Daily I have about 3 hours of commuting by car (sometimes less when I'm lucky...)
A few months ago I started listening to audiobooks and found that it makes the time spent in the car a lot more enjoyable and prevents me from wanting to kill every second driver and curse them and their whole family for the next ten generations ... ;-)
Among others I have been through these:
Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull (the founder of Pixar, very entertaining, despite it being aimed at managers)
The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz
The Lord of the Rings (watch out for those long Elf songs if you are driving, had me dosing off more than once ...)
The Harry Potter series, narrated by Stephen Fry (really nice actually, Stephen Fry is great to listen to and has probably spoiled me to the point of no longer being able to enjoy lesser narrators ...)
Right now I am listening to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which sounds promising.
Any of you guys know some good audiobooks?
Quote from: drolo on February 25, 2015, 02:29:55 PM
Daily I have about 3 hours of commuting by car (sometimes less when I'm lucky...)
A few months ago I started listening to audiobooks and found that it makes the time spent in the car a lot more enjoyable and prevents me from wanting to kill every second driver and curse them and their whole family for the next ten generations J
Among others I have been through these:
Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull (the founder of Pixar, very entertaining, despite it being aimed at managers) The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz The Lord of the Rings (watch out for those long Elf songs if you are driving, had me dosing off more than once ...) The Harry Potter series, narrated by Stephen Fry (really nice actually, Stephen Fry is great to listen to and has probably spoiled me to the point of no longer being able to enjoy lesser narrators ...) Right now I am listening to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which sounds promising. Any of you guys know some good audiobooks?
Don't know if the font size change is intentional but it is hilarious indeed. (ok, you edited that...)
I've never listened to an audiobook before but man: " The Hicthiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is an awesome book (and film) and Stephen Fry as a narrator : EPIC.
The film actually made me fell in love with Zooey Deschannel before she became famous. ;D
I am an avid Audiobook listener
For long stretches, I listen to Tom Clancy novels, main reason is that they're usually 30 hours +, so I buy one book, and I can get a couple of months out of it. And they're pretty simple story lines, so you don't miss much if you're not really paying attention.
For shorter stretches, I listen to Lee Child/Tess Gerritsen/Kathy Reichs/Greg Iles books. Typically for road trips with the wife that last 6 - 10 hours in one direction, and they're series novels, so you know the characters and generally know where the story is going.
Best book I've listened to in the last 6 years was Black Cross by Greg Iles. Listened to it three times.
I'm not much into the fantasy/other world type stuff. Tried listening to a couple of the True Blood books, they were a tough listen. The Hunger Games books were a good listen, though they made the movies utter pieces of rubbish.
Bon suggested we download the 50 Shades series. What absolute junk. Difference between male and female erotic fiction - there's about 3 minutes of plot and no backstory in male oriented fiction, and there's about 2 minutes of plot and 8 hours of backstory in female oriented fiction. That, and the 50 Shades stuff sounds like it was written by a 19 year old with a very limited vocabulary, which is that much worse in audiobook format.
I'm pretty boring but I like to listen to The Great Courses audio books. My local library has a bunch of them. Right now I only have a 5 minute commute and it's all back roads. Haven't flipped off another driver in years.
The Wheel of time. It's 14 books long, and each book is perhaps as long as it can be. There's something like 19.2 days worth of audio. That should keep you going for a while. Plus, it's really, really good at some times, and just really good most of the time...
The Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card. Especially if you like Science Fiction that actually has something to say, and not just be a story about blowing up aliens.
Jacob
I read a lot but don't do many audiobooks. But I will actually find time to listen to Stephen Fry narrate. He's fantastic.
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A Song of Fire and Ice - GRRM
I was into book four and just stopped for some reason last year. I haven't really listened to any audio books since. An occasional podcast, though. My favorites are Around the Horn and PTI from ESPN.
I've just bought this. Used to have it on tape back in the day. Thought'd I'd get up to date and get the additional series I was missing.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Complete-Radio/dp/0563504196/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424884285&sr=1-5&keywords=hitchhikers+guide+to+the+galaxy
Managed to get a mint set on eBay for about £30.
Utterly brilliant stuff.
