# What should be my first Audiobook? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010 "2009-06-17T00:48:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Keweenaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Keweenaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keweenaw)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/21 "2009-06-17T18:27:27Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > In any case, avoid any book read by the author. Most can’t act. Probably not bad advice, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve heard read by Neil Gaiman himself. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/22 "2009-06-17T18:34:14Z")
> [@Keweenaw](#): > > Probably not bad advice, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve heard read by Neil Gaiman himself. And David Sedaris reads his own work very well. ---
**Author:** ![Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tyrrell_mcallister/32/16772_2.png) [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/23 "2009-06-17T19:06:58Z")
I enjoyed Seamus Heaney’s translation of _Beowulf_. It’s a good yarn in its own right, and the poetry really benefits from being read aloud. Actually, I think I ended up getting it because of a recommendation here on the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/24 "2009-06-17T19:07:16Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > If you like the _Harry Potter_ series, Jim Dale is an excellent reader for those. If you watched Pushing Up Daisies, he does the voice over. > [@NAF1138](#): > > This too. I love Sedaris, but his stuff is actually better as audiobook read by him than it is on the page. It comes to life when he reads it in a way it just doesn’t when it isn’t read out loud. I feel the same way about Sarah Vowell’s stuff. I loved Ms. Vowell’s _Assassination Vacation_. I can imagine some people finding her voice a bit grating (heathens!!), but you can listen to her [here](http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?title=Sarah-Vowell&videoId=187572). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/25 "2009-06-17T19:30:10Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > In any case, avoid any book read by the author. Most can’t act. This rule, as others have noted, does have exceptions. Many of these exceptions are people who _do_ act—i.e. people who have experience in performing or broadcasting. For example, David Sedaris gives public performances/readings, so I think he counts here. I would love to have a read-by-the-author audiobook by Mark Twain or Charles Dickens. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/26 "2009-06-17T20:33:43Z")
I’m partial to the Jeffrey Combs reading of _Herbert West: Re-Animator_, myself. At night, in the dead of winter is really the best time to listen to it, I guess, but whatcha gonna do? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/27 "2009-06-17T23:34:38Z")
Thanks for all the recommendations. I stopped by the library today and picked up Anansi Boys and The Fellowship of the Ring. I’ll check out some of the others too, especially the ones by Christopher Moore. It’s too bad about that Foudini M Cat book only being on cassette. It sounds good, and I’d love to hear something read by David Hyde Pierce. I guess I could always check goodwill for a cassette player. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/28 "2009-06-18T05:27:11Z")
Justin, I hope you get addicted to audiobooks. With two kids and almost as many jobs, it’s hard to get time to sit and pull out a book. But I can listen to a book while cleaning, doing yardwork, errands etc. I’m amazed at how much of a book I get through on a drive to work. Good to bribe yourself to work out, and they’re perfect to fall asleep to. Oh, and to stay on topic, I vote for the perfect matchup of voice to protagonist. Darren McGavin IS Travis McGee, Simon Prebble (or Tony Britton) is the Everymen of Dick Francis’s books, Jonathan Cecil is everyone in every PG Wodehouse book, and George Guidell evokes the writer Jim Qwilleran AND the feel of Moose County in “The Cat Who…” books. Oh, and Neil Gaiman IS Neil Gaiman, reading “Fragile Things”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/29 "2009-06-18T10:32:41Z")
Who reads the Hitchhiker’s Guide audiobooks? Because I thought it was Adams himself. And I thought it was even better than reading the book, as I could hear how everything was supposed to work. In fact, when I read it, I didn’t realize it was supposed to be humo(u)rous. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/30 "2009-06-18T15:14:20Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Who reads the Hitchhiker’s Guide audiobooks? Because I thought it was Adams himself. And I thought it was even better than reading the book, as I could hear how everything was supposed to work. In fact, when I read it, I didn’t realize it was supposed to be humo(u)rous. He read them initially. Then Dove Audio, who published them, went under and the recordings went out of print and are now stupidly hard to track down. When the movie came out a version of H2G2 was released as read by Stephen Fry, which is just fine, but it’s not the same as the one read by Adams. (I think he reads the American version also, while Adams read the British version). Audible has the next three books available as read by Martin Freeman, which I haven’t listened to. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/31 "2009-06-18T15:49:23Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I would love to have a read-by-the-author audiobook by Mark Twain or Charles Dickens. Here ya go: > [@Mark Twain](#): > > .-..-. - — – ..–.. .-..-. -. — .- -. … .-- . .-. .-.-.- .-..-. - — – ..–.. .-..-. -. — .- -. … .-- . .-. .-.-.- ---
