Suggest Some Audio Books

[Pyper]

@Mama_Zappa

Are you familiar with the Miles Vorkosigan stories from Lois McMaster Bujold? Space opera at its finest! I can’t vouch for the audiobooks in particular (as we get the dead tree versions of her stuff) but they’d likely be pretty enjoyable. Just make sure you’re not getting any collections which are reprints of stuff published separately - e.g. Shards of Honor and Barrayar were later released as a compilation called Cordelia’s Honor or some such.

I love the Miles Vorkosigan saga, but the audio version of “Cetaganda” was absolutely the WORST audiobook I have ever listened to. There was a male reader for the narration and for the male characters, and a female reader for the female characters. The male reader completely botched Miles’ character, voicing him and stuttering and unsure, when Miles is the epitome of a charismatic chameleon. The female reader had an “old lady voice,” which sounded bizarre in the context of characters who were supposed to be young and beautiful. I don’t know if the same readers do all the Vorkosigan books, but I never risked my enjoyment of the series by ever getting another audio version.

Probably my favorite audiobook is “The King Must Die” by Mary Renault. The reader had a very upper crusty British voice which suited the historical context. But best of all, he didn’t try to do any “voices.” This may just be a matter of personal taste, but I hate it when readers try to accents or voices for the characters. It almost always sounds over-the-top and ludicrous. Just read the damn book! Rant aside, the book was just fantastic. (It was recommended on these boards many times.)

[Alistair_McCello]

Curses, now I have two credits and far too many books to get.

@Bosstone

Richard Feynman’s physics lectures are supposedly pretty good, although I’ve never listened to them myself.

The Feynman Lectures are definitely on the list to start working my way through (good lord there are twenty of them, this might take a while)

I have read almost all of the Pratchett, Gaiman, and David Sedaris books so I think I will hold off on getting those on audio.

I have several friends who have been urging me to read both World War Z and I Am Legend so those must go on the list.

@CalMeacham

You don’t list mysteries, but I have quite a few of the Nero Wolfe stories (many unabridged) by Rex Stout and read by various people. I also have one of Robert Goldsborough’s post-Rex Stout Nero Wolfe novels on audio.

I have many Sherlock Holmes stories by various companies and readers.

I have several Rumpole of the Bailey stories, most of them read by Leo McKern, who played him on PBS (and who recorded with three different companies), as well as Michael Hordern recording some.

I can’t believe I did not think of mysteries! I love the Nero Wolfe stories and have seen most of the Rumpole of the Bailey PBS series which is wonderful. (Also Stranger in Strange Land was the first book I bought through Audible).

@Tangent

If you’re not averse to Harry Potter–or even if you’ve already read the print books–the audiobook versions read by Jim Dale are not to be missed. Dale is hands-down the best reader I’ve ever listened to.

I have all of the books, but I have heard so much praise for his readings that I will have to pick up at least one of them just to see what all the hullabaloo is about.

Thanks for all of the great suggestions so far, I have at least another years worth of audio books to buy now!

[Sefton]

It can be hard to find, but if you can get The Ode Less Traveled by Stephen Fry, you’re in for a treat. It’s read by the author, and if you know who Stephen Fry is, you’ll know he’s entertaining and very well-spoken. He’s also knowledgeable and passionate about poetry.

I finished the last CD two days ago, and immediately popped in the first disk so that I can hear it again.

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

@Alistair_McCello

I have all of the books, but I have heard so much praise for his readings that I will have to pick up at least one of them just to see what all the hullabaloo is about.

The cheap and easy way to listen to his voice is to watch an episode *Pushing Daisies - he does the voice overs.

[CalMeacham]

I don’t know if your tastes run that way, but I also love the classics – I can listen to them over and over again without their going stale (as happens too often with many popular works). Among the ones I have from Penguin audio are:
The Iliad (only an abridgement of the Fagles translation, dammit! Why not release the whole thing?)

**The Odyssey

The Prince** by Machiavelli

**Beowulf

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Frankenstein** (really good)

**Tales from the Arabian Nights

**

I also have, in non-Penguin editions,

**The Argonautica

The Metamorphoses** of Ovid

Sir Thomas Malory’s le Morte d-Arthur
I’ve also got a partial translation of The Odyssey read by some profesor with an extremely Southern U.S. accent. It sounds as if I’ve entered a parallel universe where worship of the Greek Gods still holds, and I’m listening to the equivalent of a literalist Southern Baptist reading the sacred texts.
I’m a BIG fan of C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower books. I have Patrick MacNeee reading, unabridged, Lieutenant Hornblower and Hornblower and the Hotspur. Really good.

[Mama_Zappa]

FYI - I’d checked before, and it’s still true: Audible doesn’t have any of the Harry Potter books. IIRC, you can get them from iTunes, but obviously that doesn’t let you use Audible credits and they’re pretty pricey.

[Mama_Zappa]

@Pyper

I love the Miles Vorkosigan saga, but the audio version of “Cetaganda” was absolutely the WORST audiobook I have ever listened to. There was a male reader for the narration and for the male characters, and a female reader for the female characters. The male reader completely botched Miles’ character, voicing him and stuttering and unsure, when Miles is the epitome of a charismatic chameleon. The female reader had an “old lady voice,” which sounded bizarre in the context of characters who were supposed to be young and beautiful. I don’t know if the same readers do all the Vorkosigan books, but I never risked my enjoyment of the series by ever getting another audio version…

I looked - and it looks like that same reader does all of the Vorkosigan books - useful data point. There are different readers for the Chalion books (too involved and not gripping enough for audiobooks, in my taste) and the Sharing Knife books (not familiar with those).

[Zebra]

When the movie came out they released a audio book version of Lolita being read by Jeremy Irons.

I would love to have that.

[Proudest_Monkey]

Someone gave me an Audible membership for Christmas a few years ago. I could get a book a month free, and I immediately became a fan of audiobooks. Perfect for summer days in the sun (sans glasses!) and long car trips.

Don’t know if this is up your alley (and it’s not the hot book it once was) but I particularly liked Memoirs of a Geisha. I didn’t think it was up my alley either, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

[susan]

I’m loading up for my trip (including about 60 hours of uninteresting transit), so I’ve bought

Mortenson and Relin: Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Karnow: Vietnam: A History
Levine: A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last
Thomas: Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea’s Prisons

That gets me to 54 hours, so maybe one more book and a couple of Dengue Fever albums? I do expect to sleep, but I also do expect to have boring periods of sitting around.

I was going to go for Proust but damned if I’ll spend as much as iTunes wants for it. I’ll try the library before I next travel.

[Madgolf]

I did Atlas Shrugged by alternating between the book and the audio over the course of a month.

Sometimes I get hooked on the style of the reader like when Brian Dennehy does an Elmore Leonard. That is so cool. Same with Micheal Connolly’s cop books.

Anyhoo… It wasn’t epic or anything but I really liked “Deadlines” by Greg Bear which really fell apart at the end but had so much potential and I am not regretting the time spent. Mildly technological and embarrassingly supernatural, it is a great escape if you can let down your geek for a while.

Connie Willis’s “Doomsday Book” was impressively educational and entertaining for a medieval time travel piece. I think I remember she researched and wrote it over the course of five years. I was pretty pissed off that there was not much in the way of humbling the locals with modern wizardry, but learning is learning.

The kids book (and subsequent movie) “Holes” and the book of the Cusack movie “Money for Nothing” make the time fly by.

I would not wish the 1984 audiobook on my worst enemy.

Oh, and Robinson Crusoe is a nerd hero! I remember committing myself to catching up on the classics and was genuinely thrilled with that one.