Trek went into for Star Trek 2 and beyond. My girlfriend just got done re-watching the excellent Horatio Hornblower A&E series, and it made me realize that Mote is very much Master & Commander/Horatio Hornblower MEETS ALIENS... IN SPAAAAACE.
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Apr 4, 2011 04:28
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Ola posted:
Yes it seems like books get removed and then returning on a later stage, another thing that i don't like is with audible is the restrictions for us people outside north america where we nearly have the selection of books offered to americans. But still audible is by far the best options for audiobooks.
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Apr 4, 2011 11:21
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coyo7e posted:The Terrible Business of Salmon and Dusk: How to Disappear Completely (and sequels) by Myke Bartlett. Similar to Neil Gaiman's 'Neverwhere', the first novel is about a woman who fades out of reality and into a fantastical undercity while hanging out with a pair of strange hoodlums. I loved the first one and listened to it a couple times. Haven't gotten to the sequels, but the last time I listened to 'HtDC', the sequels were nonexistent, so I'm pumped to track them down or buy them, whatever. Thanks for this. I listened to the first story and enjoyed it a lot. It sort of reminds me of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books, which is great. By the way I really recommend listening to those, read by Adams himself, if you haven't already.
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Apr 4, 2011 12:09
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Borh posted:Thanks for this. I listened to the first story and enjoyed it a lot. It sort of reminds me of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books, which is great. By the way I really recommend listening to those, read by Adams himself, if you haven't already. Are there good, unabridged productions of the Dirk Gently books out there anywhere? An ancient cassette version of The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is what got me in to audiobooks in the first place, and I'd love to have a quality digital copy of it. Unfortunately Audible only has the dramatizations and an abridged version.
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Apr 4, 2011 22:20
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Locus posted:I'm not one of those people that just assumes Orson Scott Card loves Hitler or something based on shaky reasoning, and I'm definitely not someone who starts burning books the second anyone dares to say that politics and science are too close when it comes to environmental issues. I just know that Card and I are not in the same realm when it comes to world views and political goals, so I'm a little wary about books by him that heavily revolve around those things.
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Apr 16, 2011 01:07
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Kestral posted:Has anyone listened to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms? It's been getting good reviews, but I'm skeptical of the narrator based on the preview. Edit: overall it was okay, but not great. The ending was predictable and took a lot of beating around the bush before the author got to it, but it honestly didn't drag on or anything. Not a bad quick read at all. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Apr 24, 2011 |
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Apr 17, 2011 01:48
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Kestral posted:Card's world view does start to slip in to his writing as time goes on. And the post-Ender's Game novels aren't exactly riveting per se: Speaker for the Dead is a classic of science fiction for good reason, but the books that come after it get steadily worse. Ender's Shadow and its "sequels" have a similar problem. Maybe it's because I'm an atheist, or a Canadian, or because I don't research authours' personal lives, but I don't notice any agendas. I just read cool stories that have great characters, non-standard heroes, and a writing style which focuses on the point of view/biases of the character at the time, which I love. Makes his books feel more personal. Subject Change: There's a new company that rereleased Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. It's the same books, with the same narrator, and even the samples sound the same, but the base price for the books is considerably cheaper. However, the first book is missing 24 minutes, which makes me wonder what was cut. How is said trilogy? I heard it's different, in that the hero doesn't succeed. Is it politic-heavy though? I know he's done one or two of the Wheel of Time books, and those bore the poo poo out of me. Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Apr 23, 2011 |
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Apr 23, 2011 18:49
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Mistborn is loving amazing. I think I've probably listened to the books about five times. Edit: The politics are very simple. Though I still enjoyed them.
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Apr 23, 2011 21:30
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The General posted:Mistborn is loving amazing. I think I've probably listened to the books about five times. Yeah, mistborn is nothing like wheel of time, except perhaps that they both have fairly well-defined magic systems.
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Apr 24, 2011 03:34
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How much pulling of braids and/or wailing about one's godlike powers that you're too pussy to use, can I expect from the Mistborn books? This is extremely important.
