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I listened to the first 7 Wheel of Time books a few years back one summer when I had a job mowing acres of grass. Made the time go quicker, and the books were read by people with great voices. Although after a certain point I could only hear about braid tugging so much before I stopped listening to them.
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May 8, 2009 20:50
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Scott Brick is also a great narrator. I could listen to his narration of In Cold Blood on endless repeat. Our county's library system has an excellent Book on CD collection, that's where I get most of mine.
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May 8, 2009 22:11
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I just listened to The Yiddish Policeman's Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_Policeman%27s_Union It's classic noir with all the characters speaking with a Yiddish accent. The narrator totally makes it work
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May 9, 2009 05:14
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This thread prompted me to get the audio book for George R.R. Martins Dreamsongs collection. I have the book in hardcover form, a complete collection. It's bloody huge, heavy and not very comfortable to read with. It was also getting a bit damaged just from general use. Anyway I had only read about 1/4 of it and moved on to other books. But now that I have the audiobook of it I should blast through it. It's got an awesome cast for all the different stories, like Claudia Black, Roy Dotrice etc... And GRRM himself reads some of it too. Well worth getting 
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May 11, 2009 00:56
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I am an audiobook addict. I use Booksfree.com. It's a Netflix-type service with decent turn-around time. I am very happy with their 4-at-a-time plan, especially now that I have successfully gotten my wife addicted to audiobooks.
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May 11, 2009 01:45
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The Machine posted:The worst I've come across is a Lord of the Rings CD set from before the movies came out. But those are amazing! This guy played Sam...  And this guy played Frodo...  I really recommend it. 
Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 10:30 on May 11, 2009 |
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May 11, 2009 10:26
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I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but I'm currently listening to Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan. The expansive descriptive style translates pretty well onto audiobook.
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May 11, 2009 11:45
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MindSet fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Jan 13, 2023 |
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May 11, 2009 17:10
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Yuravian posted:What about other 'high fantasy' type audiobooks? Stuff similar to A Song of Ice and Fire or Malazan Book of the Fallen? I've got plenty of print handy but I've found myself looking for something to listen to at work recently, and the Malazan series appears to lack an audio version. The first three books of Malazan have been made as a fan project. The quality isn't very good - as one would expect. You'd have to make up your own mind over whether or not you would find them tolerable.
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May 11, 2009 17:51
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MindSet fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Jan 13, 2023 |
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May 11, 2009 19:56
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The Haggis Line posted:All 20 of the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian (excellent books, excellent reader [Patrick Tull, I think]) I've been listening to these the last few months. If you like these make sure you get the Hornblower audio books by CS Forrester. It's a tough call on which series is better.
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May 12, 2009 06:48
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Yuravian posted:What about other 'high fantasy' type audiobooks? Stuff similar to A Song of Ice and Fire or Malazan Book of the Fallen? I've got plenty of print handy but I've found myself looking for something to listen to at work recently, and the Malazan series appears to lack an audio version. There exist audio recordings of the three Lyonesse books: Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl, and Madouc. The problem is that they are very difficult to obtain legally; I have searched extensively and haven't ben able to find a store that sells them.
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May 12, 2009 07:35
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Frank Muller's reading of The Dark Tower is excellent. He does great accents.
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May 12, 2009 08:08
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The recordings of the His Dark Materials books by Philip Pullman and a full cast are uniformly excellent.
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May 12, 2009 16:49
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All of Anthony Bourdain's audiobooks are fantastic. He reads them and it's exactly like listening to his show with more coke and swearing. I finished The God Delusion last week and I really think Dawkin's smarmy tone ruined it for me. So far I'm very happy with the reading on Cormac McCarthy's The Road. The narrator's voice perfectly suits the father and the book's overall bleak tone. Has anyone given the version of Dune on Audible a shot? It looks like a ton of effort was put into it.
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May 12, 2009 18:50
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The Flying Milton posted:I finished The God Delusion last week and I really think Dawkin's smarmy tone ruined it for me. I haven't heard it myself but I have heard very good things about the audio for Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way.
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May 12, 2009 19:34
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On the Dawkins tip... Christopher Hitchens reading his own God is not Great is magnificent because you can tell he is drunk in some of it, you can hear him shuffling papers, he'll pause to catch himself in one of those drunken half-burps/half-hiccups, and his delivery is wonderful. You can visualize him sitting in a booth with big headphones and a glass of neat scotch. [edit] Also, David Sedaris audiobooks are treasures. groverat fucked around with this message at 21:04 on May 12, 2009 |
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May 12, 2009 19:54
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Hedrigall posted:It definitely wasn't this. This sounds awesome. The one I have is lame.
