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There was a good thread about this somewhat longer ago than I realized: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2884032&highlight= My recommendations haven't changed. What makes or breaks an audiobook for me is less the book but the performance. Fueled by my recent infatuation by the Dexter books, I tried to listen to them as audibooks but found I couldn't because they aren't read by Michael C. Hall. I am opposed to abridgments but my own new recommendation is, actually and abridgment. I learned of Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men In A Boat from another thread here in TBB. It's public domain now, so I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg to read on my iPod. Then I found the audiobook on iTunes. Read by Hugh Laurie. MOTHERFUCKING HUGH LAURIE!! Never a more perfect narrator for this material was born and, I believe, he even provided piano accompaniment. It's abridged but, having read the book and listened to this, I can say I was impressed by the deftness of the abridgment. "Hey, they left out that part where..." was quickly supplanted by "Well. I guess I can see how that was non-essential." And, then, as I was folded into Laurie's engaged reading, I stopped caring altogether. I could babble more than I already have but suffice to say, I was intrigued by the consideration that went into the abridgment. This book actually has an (apparently famously) split personality which a laymen could look at and dismiss the "obviously" unnecessary portion. This edition doesn't do that but, rather, cuts out excess in each part while maintaining the timber of the original. I only think that because I've had the unique opportunity to enjoy both versions though. I still don't trust other abridgments to be any good. e: You know, another one a friend recommended me recently and I've enjoyed is Artemis Fowlwritten by Eoin Colfer and read by Nathaniel Parker. Not sure I'd have read this for myself but the narration is quite good, I thought. King Plum the Nth fucked around with this message at 18:48 on May 2, 2009 |
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May 2, 2009 06:33
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Sympodial posted:The audio version of that was superior for me because I liked hearing the dialect instead of reading it, and he nailed it really well. That's funny, that's exactly how I felt about The Yiddish Policeman's Union. Peter Riegert does a great job with the cadence of the Yiddish accent. When you read it, you may sort of "know" what these characters would sound like and the prose queues help but it's a different thing to actually hear it done right.
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May 3, 2009 21:51
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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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Man, I'm happy to see this thread crack the first page again; I have an unholy love for audiobooks. Nick Cave's new book The Death of Bunny Munro is both really brilliant and has a whole new kind of multimedia support -- an iPhone/iPod touch app that includes Cave's reading of is own book synchronized with the text and a soundtrack and video. If the audio book is the same as the audo track in this app, it's still totally worth it. Cave's reading is perfect, the book is wild, it's a treat all around. Finishing Bunny I moved on to Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road. It's a quick, fun, smart read on its own but the audio book has the benefit of being read by Andre Braugher whose voice is liquid; it pours into your ears, carrying the fine prose along with it, and makes you warm and happy from the brain out. I was enjoying the book as it was but the audio is brilliant accompaniment. It's cheap-ish too! Only about $15 from iTunes.
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Sep 27, 2009 05:21
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Strange Matter posted:I downloaded Audible's unabridged, 44 hour long IT audiobook, and I'm digging it. The narrator does a great job with the different voices, and even changes accent and timber of his narration for different sections. See, this is a limitation of the medium for me. I wasn't comfortable reading it but having the gang bang scene read to me would be just horribly awkward unto icky.
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Jul 8, 2010 17:18
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The General posted:All creatures great and small is pretty hilarious. Second this; I love those books so much. The TV series is truly wonderful as well and the best part is, if I'm not mistaken, there are versions of the audio books read by Christopher Timothy who played James Herriot (the author/main character) on the show. Now that's some audiobook  / right there.
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Aug 12, 2010 18:06
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