Audiobooks

[Clem Fandango]

I got gifted a bunch of credits on Audible. Does anyone have any recommendations for audiobooks? Specifically ones that are good to listen to in ~2 hour chunks (length of a drive I'll need to be making a couple of times a week from later this year).

Edit:

Actually just use this as a general Audiobook discussion thread.

 

[Pale Empress]

Depends on what you're into. A long time ago I had a job that let me listen to headphones so I listened to the entire Discworld series which was awesome. It starts off being a send-up of fantasy literature and then gradually evolves into more "serious" world building but retains a light hearted tone. The early books aren't very focused but once you hit around book four or five they get really good. Pratchett is a great writer and the narrators they had were good too.

I also like listening to Neil Gaiman's nonfiction (despite disagreeing with his politics), a lot of it has to do with storytelling and the love of literature in general, and he narrates them too (he has a lovely soothing voice).

 

[Clem Fandango]

Depends on what you're into. A long time ago I had a job that let me listen to headphones so I listened to the entire Discworld series which was awesome. It starts off being a send-up of fantasy literature and then gradually evolves into more "serious" world building but retains a light hearted tone. The early books aren't very focused but once you hit around book four or five they get really good. Pratchett is a great writer and the narrators they had were good too.

I also like listening to Neil Gaiman's nonfiction (despite disagreeing with his politics), a lot of it has to do with storytelling and the love of literature in general, and he narrates them too (he has a lovely soothing voice).

Cheers for the recommendation. I read pretty much every Discworld novel when I was a kid, since they were available at my local library, but it's been so long it might be nice to go back and give them a re-listen. I love Pratchett's style - he can describe something completely absurd, but the way he does it you can perfectly picture it in your imagination.

I'll look into Gaiman. As for what I'm into personally? Ehhh...anything really. The podcasts I listen to are usually true crime (Last Podcast on the Left) or comedy (Off Menu), but when it comes to books I guess I prefer something like sci-fi or history - something that feels more 'substantial'. The last audiobook I listened to was The Gulag Archipelago. Now that was fuckin' fascinating!

But yeah, don't worry too much about my tastes. I know I wrote the OP asking for suggestions, but I guess this could be a good thread for people just to pop in and say what they've been listening to. I couldn't find a general audiobook thread using search.

 

[Jason Wynn]

The Dark Tower audiobooks read by Frank Muller are great. They're almost like listening to a radio play than someone just narrating. Same with Steven Weber reading It.

James Marsden's audiobooks of The Dresden Files are pretty good as well.

 

[Orion Balls]

So, Harry Potter is a bit of a guilty pleasure. And when the books are read by Stephen Fry, it's a pretty good ride. His voices are unique, except that Mr. Dursley and Prof. Grubbly-Plank sound exactly the same, except for the added pipe in her mouth. (Actually, every fat character sounds similar in that Fry has a fat people voice, and he will use it, by G-d!)
E- don't listen to any audio version of Good Omens. Every person I've heard read it is dry and uses zero dynamic tone. Not so good for an apocalyptic comedy.

 

[A Useless Fish]

The version of Shirer's The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich they have is excellent. Ditto Ian Kershaw's Hitler. Thanks to Corona-Chan, I have been taking the dog out for a lot of extended walks in the country, since going into town right now will get me arrested. I've been going through many audiobooks, though I lean towards non-fiction.

Apart from those two, there's also Andrew Roberts' Napoleon The Great, which I am currently on and would recommend, and Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers, which is about the really complicated reasons why Europe blew the fuck up in 1914.

If you're looking for a lot of bang for your credit though, Shirer's the way to go. That book of his is nearly 60 hours, which is a lot of content if you like narrative History, which is full to the brim of autistic levels of detail.

 

[Clem Fandango]

So, Harry Potter is a bit of a guilty pleasure. And when the books are read by Stephen Fry, it's a pretty good ride. His voices are unique, except that Mr. Dursley and Prof. Grubbly-Plank sound exactly the same, except for the added pipe in her mouth. (Actually, every fat character sounds similar in that Fry has a fat people voice, and he will use it, by G-d!)
E- don't listen to any audio version of Good Omens. Every person I've heard read it is dry and uses zero dynamic tone. Not so good for an apocalyptic comedy.

It seems like everything on Audible is narrated by Stephen Fry lol. Can't complain though, he does have a lovely voice.