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May 12, 2009 22:49
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The Flying Milton posted:I finished The God Delusion last week and I really think Dawkin's smarmy tone ruined it for me. The  tone is the best part, imo. I didn't really care for the woman (isn't it his wife or something?) reading though.
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May 13, 2009 03:28
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The Machine posted:It definitely wasn't this. This sounds awesome. The one I have is lame. Well it must be one of these: wikipedia posted:1955-1956 radio play
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May 14, 2009 01:46
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Aventine posted:Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way. This is amazing Also good: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (the novel, not the radio series) 2001 by Arthur C Clarke World War Z by Max Brooks Any other recommendations?
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Jun 6, 2009 22:34
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I love to try Proust's In Search Of Lost Time series. Does anyone know if the John Rowe version is any good?
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Jun 6, 2009 22:48
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Layer Cake is great on audiobook just to hear all the British slang said aloud, the narrator swears excellently as well. While it's not something you'd want to listen to while running or driving, the audiobook of Stephen King's The Mist is done like a radio play and they use "3D Sound" to excellent effect.
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Jun 7, 2009 05:44
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I recently picked up The Complete Works of David Sedaris 20 cd box set. Most of it is read by the author and his sister Amy Sedaris. The live tracks are the best though. I have read each one of his books individually but hearing them read by the offer with his inflection and tone is amazing.
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Jun 7, 2009 17:11
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Pissing Art posted:I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but I'm currently listening to Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan. The expansive descriptive style translates pretty well onto audiobook. I enjoyed listening to Slaughterhouse 5 read by Ethan Hawke. I'll 2nd Lolita read by Jeremy Irons as well as anything David Sedaris- I think that Sedaris is better in audio than just reading- of course I was introduced to him by This American Life so I may be biassed.
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Jun 11, 2009 23:14
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The Flying Milton posted:Has anyone given the version of Dune on Audible a shot? It looks like a ton of effort was put into it. It's very good. I had only seen the movies when I first heard the audiobook and it's fantastic. It's a good 20 hours and I've had to go through it twice just because I loved it so much.
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Jun 14, 2009 01:06
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Speaking of Amy Sedaris, you should check out Wigfield. Sedaris, Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello read a cast of dozens of characters and it is definitely one of the best audiobooks I've listened to, both in terms of humor and the quality of production.
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Jun 15, 2009 09:00
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Throwing out some love for The Road by Cormac McCarthy on audiobook. I picked up the paperback a few months back and just could not get into it. I gave the audiobook a go and the voice acting is great, perfect for the book. I did not find the book to be as 'epic' as it was made out to be but definitely a very enjoyable read thanks to the reading.
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Jun 15, 2009 16:00
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Jeremy Irons reading Lolita. Holy poo poo that was a religious experience. The movie he was in was.... terrible, but that man's voice works perfectly for a book like that. I have a huge hardon for Sarah Vowell's voice for some reason so anything she reads is great. Assassination Vacation (featuring Jon Stewart) and the Wordy Shipmates come to mind.
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Jun 16, 2009 04:39
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I have an hour commute to work each way, so itunes, audiobooks and I have been friends for a few years now. My favorites would have to be the first 3 in the series of ASOIF, read by Roy Dotrice. My least favorite would have to be the 4th book, read by someone doing a bad impression of William Shatner. Duma Key was good, as was The Road. (2 readers for The Road. I listened to one narrated by Tom Stechschulte) Would also recommend I am Legend, and if you're into that sort of thing, The Power of Now and A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle. Also, for those of you on a budget, there are plenty of free audiobooks out there that have taken on the moniker, "podiobooks" that range from really, really bad, to kind of bad but not so much because they're free. If that interests you, check out Infected, by Scott Sigler.
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Jun 16, 2009 21:42
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Woofwoof posted:Also, for those of you on a budget, there are plenty of free audiobooks out there that have taken on the moniker, "podiobooks" that range from really, really bad, to kind of bad but not so much because they're free. Don't forget libraries. Most libraries have a huge collection of books on CD/cassette but depending on your area some of them also let you download audiobooks over the internet, in the form of DRM-protected MP3s that stop working after a month or so.
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Jun 17, 2009 00:43
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I'm currently listening to 'The Strain' by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, read by Ron "loving" Perlman. His voice is well suited to it. Also listening to 'Hearts In Atlantis' at the moment. I can't tell if it's a good book or not because William Hurt is doing such a good job at the moment.
