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If anyone is interested, Cherie Priest has announced that her book Boneshaker is now available from Audible with Zeke's parts read by none other than ultranerd Wil Wheaton.
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Mar 19, 2010 17:29
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Syrinxx posted:If anyone is interested, Cherie Priest has announced that her book Boneshaker is now available from Audible with Zeke's parts read by none other than ultranerd Wil Wheaton. What's the book about? Never heard of it, but anything UltraNerd is cool in my books.
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Mar 19, 2010 17:31
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It's a steampunk/zombie/dirigible novel. Seriously. I'm almost finished with it on my Kindle and I like it a lot. It's also a Nebula nominee.
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Mar 19, 2010 17:32
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Syrinxx posted:If anyone is interested, Cherie Priest has announced that her book Boneshaker is now available from Audible with Zeke's parts read by none other than ultranerd Wil Wheaton. Very cool. I was looking to read this. I could care less about Wheaton but I have 3 credits sitting in my account. Audible and a smartphone is the greatest thing ever. Earbuds, my Blackberry and a streaming audiobook entertainment anywhere.
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Mar 20, 2010 04:22
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anachrodragon posted:How is Cryptonomicon as an audiobook? I've wanted my husband to check it out for a while, but he has little enough time to read these days, and it's a loving huge book. Scott Brick. Need I say more? Unfortunately the only audio version I've found is abridged, but it's still worth listening to. It skips over most of Stephenson's huge tangents (PAGES UPON PAGES OF ANCIENT SUMERIAN MYTHOLOGY IN SNOW CRASH I'M LOOKING AT YOU) and is still entertaining.
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Mar 20, 2010 11:34
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Brick seems like the wrong reader for that story. Stephenson's books cry out for a nerdy smartass reader like William Dufris (who read the audiobook version of Anathem).
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Mar 20, 2010 15:17
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PBCrunch posted:Brick seems like the wrong reader for that story. Stephenson's books cry out for a nerdy smartass reader like William Dufris (who read the audiobook version of Anathem). I recently began Anathem in print form, and the idea of trying to absorb that book on audio without being able to reference the appendix constantly is mind-boggling. Recommendation: Audible's Modern Scholar series is wonderful stuff, especially the lectures by Professor Michael D. C. Drout. I've burned through his series on the Anglo-Saxon World and the History of Science Fiction in short order, and they were both entertaining and informative from start to finish. It's like taking a weekend college course taught by a very good professor.
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Mar 20, 2010 18:08
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I like David Sedaris, can anyone recommend any other good short story audiobooks?
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Mar 24, 2010 00:57
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Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is a collection of short gross-out stories. The best one is the first one, so that kind of sucks. I'm sure many will disagree but Sedaris reminds me a lot of Chuck P's writing style. They both write very sparsely and call back to funny strings of words from earlier in the text. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman is pretty awesome too, especially the alternate-universe mashup of Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu. The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century is a pretty good collection of short SF stories by some really awesome authors.
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Mar 24, 2010 15:16
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A while back I heard some sci fi on XM radio's book station that was accompanied by all kinds of synth music that really upped the atmosphere. Does anyone know where I can find stuff like this?
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Mar 25, 2010 01:30
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PBCrunch posted:Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is a collection of short gross-out stories. The best one is the first one, so that kind of sucks. I'm sure many will disagree but Sedaris reminds me a lot of Chuck P's writing style. They both write very sparsely and call back to funny strings of words from earlier in the text. Thanks, I've got Haunted, my fav. is the nightmare box, actually. I'll def. check out Gaiman, Ananzi Boys was a great audiobook.
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Mar 25, 2010 05:45
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colas posted:Thanks, I've got Haunted, my fav. is the nightmare box, actually. I'll def. check out Gaiman, Ananzi Boys was a great audiobook. We're going off on a tangent now, but if you enjoyed Anansi Boys then you're pretty much obligated to check out Gaiman's American Gods. That's where his interpretation of the Anansi character originated, and it's a great book besides. Well done on audio, too - most of Gaiman's work tends to do well when read aloud. The Graveyard Book is also quite good on audio if you're interested in Gaiman's tribute to Kipling's The Jungle Book.
