Audiobooks: when you're too busy to read

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Audiobooks: when you're too busy to read

MeatwadIsGod: Sep 30, 2004; Foretold by Gyromancy

Zephyrine posted:

Is there any good service for free or cheap audiobooks? Like some app with just a monthly fee?

I searched in the google store and it sent me to audible where I.... think I pay them every month and then buy books besides that?

I listen to audiobooks for about 10-12 hours a day and I can't be spending 30 bucks for 8 hour books.

Like spotify for audiobooks or some such.

LibriVox, maybe?

# ? Nov 29, 2016 20:45

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# ? May 14, 2024 12:25

Mister Facetious: Apr 21, 2007; I think I died and woke up in L.A.,
I don't know how I wound up in this place...

Zephyrine posted:

Is there any good service for free or cheap audiobooks? Like some app with just a monthly fee?

I searched in the google store and it sent me to audible where I.... think I pay them every month and then buy books besides that?

I listen to audiobooks for about 10-12 hours a day and I can't be spending 30 bucks for 8 hour books.

Like spotify for audiobooks or some such.

Uh, Audible is ~$23 for two books per month, and you keep them even if you quit the service.
Then there's the $3-5 daily deal, two for one deals, and a bunch more.

But no, there is no Netflix style system where you just get access to a library of stuff per month. The closest to that is podcasts and librivox.

# ? Nov 29, 2016 21:31

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Zephyrine posted:

Is there any good service for free or cheap audiobooks? Like some app with just a monthly fee?

I searched in the google store and it sent me to audible where I.... think I pay them every month and then buy books besides that?

I listen to audiobooks for about 10-12 hours a day and I can't be spending 30 bucks for 8 hour books.

Like spotify for audiobooks or some such.

...Then don't buy 8 hour books? Most of the books I buy are well over 20 hours, often 50+.

http://podiobooks.com/

# ? Nov 29, 2016 21:41

SoR Blaze: Apr 12, 2006

Does anyone have any recommendations for a Bible study audiobook? I'm looking to learn more about it, but I'd like something that explains idioms and provides historical reference to the text so I can better understand things like the historical importance of, say, Cyrus the Great, or the religious laws of the Roman empire during the time of Jesus. I'm not religious, and am not looking to explore the bible from the perspective of a believer, but rather something that goes through each book and explains parts of them that may not be 100% apparent in the text. Ideally, I'm looking for a Dan Carlin sort of narrative, but maybe one that goes through each line, and pauses to explain things where needed. I've heard that Dr. Bill Creasy's lectures are good, and are available on Audible, but wondered if there were any better recommendations here. Thanks in advance!

# ? Nov 29, 2016 21:42

tithin: Nov 14, 2003; [Grandmaster Tactician]

Zephyrine posted:

Is there any good service for free or cheap audiobooks? Like some app with just a monthly fee?

I searched in the google store and it sent me to audible where I.... think I pay them every month and then buy books besides that?

I listen to audiobooks for about 10-12 hours a day and I can't be spending 30 bucks for 8 hour books.

Like spotify for audiobooks or some such.

Your audible subscription gives you either one or two books a month, then a discount on buying books outright, and the ability to buy more "credits" to buy books for like $30 usd for 3 books.

# ? Nov 29, 2016 22:19

Zephyrine: Jun 10, 2014; This is what meat is supposed to be like, dingus

Thanks for all the replies. Looking around I still feel like Audible would end up very expensive. I'll look at the librivox thing.

I'm not that picky. I already read all books I wanted and now I'm just looking for new experiences.

# ? Nov 29, 2016 23:27

Mister Facetious: Apr 21, 2007; I think I died and woke up in L.A.,
I don't know how I wound up in this place...

Audible is great for finding new interests.

Because you can filter by narrator as well as the usual author/genre/length, I've listened to books I never would've given a second glance even in a library for free.
Even with the Canadian dollar as it is, they're (each credit) the price of a new paperback, but they typically have the same release dates as hardcovers.

I listen to stuff every day (because my boss, while being a cheap bastard, is also incredibly lenient). I ended up with a hundred books in my first two years, because I just kept getting more with sales and extra credit deals.
As value for money goes, it's one of the best things going, although I typically wait for a sale if it's under eight hours. And if it's cheaper than the price of a credit, I'll just buy it. I got three friends a copy of Black Hawk Down because it was only four bucks.