EDIT: Ok just noticed you mentioned it in the last line of your post... It'll keep you busy for a few weeks anyhow, there are 14 CDs of it ;)
I'll probably get this also, as the book it's based on is excellent: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Omens-Radio-dramatisation-Dramatisations/dp/1910281913/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424884475&sr=1-1&keywords=good+omens
David,
I've been listening to audio books for years. I was actually going to start this thread a while a go and never did for what ever reason. Here is what I have listened to.
A Song of Ice and Fire Series (Game of Thrones)- George R. R. Martin - Loved the whole Series
Harry Potter - Loved it
Let The Right One In - John Alvide Lindquist - Great listen
Handling The Undead - John Alvide Lindquist - Great story
World War Z - Max Brooks - Awesome Moc-umentory
The Millennium Trilogy (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) - Sieg Larson - Listened to it 3 times it was that good
The Dark Tower Series - Stephen King - Not like his normal work but still great
The Lesser Dead - Christopher Buhelman - Ok...not great but it was short
Snowblind - Christopher Golden - Fantastic book plus took place in my home town.
That's just off the top of my head. I know there are more I can recomend I'm just not at my home computer right now. PM me if you need any of these. I still have them.
-Mike-
Love audiobooks, for me it is when I am biking to work. Stuff I have listened to recently and loved:
- Snow crash - Neil Stephenson. Possibly the best sci fi ever written.
- Neuromancer - William Gibson, also increasable sci fi.
- Downloaded a HUGE collection of Discworld (Terry Pratchett) audio books, must be 20 of them.
My absolute fave is the Harry Potter series. Stephen Fry's narration and character voices were just so freaking good.
Never heard an audiobook (the drive to work is eight minutes, TOPS), but Terry Pratchett is one of my all time favourite authors (along with Anne McCaffrey.)
Also The Wayward Pines Series by Blake Crouch is good
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Quote from: alanp on February 26, 2015, 05:22:24 AM
Never heard an audiobook (the drive to work is eight minutes, TOPS), but Terry Pratchett is one of my all time favourite authors (along with Anne McCaffrey.)
Good Omens was actually a radio play, like Hitchhikers Guide. Slightly different.
Thanks for all your suggestions !
I just finished the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. What a great book, was just a bit hard to focus while driving at times when my mind felt like it had to warp a little to try making sense of some of the delightful nonsense ...
3hours a day?? Are you working in Luxembourg or what? Thats a long drive. I have 1.5 hours a day and the audiobooks is a really good Idea. Thanks
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In Brussels ...
When all is well, it takes me an hour to get there, but all is not always well ...
I always resisted audio books because I'm and English major, and audio books are basically admitting you have given up. ;D But, I have a decent commute every day (driving), and with a baby in the house now, I don't have a lot of time or energy to read. So, audiobooks in the car it is.
I've listened to quite a few over the last year, but here are a few I enjoyed (all are from Audible.com):
Fiction:
Wool - Hugh Howey
Shift - Hugh Howey (the followup to wool)
Dust - Hugh Howey (the final of three)
Book of the Dead - Greig Beck (this one was just okay, but it was Lovecraft-inspired, so that was cool)
Historical:
Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
A Brief History of the Samurai
Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris
HITLER: 1936-1945 Nemesis
The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England
Other:
The Evolution of God
Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data
The Millionaire Next Door
audiobooks definitely have their place. i listen to them while i drill millions of holes and doing other tedious busy work. they keep me from going crazy. ;D
i still mostly listen to music in the car, though.
anyway, i have loads and loads of audiobooks on my drive.
I love listening while riding my bike. My favorites are Clive cussler's Fargo series, Lewis blacks books Stephen colbert I even started the great gatsby
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Quote from: juansolo on February 26, 2015, 08:39:36 AM
Quote from: alanp on February 26, 2015, 05:22:24 AM
Never heard an audiobook (the drive to work is eight minutes, TOPS), but Terry Pratchett is one of my all time favourite authors (along with Anne McCaffrey.)
Good Omens was actually a radio play, like Hitchhikers Guide. Slightly different.
Good Omens is fantastic. I've read it 3-4 times. I've been on a bit of Gaiman tear lately; I really enjoy his writing style.
I've read a couple of Pratchett books from the Discworld series. Pratchett is good, but I prefer Gaiman's writing style. I also went back and read the Foundations Trilogy by Asimov, which I quite enjoyed. I don't normally read this much science fiction, but it's been good.