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Mar 25, 2010 18:51
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Kestral posted:The Graveyard Book is also quite good on audio
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Mar 25, 2010 20:37
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PBCrunch posted:Brick seems like the wrong reader for that story. Stephenson's books cry out for a nerdy smartass reader like William Dufris (who read the audiobook version of Anathem). Dufris' comes off as monotone and singularly uninspired in his rendition of Anathem, and I was honestly not that interested in the book. If it were a narrator I already really, really like, I'd have given it a second chance, but I just got bored. Simon Prebble can at least make parts of an abridged version of Quicksilver interesting, but it just drags on and on and I eventually lose momentum. Brick can be smarmy when he wants to, but he really shines at capturing the general cluelessness and normalcy of both generations of the Waterhouse family. Now Jonathan Davis' reading of Snow Crash is nerdy, smartass and one of the most inspired things I've listened to. --- Since it seems like something I cannot shut up about, you all owe it to yourself to go and find John Telfer's narration of the complete Sherlock Holmes. He is without a doubt the best narrator I have heard who captures Holmes' enthusiasm and airiness and can also switch over in an instant to a skeptical Watson. He is GENIUS. --- Since all of us end up spending entirely too much time in vehicles going one place or another, I highly recommend Barbara Rosenblat's narration of Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax series. They are campy fun that's far more dignified than say, Clive Cussler, but are still generally bad books. The narration saves them, and Rosenblat's rendition of an elderly woman turned CIA spy is excellent. I listen to too many audiobooks. Tanith fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Mar 31, 2010 |
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Mar 31, 2010 10:19
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Tanith posted:Now Jonathan Davis' reading of Snow Crash is nerdy, smartass and one of the most inspired things I've listened to.
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Mar 31, 2010 13:46
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PBCrunch posted:The Jonathan Davis from Korn or another one? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/1586211137/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books I have no idea. v  v
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Mar 31, 2010 22:47
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Sadly, he is not :/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Davis_%28audiobook_narrator%29 OtOH, the only Snow Crash I've gone through was the first few chapters of that audiobook, and it was pretty good/funny.
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Apr 1, 2010 11:18
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I started Scott Brick's reading of In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. His over enunciation of pretty much every word is going to make this book hard to get through.
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Apr 5, 2010 20:06
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Scott Brick annoys the hell out of me most of the time which sucks considering the amount of stuff he has read for audible. After listening to the original 6 Dune novels I had to bore his voice out of my brain with an auger. A year later and I will finally purchase books read by him again but he is definitely not my first choice. I will listen to anything read by Charlton Griffin and I really enjoyed Roy Dotrice (ASoIaF) and Nigel Planer (Discworld). Listening to the ASoIaF series is quite interesting actually, you can hear Dotrice improve with each novel.
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Apr 5, 2010 23:10
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Triple recommending More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman. It is a fantastically written and read piece of literature. Warning. Don't listen to it on long walks unless you are comfortable giggling a guffawing while in the presence of strangers.
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Apr 6, 2010 03:22
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coleman francis posted:Triple recommending More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman. I have a friend who I swear is John Hodgmans long lost twin. Looks like him, sounds like him, has the same sense of humour. It owns. I really want to pick that book and the other one.
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Apr 6, 2010 10:40
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Happy Hedonist posted:Scott Brick annoys the hell out of me most of the time which sucks considering the amount of stuff he has read for audible. After listening to the original 6 Dune novels I had to bore his voice out of my brain with an auger. A year later and I will finally purchase books read by him again but he is definitely not my first choice. Yes a little Scott Brick can go a long way. I did really enjoy his narration of Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. That story had an emotional end-of-the-world element that was well-served by his style of reading. A non-fiction book like In Defense of Food should not be read the same way. Before I started IDoF I listened to Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, ready by Rich Adamson. Adamson read the book with a tone of incredulity that was absolutely perfect given some of the mind-blowing information in the book. The one I went through before that was Bozo Sapiens by Michael and Ellen Kaplan, ready by Victor Bevine. The narration was pretty unnoticeable, but the book was terrific. It made lots of good points, most of which I have already forgotten because I am an extremely fallible human being. The audiobook was good but I need to read it for real for it to really sink in. I listened to the first Harry Dresden book read by James Marsters. That guy swallows and breathes noisily and sounds tired, so he is a perfect narrator for a detective novel (with magic). Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick was boring and the Nick Sullivan's narration stretched the definition of dry. The guy sounds like the narrator of a high school human growth and development class video. I recommend against that one. PBCrunch fucked around with this message at 12:45 on Apr 6, 2010 |
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Apr 6, 2010 12:33
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I just got through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and narrated by John Lee. He was surprisingly 50x better in this book than he was in A Feast for Crows. I'm now on World Without End, I'll post when I'm done  45 hours to go!
