Audiobooks (1 Viewer)

[Optimus Prime]

Does anyone here listen to audiobooks?

I am in my car alot and I listen to them all the time but I've been listening to them since middle school.

With rare exceptions I avoid abridged versions. There was a book that had both versions, the adbridged was 4 hours long, the unabridged was 12. How do you cut out 2 thirds of a story and have it make any sense? (weird when the adbridged and uanabridged versions are read by two diiferent people. Why not just edit the unabridged one?)

Anything that says read by author is a pass by me. They are authors are authors not actors. They are almost always terrible and have the weirdest takes on characters they created.

Famous A list actors are usually bad. (Charater actors are usally great, Will Patton gets really high marks for the dave Robicheaux series)

Sometimes if I see a book that I'm mildly interested in who narrates it will seal the deal. Anything read by Scott Brick, George Guidall or the late Frank Muller is worth listening to.

I've gotten my girlfriend into them. We'll take long weekend drives and listen and now she listens when commuting to work.

If you have a long commute and hit a lot of traffic I highly recommend that you give them a try.

 

[seandroog]

I really wish I could get into audio books, but they put me to sleep. I like to read, but for some reason listening to a book knocks me out.

My wife wants some though, so if anyone knows of ways to get free ones let me know! I do not download anymore, verizon slapped me on the wrist

 

[gboudx]

I listened to "Tuesday's with Morrie" by Mitch Albom on our way back from New Orleans last month. It was my first audiobook and it really helped make the time pass. It was read by Mitch himself and I thought he did a great job since the book is a true story of his visits with his old professor Morrie Schwartz. It made it more believable and true in that sense since a lot of the writing is in the 1st person.

 

[gboudx]

I really wish I could get into audio books, but they put me to sleep. I like to read, but for some reason listening to a book knocks me out.

My wife wants some though, so if anyone knows of ways to get free ones let me know! I do not download anymore, verizon slapped me on the wrist

My wife was able to get "Jane Eyre" and "Pride and Prejudice" for free. If your wife may be interested, I can ask where she found them.

 

[staphory]

I like listening to the Death Lands series. Several actors playing the core group and they aren't bad. Some of the other character actors can be hit or miss, good series for the most part.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The Harry Potter audios are incredible.

I have the British versions read by Stephen Fry.

I didn't care for the Jim Dale version

Judge for yourself:


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[livefromDC]

I listen to audiobooks all the time now when I'm sitting at my desk and when I'm driving. If you have an eReader (I have a Kindle), I suggest going to Download Audio Books with Audible.com Online Digital Audio Book Store. It's cheaper than buying books on CD and you literally can take all of them with you everywhere you go. My car has an aux jack (doesn't work through USB) that I can plug into my kindle to play it through the car's audio system. Audible.com works by giving you one credit each month that you can use to purchase a book. The subcription is about 15 bucks a month so the math works out well if you're going to buy at least 1 book a month or if you want to buy a series. You all get a lot of different deals that make it worthwhile when you don't use the credits or there are deals that you can use with the credits. Naturally, I wouldn't use the credits on anything that cost less than $15.

Also, I find that I'll pull out my kindle and listen rather than read when I'm in public space like the airport, doctor's office, etc where low level noise is too distracting to read. I pop in the earbuds and listen to a book instead of music.

As far as book choices, I usually reserve stuff that I've been putting off for audio. I have no trouble reading stuff I know I will love or have been dying to read. The things I pick for audio are things I know I should have read by now or simply wasn't able to get into it whein I tried to read it. I find listening to it makes it easier to finish. I've tried to read "A Confederacy of Dunces" (yeah..I know, blashemy) before several times but didn't get into it until I did it on audio.

 

[BigSlick]

I just got through listening to Michael Lewis' The Big Short about the subprime mortgage meltdown. I found the audiobook to be both informative and entertaining, especially the reactions of the main characters as they more and more fully realized how totally fraudulent was the market built upon the subprime mortgages.

Regarding books read by the authors, I've enjoyed Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages and Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, although these were both nonfiction. You may well be right about fiction folks reading their own stuff, although I imagine that Steven King would kill one of his own books.

Devotional/Religious material seems to be a poor fit for audiobooks. You can't track down any of the cross references which might be mentioned in the text, nor can you really reflect/meditate/pray very well in traffic.

I'm fairly new to audiobooks, but I'm digging them so far. They seem to help me stay calm in traffic, since I can't be bothered to "get into it" with other drivers -- I might miss this next part of the story!

 

[Optimus Prime]

Scott Sigler is definitely an exception to the "authors are terrible narrators" rule.

He mostly writes horror/sci-fi

His books are available as free podcasts on itunes and his website.

His Galactic Football League series is great.

 

[Optimus Prime]

You may well be right about fiction folks reading their own stuff, although I imagine that Steven King would kill one of his own books.

I think that King has read several of his books and stories. I haven't listened to any though.

Frank Muller reading The Green Mile is what solidified my love of audiobooks. It is fantastic and I've listened to it literally at least a dozen times.

 

[sOulsaint]

I love audiobooks, I currently have over 150 Gigs of audiobooks mostly Science Fiction and Fantasy.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

yeah, can't imagine a road trip without them
sometimes really good podcasts (or like during the season a few sports hangovers)
but nothing makes the trip go faster than a good 18 hour unabridged fiction

that being said i also like reading up on hyper physics stuff like quantum mechanics and super string theory (and pretending i understand) and i actually find it easier to follow an audiobook version than actually reading myself

 

[Zack Lee]

that being said i also like reading up on hyper physics stuff like quantum mechanics and super string theory (and pretending i understand) and i actually find it easier to follow an audiobook version than actually reading myself

I love anything that makes the pretending easier

I have downloaded a few and I am trying to get into it. The only problem I have is that if I am looking at other stuff instead of actually reading, I tend to drift off and start thinking about something else. By the time I realize it happened I have to rewind some. Maybe I just need to train myself for it because I am a big book reader and stay focused for that.

 

[SharonT]

Check your public library. The price is right, too.

 

[Zack Lee]

Check your public library. The price is right, too.

I was going to say the same, and if it is some (like Jefferson) you can download from the website if you get their software for it.