That's another thing; gifting is super easy. Brother halfway across the continent and works out professionally? Send 'em an audiobook! It's the thought that counts, after all.

I can't cheerlead Audible enough.

Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Nov 29, 2016

# ? Nov 29, 2016 23:49

Sharma: Nov 4, 2012

I quite enjoyed the first 2 audio books of 'The Kingkiller Chronicle', read by Rupert Degas. Beautiful voice, really engaging.

Unfortunately still waiting for the third book to come out... but that's a separate issue.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 01:41

Syrinxx: Mar 28, 2002; Death is whimsical today

Zephyrine posted:

Thanks for all the replies. Looking around I still feel like Audible would end up very expensive. I'll look at the librivox thing.

I'm not that picky. I already read all books I wanted and now I'm just looking for new experiences.

Many libraries participate in more than one service that provides audiobooks, and most of them have apps for both computer and phone/tablet. I joined the library from my city and the neighboring city and I can get audiobooks from Overdrive, Hoopla, OneClick, Cloud Library and physical discs/flash drives. It's not as convenient as Audible but it saves a ton of money.

You can also get audiobook upgrades for your Kindle books using Matchmaker - sometimes this even works on library loaned ebooks.

Syrinxx fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Nov 30, 2016

# ? Nov 30, 2016 02:17

Zephyrine: Jun 10, 2014; This is what meat is supposed to be like, dingus

Kindle huh?

I've always been hesitant of DRM books. I have bought a few but then I crack them to get proper offline versions (which is a lot of effort). I heard about people who had things changed in their kindle books with updates (wording, spelling and such).

I always imagine that I buy some book and then two years later it turns out the author plagiarized something or had a disagreement with a co-author and amazon then disables my kindle book after the publisher is orderer to cease distribution.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 08:27

learnincurve: May 15, 2014; Smoosh

I don't know about other countries but in the UK kindle unlimited at �7.50 a month gives you free access to the audiobook, poo poo load of golden age of fiction just got put up. Kindle has only ever removed one book from it's library and all it's devices and that was when they first came out and people got a refund. fuss was so great I wouldn't worry about it happening again.

Before you spend your credits don't forget to see if there is a kindle version as you get the audiobook cheaper (�2.50) if you own it.

# ? Nov 30, 2016 10:38

Florida Betty: Sep 24, 2004

Syrinxx posted:

Many libraries participate in more than one service that provides audiobooks, and most of them have apps for both computer and phone/tablet. I joined the library from my city and the neighboring city and I can get audiobooks from Overdrive, Hoopla, OneClick, Cloud Library and physical discs/flash drives. It's not as convenient as Audible but it saves a ton of money.

You can also get audiobook upgrades for your Kindle books using Matchmaker - sometimes this even works on library loaned ebooks.

Yeah, I only use the library for my audiobook needs, and I never run short. I use my local library, all neighboring counties (at least in VA, you can get library cards from neighboring counties for free), and I've borrowed my parents' library card numbers from where they live since they never use the online services. Not every library has a great selection, so I can see how this wouldn't be possible for some people, but it's worth a shot.

# ? Dec 6, 2016 14:32

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

I ran out of audiobooks yesterday so I picked up Kel Kade's Free the Darkness: King's Dark Tidings Book 1, and holy poo poo I don't think I've heard so much inane and terribly purple prose in a long time. I had to stop before finishing the prologue.

Just absolute garbage like "his gut churned like a twisting rope winding back on itself", "gloomy moonlit darkness", "he adjusted the various weapons worn both openly - and secretly beneath his padded leather armor," "the brief respite ... was short-lived"", "he waited for the bleak blackness of the void to consume him," "the darkest, blackest shadow that he'd ever encountered", etc.. And those all came in the first 5 minutes :barf:

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Dec 10, 2016

# ? Dec 10, 2016 17:29

Mister Facetious: Apr 21, 2007; I think I died and woke up in L.A.,
I don't know how I wound up in this place...