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Apr 7, 2010 22:40
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I'm currently listening to The Lightning Thief read by Jesse Bernstein. This guy is a loving terrible narrator. His voices are all the same, he can't make a threatening voice to save his life and his inflection is bad. The book's fun and just what I expected, but this guy is really bringing it down a notch and making me wonder if I'll listen to the next 3 in the series.
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Apr 8, 2010 18:10
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Syrinxx posted:I'm currently listening to The Lightning Thief read by Jesse Bernstein. This guy is a loving terrible narrator. His voices are all the same, he can't make a threatening voice to save his life and his inflection is bad. The book's fun and just what I expected, but this guy is really bringing it down a notch and making me wonder if I'll listen to the next 3 in the series. Yeah, he's awful. It's a shame, because the books themselves are fairly entertaining for what they are. If you're on the lookout for good young adult books, I highly recommend the Artemis Fowl series. The narrator is a lot better than Bernstein, he's great at doing the different voices for the various characters. The books are quite clever and entertaining as well, significantly better than the Percy Jackson series.
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Apr 9, 2010 07:30
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Blood Meridian makes a pretty good audiobook; I'm finding it much easier to follow outloud compared to trying to read Cormac McCarthy's wheeling prose on the page. Plus, the narrator is really on the ball.
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Apr 10, 2010 04:40
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Agile Sumo posted:World War Z I bought this on the multiple recommendations here. It is a pretty fun audiobook. In fact I bet I like it better than I would the print version.
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Apr 14, 2010 03:18
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Are there any decent psychology books/lectures on Audible?
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Apr 15, 2010 01:41
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The Flying Milton posted:Are there any decent psychology books/lectures on Audible? What abouts are you looking for? Does behavioral economics count? Predictably Irrational is one I really enjoyed. The wisdom of crowds is good, and Blink is fantastic. The Tipping point might also interest you, I'm not sure.
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Apr 16, 2010 16:51
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Anything to do with an introduction to psychology. I don't care much for pop-psychology or self help books.
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Apr 18, 2010 13:22
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The Flying Milton posted:Anything to do with an introduction to psychology. I don't care much for pop-psychology or self help books. I couldn't help you there. I'm pretty heavy into the economics myself but as I mentioned there's alot on it that has to do with human behavior.
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Apr 18, 2010 13:25
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Last night I dl'd "The Lair of the White Worm" by Bram Stoker from Librivox. Also, Kipling's "The Man who Would be King" and the Eddas Volsungasaga, which I'm gathering is more the root or grand-daddy of the Ring cycle, Rheingold, etc. than anything else is. Listened to the first chapter at the gym before my mp3 player goofed on me, but I managed to gather that it's far more bloody and profane than the stories of the Rheingold, the Nibelungen, or the Ring ever were. Never mentioned it but Altemayer's "The Authoritarians" was great. And I just listened to Al Franken read his own "Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them." I'd love to work for that guy. And to revise my opinions on WWZ, I think I was kinda taken in by a viral campaign. I don't think this would ever warrant a 2nd listen. I did enjoy it but it didn't leave a deep impression.
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Apr 21, 2010 03:59
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I'm going for a Discworld marathon run. I'll be back in a couple months. 
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Apr 21, 2010 04:06
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My report: Eddas Volsungasaga is the best recording I've gotten from Librivox yet. It was a remarkable story and a passionate reading. Highly recommended for anybody who's ever had interest in things like LOTR, the Nibelungen or any such stuff. This is AWESOME! Tough English for many Americans, no doubt. If you've read any old English though, I trow it won't be too tough.
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Apr 23, 2010 07:48
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I just finished Wordy Shipmates. Not only is it an addictive book for history lovers, her awesome voice makes it a pleasure to hear. Plus, the celebrity guests were awesome. She got both John Hodgman and John Oliver, I was dissapointed she didn't get Jon Stewart. Bah. Fascinating book and some great jaunty sailor tunes.
