OT: Audiobooks

[Maroon Eagle]

What audiobooks do you like to listen to when you're driving?

I've been listening to a few lately and am looking for more recommendations.

The last one I finished was Pratchett's Wee Free Men. Before then was an extremely brutal dystopian novel-- Blindness by Saramago.

 

[johnson86-1]

What audiobooks do you like to listen to when you're driving?

I've been listening to a few lately and am looking for more recommendations.

The last one I finished was Pratchett's Wee Free Men. Before then was an extremely brutal dystopian novel-- Blindness by Saramago.

For audiobooks, believe it or not, I start with a narrator rather than the author or book title. A mediocre narrator can be a painful experience, and I have had books I know are good ruined by horrible narration. So on audible, once I find a narrator that does a good job, I will search by narrator, and then sort the results based on rating. I have found some good authors and books I never would have picked otherwise, and even gotten into genres I wouldn't have gotten into otherwise.

This result only works for fiction I think. Lots of non-fiction seems to be read by the actual author, which is hit or miss to say the least. Even people I've heard speak who are great public speakers can be (and usually are) horrible narrators of their own books

 

[Maroon Eagle]

I know a few people who go by narrators rather than authors.

Pratchett's narrator was good.

The team behind the narration of Blindness did excellent work making the story understandable especially when considering Saramago's idiosyncratic writing style with limited punctuation-- there are periods and commas but no quotation marks which makes reading dialogue a pain in the neck.

 

[o_Native Son]

I take long road trips in the summer and last summer I got through four of six of Ann Swinfen's Oxford Medieval Murder Mysteries and really like them. Getting the others ready for my trip soon. Also last summer I got through Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life (takes pretty much each room in a house and walks through it in history) and liked it a lot. If you like science and history his A Short History of Nearly Everything may be the best thing I've listened to while driving.

 

[eedawg]

The best narrator to me is George Guidall. He could read the phone book and make you listen.

​

 

[Grove Sh*tter]

David Spade's latest one on audible is funny. It is straight raunchy at times, but if you can weather the raunch, it's a good time passer.

 

[BigMotherTucker]

I'm glad you asked.... My whole office has listened to several series of books and use that as watercooler banter. To date, we've listened to over 70 books.

Any Mark Tufo series.
**Zombie Fallout - 14ish books
**Lycan Fallout - 7ish books
**Indian Hill - 6ish books
**A Shrouded World - 4 books

All of these books center around the same character. Mike Talbot... I listed these because this has been my favorite of all my book files. If you like The Walking Dead, then you'll love these books. These are all about 8hrs long while listening at 1.5 speed.

Also, if you are into torrent downloading... Go to AudioBookBay. They have all of these books or any other book you're looking for. I use the MP3 Books (premium) app on my iphone. It works really really well.


Trust me on this.... Enjoy

 

[57stratdawg]

Factfullness was good. It will radically change your view of the planet and human species’ overall trends. The author was maybe the director of the World Health Organization. It has really good insight into where we’re headed.

It’s made Bill Gates & Obama’s book recommendations a few times.

 

[BigMotherTucker]

I find it interesting that most on here read insightful and meaningful literature, while I use my 30min commute to basically exit reality.

 

[johnson86-1]

I find it interesting that most on here read insightful and meaningful literature, while I use my 30min commute to basically exit reality.

That's what I do. I listen to fiction and read non-fiction, but I barely read anymore just b/c I'm usually crashing by the time I get to bed. When I'm tired of brainless fiction, I listen to podcasts rather than non-fiction just b/c I don't want to commit to 6 to 10 hours of a non-fiction audiobook.

 

[o_Native Son]

I'll also mention here that my first exposure to audiobooks was a 1992 trip from Starkville to Columbia, SC with a couple of friends (all MSU sophomores). We went to watch State's first game ever against SC (we lost - Steve Tanneyhill was a freshman and took care of business against MSU). Anyway, we had the cassette tapes for John Grisham's A Time to Kill, and were so into the story that every time we stopped for gas or bathrooms we actually hurried to get back into the car to hear the story continue. Good times.

 

[BigMotherTucker]

Try those Mark Tufo books... I'm telling you, you'll thank me. They are narrated by Sean Runnette. He is very engaging. These books are written with real world humor. The character of Mike says things you would probably say if put in his situations. The Zombie Fallout series is what the Walking Dead should be, but isn't.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Thanks. Downloading The Spirit Clearing right now via Hoopla.

I'll let you know what I think.

 

[BigMotherTucker]

To be fair... I have downloaded that book and have it in my que, but I can't vouch for it yet. I'm sure it's good, but can speak for certain on the Zombie Fallout series. I'm actually listening to it for the second time right now. We first listened to it a few years ago. I am currently on book 9.

I also just remembered the book series that got me into audio books in the first place. The Wayward Pines series (Pines, Wayward, and The Last Town). It is a three book series that FOX ended up making a short lived show about. The book series is very good, suspenseful and satisfying.

 

[SyonaraStanz]

Just finished the Dark Tower series by Stephen King today. It's 7 books, so a lengthy series. Interesting, fairly weird and a really good narrator. The Harry Potter series is good on audible and a great narrator. I may try the Game of Thrones series next.

I need to find a self help on coping with the heart break of sports teams.**

 

[BigMotherTucker]

I've got a buddy listening to the GoT series now. They're like 30hrs per book. 3 of 4 books... That's dedication! We listened to it together on a drive to Pensacola few months ago... It's not my thing, but to be fair... I've never seen the show.

 

[CochiseCowbell]

For audiobooks, believe it or not, I start with a narrator rather than the author or book title.

The only audiobooks I can recall listening to were one of Louie Lamor's as a family on a road trip many moons ago and John Grisham's Bleachers read by Grisham himself and our very own Jack Cristil.


Whenever I think about audiobooks and especially johnson's comment above I think about this Seinfeld episode:

ETA: Not sure why the embedding isn't taking. It's the one where he can't read because he hates his own voice in his head, so he pretends to be blind so he can get an audiobook of his text book and it ends up being his own voice reading it.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

I never got into the Harry Potter books when I was a kid for whatever reason, but on a whim I downloaded them and have been listening in the car ... and they're great.

Other than that, I'll second Factfulness and also Michael Lewis's latest book, The Fifth Risk.

 

[III.sixpack]

Fav authors are Baldacci and Michael Connerly. Also try the 'Prey' John Sanford books, The Jeffrey Deaver lincoln Rhyme series and the Mark Greaney Grey Man series. Recent NYTimes best seller WHEN CRAWDADS SING is outstanding. All of these are very nicely narrated.

 

[archdog]

What audiobooks do you like to listen to when you're driving?

I've been listening to a few lately and am looking for more recommendations.

The last one I finished was Pratchett's Wee Free Men. Before then was an extremely brutal dystopian novel-- Blindness by Saramago.

PSA about audio books. If you have a library card, you can use the Libby app. Libby has a large library of both digital books and audiobooks that the state of mississippi has right to use. All free. When you check one out, you get it for two weeks. All free.