The version of Shirer's The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich they have is excellent. Ditto Ian Kershaw's Hitler. Thanks to Corona-Chan, I have been taking the dog out for a lot of extended walks in the country, since going into town right now will get me arrested. I've been going through many audiobooks, though I lean towards non-fiction.

Apart from those two, there's also Andrew Roberts' Napoleon The Great, which I am currently on and would recommend, and Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers, which is about the really complicated reasons why Europe blew the fuck up in 1914.

If you're looking for a lot of bang for your credit though, Shirer's the way to go. That book of his is nearly 60 hours, which is a lot of content if you like narrative History, which is full to the brim of autistic levels of detail.

Brilliant, that's exactly what I'm after - bang for my credit. I'll definitely get Shirer's Third Reich.

 

[James Roancrest]

The original Star Wars Thrawn Trilogy is on Audible. Marc Thompson does an excellent job narrating, and the post production values (music and sound effects) makes them seem like a radio plays rather than just audio books (all of the Star Wars books I've listened to seem to have this production value). There is also a new Thrawn series, but I can't recommend them yet since I am still at the first book.

I also agree with what has been said about the Dark Tower, Harry Potter, and Dresden Files series. All of those are excellent. I also recommend the Narnia series (all of the books are in one package), The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

 

[Judge Holden]

Get yourself the Rob Inglis unabridged audiobook of The Lord of the Rings.

 

[Screw Danlon]

Does anyone have any opinions on the Masters of Doom audiobook? I really don’t like Wil Wheaton that much, but I’ve heard the book itself is great.
Trying to decide whether to get the audiobook or just buy a kindle version,

 

[Dante Alighieri]

I've been listening to The Wheel of Time, the two voice actors are really good. It's nice and long with lots of world building. And braid tugging.

I listened to The Expanse before The Wheel of Time and that was very enjoyable, it's really good sci-fi and sucked me in.

Audiobook Bay is a pretty good site for finding torrents.

 

[Devilish Jack o Lantern]

I thoroughly enjoyed the following Audio books :
Niel Gaiman's Sandman and Norse mythology real solid works and the narration by Gaiman
The Yahtzee Crowshaw books.
The dracula Amazon production is really good.
Red Dragon is amazing but the narrator is a little dull
War and Peace .

 

[Screw Danlon]

Battle Royale read by Marc Decasos is excellent.
Sherlock Holmes read by Stephen Fry is good.
I quite like Ken Follet‘s Pillars of the Earth.
and The Knife of Never Letting Go and its sequels are really intense and it does something interesting with the reader, which I don’t want to spoil.

 

[Path Wanderer]

Was going to make a thread on free audiobooks but since this exists I might as well revive
I have been listening to DavidReadsASOIAF on YT for a while now. As you might have guessed, he has mainly worked on doing the Game of Thrones books + Dunk and Egg for a while now. Word of advice, his covers before Storm of Swords are pretty ratty in quality but his voices are good and his production is basically professional now.
Example 1.

Currently he's going through the Hobbit (all of Tolkein's work perhaps?) but if you don't like fantasy he finished Clan of the Cave Bear + some audiologs of some historian pieces.
A good listen for long shifts all in all

 

[Miriam Margoyles]

Since you've all been such good little kiwis, I can bump this thread and read you all a story, if you'd like.

It's about a magical secret school where children learn to fly on broomsticks and cast spells and nothing is ever quite as it seems.

Sadly, it isn't written by a Based TERF Queen, but we can't have everything, now can we?

 

[grump]

A tale of a corrupt grrrlpowa CEO to tide you over a long workday in the office or computer session.

https://appaudiobooks.net/bad-blood-audiobook/

I've closely followed the Theranos case and saw the Dropout which is largely based on this but this is superior since its completely nonfiction without some of the questionable changes they made in the show.

 

[topsykrets]

Throwing a recommendation to Based on a True Story by Norm Macdonald.

 

[Wot Zit Too Yah0996]

Your thumbnail is wrong, Ray (FUCKING) Purchase.

Though, keeping this thread hopefully going, I used to love falling asleep to the Roald Dahl audiobooks, on weekend nights when I were a kid. My favourites were The Witches, The Twits, Danny the Champion of the World, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The BFG, and Fantastic Mr Fox.