**Author:** ![HookerChemical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@HookerChemical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HookerChemical)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/32 "2009-06-18T17:23:37Z")
If you’re going to listen to Fellowship of the Ring, brace yourself for the Tom Bombadil section. He’s an incredibly annoying character in audiobook form with the reader sing-songing all of his lines. I second the World War Z audiobook. Some of the readers are better than others, but it’s overall a very good experience. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/33 "2009-06-18T18:20:01Z")
> [@Leiko](#): > > Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman, read by Lenny Henry, is my favorite audiobook in the world. Lenny Henry does amazing voices for every character, from the ancient old Floridian women to the weasel-y Brit to the mythical/religious figure Tiger, in ways that I believe and love. > > Plus it’s a good book on paper too. YES!! I heard of this on a much earlier thread here and got it from Audible, and loved it. As far as excellent narration, anything narrated by Barbara Rosenblat is terrific. Her narration of the Amelia Peobody mysteries (all set in late 19th / early 20th Egypt) is the best I’ve ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/34 "2009-06-18T18:25:21Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I… > > If you like the _Harry Potter_ series, Jim Dale is an excellent reader for those. > > When I want lowbrow entertainment, I find that full cast fiction audiobooks are always a lot of fun, as it’s more like listening to a radio dramatization than a book. _Redwall_ and _Ai! Pedrito!_ are the two that come most quickly to mind, but there are others. > …] The Golden Compass is also done with full-cast - the author does the “narration” and actors do the voices. I believe the sequels are also done that way, though I haven’t listened to them. I listened to a couple of the Harry Potter books and yanno, I didn’t love Dale. I don’t think he did as good a job with the different voices as people claim he did. Plus his Hermione was annoying - “Hawweeeeee!!”. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/35 "2009-06-18T18:29:52Z")
Mysteries are good choices for audiobooks, especially if you have the bad habit (I do) of flipping to the back of the book to see how it turns out. Of course if you use them for driving, as I do, then you wind up arriving to work and sitting in the car for 5 extra minutes because you want to see what happens next! ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/36 "2009-06-18T18:36:08Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I listened to a couple of the Harry Potter books and yanno, I didn’t love Dale. I don’t think he did as good a job with the different voices as people claim he did. I agree. I’m strongly skeptical of the claim that he did 100+ distinct voices. Still, I did enjoy the audiobooks despite that. As long as the reader can successfully differentiate each speaker plus narration in a scene, which Dale was certainly capable of doing, I’m happy. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/37 "2009-06-18T19:28:31Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > T > I listened to a couple of the Harry Potter books and yanno, I didn’t love Dale. I don’t think he did as good a job with the different voices as people claim he did. Plus his Hermione was annoying - “Hawweeeeee!!”. Dale kind of grew on me. I agree that his Hermione was awful (though she did get better as the series went on). I also didn’t like his Voldemort, Professor Trelawney, Luna Lovegood, Moaning Myrtle, or Madame Maxime (a lot of his female voices weren’t very good, actually). But he made up for it with Harry himself, Hagrid, Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore, Snape, Lupin, Ron, and quite a few of the others. I also got annoyed with his inability to pronounce “enmity,” but that didn’t happen often. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/38 "2009-06-18T20:19:19Z")
“A Christmas Carol”, read by Ronald Coleman. PS. Jim Dale does a good version too! ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/39 "2009-06-18T20:22:03Z")
Patrick O’Brian’s _Master and Commander_, if you like that sort of thing. It’s been a while, as this was one of my first, but the reader was wonderful and of course the store is great. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010/40 "2009-06-18T20:24:41Z")
For those of you who like to buy audiobooks, vs. borrowing from the library, I wanted to put in a plug for Audible. This is the one area where the electronic version really results in a _substantial_ savings over the traditional medium. For example: Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. From Audible it’s 1 credit (if you have a monthly subscription, that’s 14.99 or less). The CD version of it is 31.49 from Amazon. Better than 50% savings. The paperback version is 10.20. The Kindle version is 6.39 or about 40% cheaper. Before Kindle, the only choice would have been Ereader or some such (currently 7.99 there). And of course with Kindle you’ve got to purchase the device (I do ebooks on a Palm Pilot, so no 400 dollars for a dedicated reader). Not always though: World War Z is 10.17 paperback at Amazon, Kindle version is 9.99 (barely any savings at all). The audible download is actually _more_ than the CD version at Amazon. That’s pretty unusual. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is 7.77 both paperback and Kindle. Audible has the download for 18.71 and the CD lists as 29.99 (not available yet). It’s a rare thing for me to purchase an audiobook, however. Has to be a lotta bang for the buck. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-my-first-audiobook/500010.md?page=1)