Is he a Dungeons & Dragons DM, because :laffo:

# ? Dec 10, 2016 17:31

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

The shocking thing is that it has like 4000 reviews on audible and 3500 of them are 5-star. I went, "well poo poo, if it's that hghly-rated it couldn't possibly be that terrible - could it?"

I guess I ought to have known what I was getting into - when the word "Dark" shows up twice in the title.

Not my audible review posted:

"great narration, frustrating writing"
What disappointed you about Free the Darkness?
The main character is essentially perfect. He has been trained so he can do everything and do it better than everyone else. He never does anything wrong. He has no flaws except being un-used to common society but even then is still perfect in all of his interactions. Every man wants to be him, and every woman wants to be with him. It's the literary equivalent of playing a videogame with "god mode" on and unfortunately makes for a very boring read after a while.The writing is repetitive. I honestly lost count how many times the main character is called "The young ______ " with some added descriptor like "warrior" "man" "assassin". In addition, the main character "easily does ______" with almost every action. An example of this would be a scenario like "The young warrior EASILY disarmed the man", which once in a while wouldn't be so bad but I feel like I heard it almost once every 5 minutes.

Also this review doesn't mention the crushing level of second-guessing and self-doubt that the protagonist exhibits (I guess that's why it's such a "dark" novel) - most of the 5 minutes of the prologue I listened to involved him wondering if he'd be killed or shunned or picked on etc etc for *reasons*, when he finishes walking through the gates of the castle where he's returning to report success on some mission he'd been on.. All of the dark bleak shadows? Those were inside the entryway of the castle, aand I didn't even get to the part where he compares them to a gate to hell full of demons and blah blah :downsrim:

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Dec 10, 2016

# ? Dec 10, 2016 17:33

Mister Facetious: Apr 21, 2007; I think I died and woke up in L.A.,
I don't know how I wound up in this place...

That Alien™ drama with Rutger Hauer and others from April is $2.95 today:

Alien: Out of the Shadows: An Audible Original Drama

# ? Dec 10, 2016 17:35

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

coyo7e posted:

I ran out of audiobooks yesterday so I picked up Kel Kade's Free the Darkness: King's Dark Tidings Book 1, and holy poo poo I don't think I've heard so much inane and terribly purple prose in a long time. I had to stop before finishing the prologue.

Just absolute garbage like "his gut churned like a twisting rope winding back on itself", "gloomy moonlit darkness", "he adjusted the various weapons worn both openly - and secretly beneath his padded leather armor," "the brief respite ... was short-lived"", "he waited for the bleak blackness of the void to consume him," "the darkest, blackest shadow that he'd ever encountered", etc.. And those all came in the first 5 minutes

Counterpoint to the book I returned this morning, I listened to the first 8 chapters of Dawn of Wonder: the Awakening by Jonathan Renshaw last night and today. If the rest of the book is as excellent as the first 8 chapters' account of a 12 year old kid and his friends' adventures in their village, then it'll probably be pretty great. The narrator is Tim Gerard Reynolds so it's easy to listen to if nothing else.

edit: the second novel appears to be mostly done and is set to release in a couple/few months, there's a progress bar on the author's wegbpage as well which is a pretty nice little touch for his fans: http://www.jrenshaw.com/2015/05/17/book-2/, and he seems to be pretty intense about making sure his writing is realistic as well http://www.jrenshaw.com/2016/10/03/search-punch-page/

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Dec 10, 2016

# ? Dec 10, 2016 21:46

Peas and Rice: Jul 14, 2004; Honor and profit.

Browsing around through their sale, I caught that Nick Offerman does a performance of an unabridged Tom Sawyer. If you buy the Kindle version of Tom Sawyer for the low low price of $0.00, you can add the Audible narration by Offerman for $1.99. I can't vouch for the quality, but the price can't be beat.

# ? Dec 11, 2016 00:48

General Emergency: Apr 2, 2009; Can we talk?

Oh man I loved Free the Darkness: King's Dark Tidings Book 1. It's the absolutely worst kind of trash. The same part of me that loves Dragonball Z: Evolution and poo poo like Gordon Ramsey's reality shows loves that book. It's such shameless dumb lovely wish fulfillment fantasy I just can't but love it.

Dawn of Wonder I actually think is pretty good. It's not that innovative or anything. Pretty formulaic coming of age stuff but formulaic coming of age stuff done well.

