I recently listened to some audio books, Harry Potter and Bryson’s Short history of nearly everything.
I really enjoyed them. I turn them on when I go to bed and listen while I’m drifting off. It’s like story time at bedtime all over again 
So basically I’m looking for any recommendations you have. Books can be any genre.
I’ve been listening to them all summer on my hourlong commute to and from school. My favorite, far and away, is Phillip Roth’s The Plot Against America. It’s Phillip Roth’s autobiographical account of his being a seven-year-old Jew living in New Jersey in 1939, when noted Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh ran on an anti-war platform against FDR and won the presidency. It’s beautifully written, very ominous, just a great novel; and the narrator has a perfect voice for the job.
Daniel
I was going to mention Bryson’s Short History, I love the historical science stuff.
I’ve also listened to some mysteries on my commute to work, I liked the two by Jonathan Kellerman I listened to, “Monster” and “Therapy”. I liked “Monster” more.
I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb, read by George Guidall. It’s about a man with a mentally ill twin brother, who uncovers a lot of family secrets through reading his grandfather’s memoirs. It was very engrossing, and it’s a nice long one too; about 32 hours.
I just tried and failed to listen to The Count of Monte Cristo. Maybe I would do better with that one by actually reading it.
I don’t doubt it’s a good book, but I do doubt it’s autobiographical.
So many to choose from. My approach is to pick a book I’d like to read anyway, in whatever form, and if the library system has a recording then it becomes part of my commute. I won’t make any recommendations since I have no idea about your tastes, though.
I recommend the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books, read by Douglas Adams himself. I tried to read the first one a long time ago and it kinda fell flat, but Adams’ voice makes the story come alive. It turned me into a fan of the series.
Even though they’re “children’s” literature, I recommend the audiobooks for any of the Lemony Snicket stories (A Series of Unfortunate Events). They’re read by Tim Curry in a delightfully deadpan, morose tone. I could listen to his voice all day. Here’s a link to the author’s website, so you can get a feel for the books.
http://www.lemonysnicket.com/index.cfm
Also, I would highly NOT recommend any of the Star Trek novels on CD - horribly cheesy sound effects, voices, etc.
I’d recomend Homer’s The Illiad and The Odysey, also maybe Virgil’s Aeniad (sp?) not only are these books a bit of a slog to read through, they were really intended to be read alloud and listened too. Audio CD sets of these non-copywrite classics are also quite good value often working out about $2.00 per CD in the set.
I have also got the New Testament read by James Earl Jones simply because the idea of having the N.T. read by Darth Vader was appealing to my ideas of irony. Unfortunately that audiobook is a little spoilt by background music during the oration.
I recommend the CD’s of the original BBC radio show that started it all. Adams might have written it, but Simon Jones is Arthur Dent.
Ohh, now there’s an idea. I had to study all three of these many moons ago in school and really liked them but agree they are a bit of a slog. Cheers
Well to give you an idea the last few books I’ve read are. Currently reading Mao: The Unknown Story, before that I read a Ed McBain, the new Harry Potter, a biog of Louis B Mayer and a Robert Ludlum.
Basically I’ll read/listen anything once it keeps me interested 
By the way, I recently found out I can get a www.netlibrary.com account free from my local library (likely everybody with a library account can) and download audio books directly.
They are in a secure .wma format, so your device has to support that format. I’m pretty sure iPods do not support that, but many devices so, like my Creative Zen Xtra.
Just recently finished Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke, read by Simon Prebble. An excellent and unique novel, exceedingly well performed.
Others I recently finished and would recommend are the Song Of Ice & Fire Series by George R. R. Martin, read by Roy Dotrice.
I’ll also expand on sciurophobic 's recommendation and suggest any number of BBC Radio dramatizations. There’s an excellent series of Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, some fantastic Agatha Christie’s (I love John Moffat’s Hercule Poirot) and countless others. The 13 part Lord Of The Rings series is wonderful.
thwartme
I second this recommendation. Actually I recommend every Douglas Adams book read by the author, including the excellent non-fiction book Last Chance to See. (Though the last two of the five Hitchhiker books fall short of the others.)
I’ve also enjoyed some Dave Barry and Al Franken’s books. (Dave Barry Does Japan and Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, and a couple of others). I believe both were read by the author.
If you find it a slog to read through, wouldn’t it be even more of a slog to listen all the way? I’ve started on Atlast Shrugged and Anna Karenina (both are 30+ hour unabridged audiobooks) but I decided to get the printed books and skim through the rest.
You could look through these previous threads.
I’d be interested in knowing which books actually work better as audiobooks than they do on the printed page. This is often (though not always) the case with audiobooks by people who are primarily performers or oral storytellers, such as Garrison Keillor, David Sedaris, and Dennis Miller.
Yep. I’ve never been a fan of audiobooks, but now that I can stick the headphones on and listen while I ride my stationary bike, I’m delighted.
Currently listening to The Hermit of Eyton Forest, by Ellis Peters. Read by Roe Kendall. This is my first exposure to Brother Cadfael and I’m enjoying it.
The “Earths Children” series by Jean Auel.
This series consists of:
Clan of the Cave Bear (horrible movie, but a GREAT BOOK)
Valley of Horses
The Mammoth Hunters
Plains of Passage
Shelters of Stone
I’ve listened to all but the last (Shelters) on audio, and read the books over and over and over. My wife and I didn’t agree on how to pronounce names, but once we heard the audio versions, found that we were both partly wrong (each wrong on different names, and correct on different names).
Your local library also either has lots of audiobooks, or can request via inter-library loan just about any title out there.
-Butler
the original radio broadcast is also very good, though perhaps too lively for bedtime … (and also only availble on tape)
Douglas Adams “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul” is another of my favories.
I recommend Jason Robards reading “Iron Weeds”
Oh, it’s definitely a novel, don’t get me wrong–but the narrator’s name is Phillip Roth, and I suspect that the novel’s genesis was the idea, “What would my childhood have been like if this had happened?”
I’ve listened to several books that were crappy but had good narrators (something by Leonard Ellroy was in this category–a throwaway novel about hookers and mobsters with a wonderfully Chicagoan narrator) and other wonderful books with awful narrators (The Quiet American, a literate treatment of the Vietnam war narrated by a BBC-accented Brit whose Bostonian accent sounded like an idiot’s caricature of a Texas accent). I’ve been impressed with how much difference a good narrator makes on these things.
Daniel
I realize I maybe didn’t make this very clear, but not only is the account free, but the audiobooks are free to download, too. They use .wma security, and are “checked out”, so they expire at some point.
No money is involved at all.