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Jun 18, 2009 13:36
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As already mentioned, Lolita read by Jeremy Irons is one of the best audio books out there. His voice is just a perfect fit for the character. Also Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way read by, who else, Bruce Campbell is very entertaining and well read. Ender's Game read by a team called Audio Renaissance is stellar. Multiple voice actors, all high quality. Highly recommended. Really brought it all to life for me. I can also recommend I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream read by the writer himself, Harlan Ellison. Very dynamic, very powerful. It's always great to hear a story exactly as the writer himself envisioned it. I actually had a tough time getting through the World War Z audio book, despite the big names attached to the project. Some of the accents sounded like caricatures and it really began to grate because of this. edit: Forgot one biggie: The Hot Zone read by Howard McGillin is also very good. Read very clinically, just as a book such as this demands. Just great overall. Dissapointed Owl fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Jun 19, 2009 |
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Jun 19, 2009 00:50
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Hedrigall posted:Well it must be one of these: As far as other audio books, favorites of mine include Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Stephen King's The Talisman, Krakauer's Into Thin Air*. And I'll also chime in in highly recommending Lolita. Jeremy Irons' rendition is absolutely indescribable in how good it is. e: World War Z is indeed a great audiobook, as many have said. But if you haven't read the book, make you you do that as well, as the only recording that was made is abridged and it leaves out some really great stories. So as far as that one is concerned, I say it's well worth your time and money to own both. And I know a lot of people hated Stephen King's Cell, but I loved it. And I think the audiobook version is really good as well. And believe it or not, Anne Heche does a fantastic job with The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, even if I feel like she's ever-so-slightly off when singing the Giant Glass jingle. *It seems like the only audio version of this is the one read by Krakauer himself. And it's good. And hearing the author read his own experience is pretty goddamn powerful. However, there was a previous version that's now out of print I believe, where the guy reading it not only reads the footnotes (something the Krakauer version, although still unabridged, curiously omits), but he also does all the accents. So if you can find it anywhere-- a)let me know because I want it, and b)it's well worth your money. UncleMonkey fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Jun 21, 2009 |
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Jun 20, 2009 01:53
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Kleptomaniac posted:The first 4 books of the Dark Tower series are read by Frank Miller, and are pretty incredible. He was by far my favorite reader. George Guidall who read the other 3 after Miller's bike accident is also talented but Miller was far better with giving every character its own distinct voice. Oh man, I'm about finished with book 3 and he does such an amazing job, I just figured he did the whole series. Is there a place to listen to samples from Guidall reading Dark Tower? I don't know if I can handle hearing someone else as Roland. Cruo fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Jun 20, 2009 |
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Jun 20, 2009 05:43
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Cruo posted:Oh man, I'm about finished with book 3 and he does such an amazing job, I just figured he did the whole series. Is there a place to listen to samples from Guidall reading Dark Tower? I don't know if I can handle hearing someone else as Roland.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Muller
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Jun 20, 2009 21:01
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This year, my roommate did the entirety of War and Peace on audiobook, read by some famous British voice whose name currently escapes me. He also did The Odyssey, which was read by Ian McKellen. It was a treat when he had that pumping through his speakers.
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Jun 23, 2009 00:35
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Inspired by this thread to take another stab at non-fiction audiobooks I downloaded Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher from iTunes. I generally have trouble tracking the nonfiction on audio because I feel like I want to highlight important lines or make notes next to some of the points the author makes but this one has been highly enjoyable. Aside from very interesting subject matter and engaging writing style Laural Merlington does a really good job with the reading. She has a nice voice and pacing that makes it easy to follow along.
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Jun 23, 2009 16:59
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Lord Jigger posted:I listened to the first 7 Wheel of Time books a few years back one summer when I had a job mowing acres of grass. Made the time go quicker, and the books were read by people with great voices. Although after a certain point I could only hear about braid tugging so much before I stopped listening to them. It was Michael Kramer. I liked him so much I am buying up other audio books he did. I just finish book 1 & 2 of Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and Michael does a really good job on those also.
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Jun 26, 2009 19:46
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I'm going on a trip tomorrow. Unfortunately my local bookstores did not have Snow Crash, Alas Babylon, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way, or Jennifer Government. So I am down to either World War Z or I am America and so can you, or anything else anyone might like to recommend.
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Jun 26, 2009 23:03
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