# ? Dec 12, 2016 12:46

learnincurve: May 15, 2014; Smoosh

I think you just discovered the reason those trashy romance novels with fabio riding a unicorn on the cover are so popular.

Recommendation: Poirot's Finest Cases: Eight Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations

BBC Radio 4 do plays, semi unabridged, they cut descriptions but not the story. This one is a especially good example and the cast is spectacular.

Other phenomenal narrations while I'm thinking about it:

The Complete Sherlock Holmes: n Simon Vance
David Copperfield: n. Martin Jarvis
Catch 22: n Trevor White
Remains of the day: n. Dominic west.

# ? Dec 12, 2016 14:50

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

learnincurve posted:

I think you just discovered the reason those trashy romance novels with fabio riding a unicorn on the cover are so popular.

When I was just out of high school I worked as a caregiver for an elderly woman who had lost almost all motor function control and basically was stuck in a chair listening to romance, western, and mil-porn audiobooks all day long. She had a guest room with shelves that were like 8 shelves tall, and deep enough that you could stick 3 mass-market paperback sized books end to end without them spilling over. It was entirely filled floor to ceiling with romance novels three deep.

The one thing I learned about romance novels is that they really are extraordinarily formulaic, and that a large part of the reason people consume them is because they know what to expect and usually don't even really care - it's just background noise. The closest comparison I could think of is my mother and how still to this day she will just turn on General Hospital or Days of Our Lives in the background when she's puttering around the house by herself - she maybe watches it once in a few months, but she doesn't care because no matter when or where she jumps into that stream - she always knows what the waters will be like.

I can't aspire to keep that half-level of attention with fiction outside of mil-porn, but I think I do have a much stronger grasp of how and why such utterly "shovelware" books get sold in huge numbers, garbage clones of minecraft get bought up in ridiculous amounts despite being obviously inferior copies of something, etc.. It's just that when some folks catch a tiger, they want to grab that same tail over and over again for the same ride - even if it's never quite as good as the first time was, you can depend on the ups and downs and rhythms.

I mean I caught myself the other night listening to a sci-fi audiobook that I'd heard several times while I was reading an electronics book - I went through 130 pages of electronics, learned a ton, and it was nice to be able to shift concentration to the audio now and again to kind of shake myself off, look at the scenery, and then dive back into what I was actually working on.

# ? Dec 12, 2016 23:59

Syrinxx: Mar 28, 2002; Death is whimsical today

Leviathan Wakes, which was turned into the SyFy show "The Expanse", is $3 for Kindle today. You can add Audible narration for $4 - making this a $7 audiobook and a pretty good deal!

https://smile.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-Expanse-Book-1-ebook/dp/B0047Y171G

# ? Dec 13, 2016 23:46

Peas and Rice: Jul 14, 2004; Honor and profit.

Syrinxx posted:

Leviathan Wakes, which was turned into the SyFy show "The Expanse", is $3 for Kindle today. You can add Audible narration for $4 - making this a $7 audiobook and a pretty good deal!

https://smile.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-Expanse-Book-1-ebook/dp/B0047Y171G

Thank you! I was going to get this for my dad for Christmas and this is a great deal. I'm about halfway through this myself and it's fantastic.

# ? Dec 14, 2016 19:08

KingShiro: Jan 10, 2008; EH?!?!?!

Audible sends me an email about a 3 month 50% off plan...and I'm not even eligible for it :argh:

why the tease

# ? Dec 14, 2016 19:10

Mister Facetious: Apr 21, 2007; I think I died and woke up in L.A.,
I don't know how I wound up in this place...

It expired yesterday. :laugh:

Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Dec 14, 2016

# ? Dec 14, 2016 19:17

Syrinxx: Mar 28, 2002; Death is whimsical today

Amazon just added free Audible narration to Prime Reading: https://smile.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/prime-pr/

There are 50 books with Audible currently, not sure if they rotate once a month or just sometimes.

# ? Dec 15, 2016 03:28

USMC_Karl: Nov 17, 2003; SUPPORTER OF THE REINSTATED LAWFUL HAWAIIAN GOVERNMENT. HAOLES GET OFF DA `AINA.