Next for me is probably Perfidia by Ellroy. I've read a lot of his other works, so I'll probably like it. It takes a bit to get into his prose, at least for me. Last time I read him, I think I read 7 books in a row of his and I got so used to his clipped style that it was odd going back to a "normal" style of writing afterwards.
In a non-fiction vein, I highly recommend "Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynmann." I think everybody should read this at sometime in their life. He's a physicist, but this book is anecdotes, not heavy science. It's wonderful.
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i read the book but wil weaton did the audio for (Ready player one)......is really highly praised among gamers and fans of pop culture/and mmorpg
I just finished Ender's Game and enjoyed it a lot. Great story and great audiobook production.
Hmmm what will be next ....
Quote from: pickdropper on February 27, 2015, 05:26:57 PM
Good Omens is fantastic. I've read it 3-4 times.
Likewise. One of my favourite books (along with Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett and the Dark Tower series by Stephen King).
Just listened to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency radio play and enjoyed it more than I did the book. Got the 2nd one of them to go at too.
i'm currently listening to mistborn (sanderson). i'm on the second book right now, & it's not too bad.
I can tell you one thing, don't listen to the divergent series (roth). a relative recommended them to me, but i just couldn't make myself go on to the second one. it seemed more like a story for teenage girls...just, ugh. lol
The Brandon Sanderson stuff is quite good in comparison to a lot out there. I really liked the "Way of Kings" and "Words of Radience", the Mistborn stuff was pretty interesting, and his current approach to Superheroes in "Steelheart" was pretty unorthodox and quite exciting.
Jacob
Quote from: juansolo on March 10, 2015, 05:07:22 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on February 27, 2015, 05:26:57 PM
Good Omens is fantastic. I've read it 3-4 times.
Likewise. One of my favourite books (along with Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett and the Dark Tower series by Stephen King).
Just listened to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency radio play and enjoyed it more than I did the book. Got the 2nd one of them to go at too.
I've read the first few books of Pratchett's Discworld series but haven't read Reaper Man yet, I'll check it out.
I liked the first few books in the Dark Tower series. It fell pretty far after that. I finished the series but I wasn't happy about it. It was similar, but not quite as bad as watching Season 2 of Twin Peaks. Every few years I re watch the series and promise myself I'll stop after Season 1. Of course I don't stop And I am irritated all over again at how bad season 2 is.
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The Dark Tower goes all Mills & Boon in the middle of book 4 I think. It's when Roland is reminiscing about his past love. That was bollocks and it went on and on. Picked back up after that. I'm also happy to report that it has a satisfying ending, which surprised me. I really expected him to cock that up.
Pratchett, I've read them all ;) They are hit and missy. The best are the Death series, the Witches series and the Night Watch/Commander Vimes books. All superb characters. The kids books with the Nac Mac Feegles are good too (Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, etc).
Quote from: pickdropper on March 10, 2015, 06:16:41 PM
Quote from: juansolo on March 10, 2015, 05:07:22 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on February 27, 2015, 05:26:57 PM
Good Omens is fantastic. I've read it 3-4 times.
Likewise. One of my favourite books (along with Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett and the Dark Tower series by Stephen King).
Just listened to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency radio play and enjoyed it more than I did the book. Got the 2nd one of them to go at too.
I've read the first few books of Pratchett's Discworld series but haven't read Reaper Man yet, I'll check it out.
I liked the first few books in the Dark Tower series. It fell pretty far after that. I finished the series but I wasn't happy about it. It was similar, but not quite as bad as watching Season 2 of Twin Peaks. Every few years I re watch the series and promise myself I'll stop after Season 1. Of course I don't stop And I am irritated all over again at how bad season 2 is.
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Terry Pratchett died today. RIP.
Is sad to lose great science-fiction writers. I feel like people don't appreciate good sci-fi that much now. Is this genre (I call it that to simplify) in decadence?
:(
Indeed, deeply sad, RIP.
Quote from: juansolo on March 12, 2015, 05:05:44 PM
:(
Indeed, deeply sad, RIP.
+1. RIP
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Quote from: drolo on March 10, 2015, 04:56:53 PM
I just finished Ender's Game and enjoyed it a lot. Great story and great audiobook production.
Hmmm what will be next ....
Check and see if Card's "Folk of the Fringe" is available as an audiobook. That was a really nice collection of related novellas.
I own a copy of that. Orson Scott Card writes well.
Jacob
Terrence McKenna - The Invisible Landscape