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Apr 24, 2011 05:47
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coyo7e posted:How much pulling of braids and/or wailing about one's godlike powers that you're too pussy to use, can I expect from the Mistborn books? Generally speaking there is some  in there, but being scared to use said powers isn't the problem. It's more of "Im a teenage girl, were do I fit in?" type stuff.Actually, anytime she doesn't have her powers after she learns how to use them is pretty much "Motherfucker, I'm goddamned useless. Give me some metals!" like a crack addict. Edit: The only problem I had with the series was that midway through book two I figured out how book 3 was going to end. Though I'm not sure if I'm just clever or Sanderson dropped the ball somewhere.
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Apr 24, 2011 06:58
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The General posted:Edit: The only problem I had with the series was that midway through book two I figured out how book 3 was going to end. Though I'm not sure if I'm just clever or Sanderson dropped the ball somewhere. Sanderson dropped the ball. The second book is dreadful.
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Apr 24, 2011 19:09
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Kestral posted:Sanderson dropped the ball. The second book is dreadful. I remember enjoying it for the most part. Just wasn't as good as the others.
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Apr 25, 2011 00:29
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I thought the third book was pretty bad myself. If I had known what the second and third would be like I probably would have stopped after the first.
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Apr 25, 2011 12:54
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fritzov posted:I just finished listen to At Home: A Short History of Private Life read by the author himself, Bill Bryson I'm seconding this if you are in the least interested in history its a phenomenal listen.
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May 8, 2011 05:08
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Audible's doing a 48-hour $9.99 sale for members right now, and while perusing the list, I found this: Soon I Will Be Invincible: A Novel The blurb reads almost like a book-version of NPH's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog  .Or at least, the first-hand account of an Evil Overlord™. The narrator sounds crisp and clear, too. I'm gonna give it a shot. Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 10:36 on May 16, 2011 |
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May 14, 2011 05:08
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quote:Skippyjon Jones is crazy-loco for dinosaurs! The kitty boy enters (via his closet) the land of dinosaurs in search of the fabled Skipposaurus. Instead he runs into his old amigos, the Chimichango gang. When a T-Mex threatens the pack, it's El Skippito, the great sword fighter, to the rescue. This sounds pretty promising  Though I was really curious who would buy these? Are people literally to busy to read to their children these days? Or do you suppose schools mostly buy them?
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May 14, 2011 12:48
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The General posted:This sounds pretty promising You play it for your kid on road trips. With headphones. So you don't go crazy and drive the mini-van off the cliff/into a head-on semi-truck, because he won't leave his younger sibling alone/shut the gently caress up.  "I TOLD YOU TO BE QUIET AND KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU?! GODDAMN IT, THAT'S IT, I'VE loving HAD IT!"
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May 14, 2011 13:26
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Tanith posted:For anyone interested, NPR has a neat story about audiobooks and they talk with George Guidall. ( This owned, love George Guidall.
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May 16, 2011 19:03
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Mister Macys posted:Soon I Will Be Invincible: A Novel I am so glad I bought this book,  .It alternates in first person between a supervillain, and a new addition to an established superhero group. 5/5
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May 19, 2011 03:42
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Downloaded and listened to most of the first Dresden files audiobook and am quite impressed with it, I am irked however by Audibles continued division of the planet and preventing me from getting any audiobook past #4 in the series though. It's not the only series that this has happened to me with, the name of the wind was recommended in this thread and is not obtainable through audible outside of america.
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May 23, 2011 09:08
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Tithin Melias posted:Downloaded and listened to most of the first Dresden files audiobook and am quite impressed with it, I am irked however by Audibles continued division of the planet and preventing me from getting any audiobook past #4 in the series though. Living in canada, I have just learned to accept this as life. There are services allover the US that I want, but cannot have. For example, Netflix in Canada is loving terrible. No Pandora or Last FM. Hulu and sites like it are all a mystery to me. So yeah, if you're not in the US of A, expect to get the shaft with anything digital.
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May 23, 2011 14:16
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The General posted:Living in canada, I have just learned to accept this as life. There are services allover the US that I want, but cannot have. For example, Netflix in Canada is loving terrible. No Pandora or Last FM. Hulu and sites like it are all a mystery to me. So yeah, if you're not in the US of A, expect to get the shaft with anything digital. loving protectionist canadian content requirements! 
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May 25, 2011 02:43
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