I'm sure this is brought up occasionally in the thread, but I just finished re-listening to James Lloyd's narration of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and am really craving another book that is on the same caliber of narration. It's honestly the best audio book I've ever heard, and would love to have another great one. Any recommendations? I'm not really particular about the type of story and am open to pretty much anything aside from romance.

For those of you that don't have it, really consider James Lloyd's narration of TMiaHM, he does an absolutely astronomical job of giving every character a totally distinctive voice, playing with accents, using the Loonie lingo, etc.

# ? Dec 23, 2016 02:28

precision: May 7, 2006; by VideoGames

As far as great narrators giving lots of good performances, you really can't go wrong with Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle.

# ? Dec 25, 2016 19:30

USMC_Karl: Nov 17, 2003; SUPPORTER OF THE REINSTATED LAWFUL HAWAIIAN GOVERNMENT. HAOLES GET OFF DA `AINA.

precision posted:

As far as great narrators giving lots of good performances, you really can't go wrong with Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll be sure to check it out. It looks like that is almost 100 hours or listening. I've never actually read the Baroque cycle, although I like Stephenson's work.

# ? Dec 26, 2016 04:45

mariooncrack: Dec 27, 2008

Any recommendations for the 2 for 1 sale? I want to get Spam Nation but I don't see anything else jumping out at me.

# ? Dec 26, 2016 15:50

Enfys: Feb 17, 2013; The ocean is calling and I must go

I thought the last 2 for 1 sale was pretty good and picked up some interesting books, but this one seems pretty underwhelming.

# ? Dec 26, 2016 17:59

Burger McAngus: May 24, 2010

I noticed that they've added audiobooks for Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy to audible since I last checked. Has anyone tried them out?

Burger McAngus fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Dec 26, 2016

# ? Dec 26, 2016 18:55

precision: May 7, 2006; by VideoGames

Got Trevor Noah's book yesterday, and it's fantastic

# ? Dec 26, 2016 19:24

SomeMathGuy: Oct 4, 2014; The people were ASTONISHED at his doctrine.

mariooncrack posted:

Any recommendations for the 2 for 1 sale? I want to get Spam Nation but I don't see anything else jumping out at me.

There are some decent nonfiction offerings. If you're interested in comic book or pop-culture history The Ten-Cent Plague is pretty much a must-read, and even if you're not it's a pretty interesting examination of how an artistic boogeyman rises to the public forefront and the consequences that can result. Man on the Moon is basically the definitive account of the Apollo missions, and KL is the same for the holocaust (Although 30 hours of discussions of concentration camps and extermination programs sounds... really unappealing. I had to put the physical copy aside periodically.).

Burger McAngus posted:

I noticed that they've added audobooks for Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy to audible since I last checked. Has anyone tried them out?

Andrew Wincott's narration is decent but not outstanding, and he manages to make characters sound different without going overboard (with one or two exceptions). I have no idea how they compare to the older versions, but they're modern productions so the actual sound engineering is excellent. Not sure how well the books hold up if you haven't read them before; they were standouts at the time but to a large extent the fantasy genre's best material has evolved and moved on with the lessons learned there.

# ? Dec 26, 2016 19:25

Mister Facetious: Apr 21, 2007; I think I died and woke up in L.A.,
I don't know how I wound up in this place...

The WNYC podcast 'On the Media' recommended White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.

And Generation Kill is on there. I own 'One Bullet Away' (hardcover), which was written by the officer who's platoon it was based on.

I would recommend A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918 for the (late) narrator alone. Robin Sachs was such a great actor and VA ( :zaeed:

Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Dec 27, 2016

# ? Dec 27, 2016 07:10

frenchnewwave: Jun 7, 2012; Would you like a Cuppa?

precision posted:

Got Trevor Noah's book yesterday, and it's fantastic

Seconding this. It should be mandatory to buy the audio version, his narration is key. Also, his mom is a BAB.

# ? Jan 2, 2017 20:34

java: May 7, 2005

So maybe this is a bit pedestrian, but I really enjoyed the audiobook version of Michael Crichton's "Andromeda Strain." For very similar reasons, I also deeply enjoyed the first few chapters of The Stand. Based on these two data points, can anyone make any recommendations for other books I should check out?

# ? Jan 14, 2017 07:31