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Apr 24, 2010 03:36
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I'm on the third book in the Sharpe's series by Bernard Cornwell and the narrator, William Gaminara, is excellent. EDIT: Also nthing the World War Z audiobook recommendations.
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Apr 28, 2010 14:44
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Moneyball - Read by Scott Brick Talks about Sabermetrics, Billie Beane's career in baseball, and how he kept the Oakland A's competitive in '01 and '02 as their GM, with one of the lowest payrolls in MLB. Other stuff too. Pretty good, even if you don't follow baseball. It's like the sports equivalent of min-maxing in an RPG. Now, if only Jose Canseco's two books came in audio format... 
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Apr 29, 2010 07:59
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Finished reading: The colour of magic, The Light Fantastic, Mort and Scourcery. I'm not a huge fan of the first two books, but that's because Pratchett was still new and hadn't found his groove yet. Though you see the improvement in book two. I never really like Rincewind (though he really does grow on you) or Twoflower but was sad to see them go by the end of book two. They're more Douglas Adams inspired than the parody that the series becomes. Mort is possibly my favourite book of the series (Though I've only read the first 15 of them), mostly because Death is such an awesome character. Not sure what else to say about it, if you have not read/listened to Mort do so. NOW. Scourcery is a fun read. I love the Wizards and Unseen University and it focuses alot on them. There's just something about inept, stuttering, backstabbing wizards that amuses me greatly. You'll notice that I'm skipping certain books, the ones involving Granny Weatherwax and crew. The narrator they got to do them is terrible. She lacks the comedic timing of Nigel Planer, gets the voices all wrong and is just boring as all gently caress. I'm the sure the books are great, but I can't get over the narration.
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Apr 29, 2010 11:05
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The unabridged version is ridiculously expensive (unless you get it free when you sign up for gold) but I'd recommend A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn if you want a solid chunk of rather depressing history. I'm only a few chapters in, but I'm finding it quite riveting so far. Also, because  here is the one star review:quote:I do not care for Zinn's bias. He seems to be in the blame America crowd. He wants to tell the story of every malcontent. To air the view of American society from the perspective of convicts on death row would give a horribly mangled impression of our culture. The greatness of America is not diminished by the evil acts that have occurred in our experience. The overall impact of the United States is one of profound greatness. We are a shining city on a hill. I do not desire to obsess on the thorns, I would rather appreciate the beauty and blessing of the rose. It's even funnier because the last half of the first chapter is Zinn specifically talking about the fact that the book is biased towards the downtrodden, and why he feels like they have an important perspective to offer. I am America and So Can You was a lot of fun too, though I'm not sure if the abridged version is worth it. Colbert's delivery holds up pretty well. The same is true of America: The Book. Also, seconding anything by David Sedaris.
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Apr 29, 2010 19:10
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Librivox Recording of Bram Stoker's "The Lair of the White Worm" My Report: Stoker's "The Lair of the White Worm" has given me the feeling Stoker was a little bit unhinged. It had a moment where the tension and gloom were so overpowering that I felt it too disturbing to keep listeing, but aside from that brief moment, the book was offhand more an example of weak writing than a good horror novel. I don't know, I guess it was worth it for that moment, if you can get over how cheesy it was. Spoiler: this book may have been the inspiration for Hitchcock's "The Birds." Anybody who enjoys novels of the "Darkover" series will probably enjoy this novel at least as much as I did. This book is more loaded with racist invective than any I've ever come across in any novel, BTW. The chief bad guy comes from Africa with his personal servant, a witch doctor and gasp, a black man. Several characters compete for who can spew the worst contempt and disgust for negroes in this 19th C English novel. Just a little warning. BTW I have some vague recollection of seeing the movie, and it was a camp classic of sorts. Some bizarre sexual overtones that were not present in the book, and not that much semblance to it, actually. And finally, most of the readers are quite good, except the first few chapter where the otherwise quite adequate reader has a bad mic or connection somewhere, so there's a nearly ultrasonic hiss that disturbs the hell out of me. He only has this problem for the first 3 chapters or so but still. (I've found that I'm especially sensitive to ultrasonics though and many people can't even hear them, including my wife.) Who am I to complain? It's free!
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Apr 30, 2010 01:55
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