Audio Books

Soldato
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I discovered them recently and it makes driving to work so much more bareable. For free audiobooks just type into youtube the genre you're interested in followed by 'audiobook'. It seems a lot of people upload them! Working my way through all the alien vs predator stuff.

I do a fairly regular commute from Shetland to Glasgow and that's why I started listening as music and radio can get a bit samey. It's also great to be able to take in a book while doing stuff; easy to forget how restrictive reading is in terms of time consumption.

I tried to listen in bed last night, and can't remember a word. :p
 
Soldato
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I've just realised that if I borrow a book from Kindle Unlimited then I'm getting a big discount on the audio version. Example "We Are Legion" free on KU and then the audio book for £3.29. I'm not sure the Audible subscription is going to be worth it unless I get into some new releases. I've taken the 3 month introductory offer for Audible, so will see how this pans out as I understand credits accumulate.

Just thought I'd mention this in case others get use from it. :)
 
Soldato
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something ive considered but have a habit of starting books and not finishing ,well not getting that hook and not caring about the characters
my daughter passed on her old paperwhite and is crammed with fantasy ,she suggested i do wheel of time series for a start but just cant get into it (i will try again at some point} so end up with lotr or classic stephen king
i also wonder if my less than focused brain will keep up with audio books as i tend to skip back when theres loads of characters ,think i lose concentration
 
Soldato
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Over the last year I've been listening to quite a few audiobooks on Audible, I can recommend..
The Three-Body Problem trilogy
The Martian
Seveneves
1Q84
Red Rising, I just finished this one and it was great!

I'm on a 1 credit a month subscription and it matches pretty well with the rate at which I can listen to the books!
 
Soldato
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Plenty of people have recommended books. I'm going to recommend a narrator. Frank muller. By far my favourite narrator. On a plus he also does some of the dark tower books, he passed away before the last ones so george guidall takes over who is also very good. Iirc george does the very first book too, I assume it needed re recording or something.

I gave up on a song of ice and fire as Roy dotrices narration wasn't for me.

The dark tower series is something I'd recommend highly, if you familiar with any of King's other works you quickly realise the dark tower is the centre of his ideas and a lot of other name drops and references will make you smile. Imos it's some of his best work too.
 
Soldato
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I love many of the plays on radio 4, the archers omnibus is now compulsive listening. I've heard good things about audible so I might give it a go.
 
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something ive considered but have a habit of starting books and not finishing ,well not getting that hook and not caring about the characters
my daughter passed on her old paperwhite and is crammed with fantasy ,she suggested i do wheel of time series for a start but just cant get into it (i will try again at some point} so end up with lotr or classic stephen king
i also wonder if my less than focused brain will keep up with audio books as i tend to skip back when theres loads of characters ,think i lose concentration

An audiobook is different to reading text. You might find that it's easier for you to keep track and you might find that it's harder. Maybe borrow an audiobook from your local library service (you can do the whole thing online, including joining) so you can see how it is for you without paying anything. Maybe try a couple because in an audiobook the narrator is crucial and personal taste matters a lot. Having read the books yourself before can also make a difference because you might already have an idea in your head as to what characters sound like and that might not be the same as the narrator's idea as to what the characters sound like.

If you have any interest in fantasy, I'd recommend Game of Thrones, read by Roy Dotrice. NOT an audiobook of the TV series, if one exists. The unabridged version of the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire series. The TV show was based (increasingly loosely) on that series of books, but the books are definitely better books and I would say they are better story-telling. Certainly better story-telling than the last season, but that's not saying much. Spongebob Squarepants fanfic written by a 5 year old would be better storytelling than that. The books are top quality storytelling the whole way through and Roy Dotrice was a master narrator for the first 2 or 3. Something happened with the 4th and 5th (and maybe the 3rd, I forget). He was still very good, but not up to the standard of his earlier narration. The first audiobook in the series is a masterwork. Every character has a unique and consistent voice, and I mean every one. Even trivial background characters with 1 sentence of dialogue. IIRC Roy Dotrice had 122 different voices in that book. Regional accents are consistent, so different people from the same area of the fictional world will sound different but have the same accent. Social class affects accent as well as grammar and vocabulary. The latter is as written in the book, the former is (correctly) added by the narrator. That might help with your tendency to skip back when there are loads of characters because you can recognise each character from their voice alone. Something else that might be useful to you is that George R. R. Martin structures the books almost entirely as first person narrative with a single character as first person in each chapter. That might be useful with your tendency to skip back when there's loads of characters because there's almost always one central character. If, for example, a chapter is entitled "Arya", that chapter will be told from the perspective of Arya and centred around Arya.
 
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something ive considered but have a habit of starting books and not finishing ,well not getting that hook and not caring about the characters
my daughter passed on her old paperwhite and is crammed with fantasy ,she suggested i do wheel of time series for a start but just cant get into it (i will try again at some point} so end up with lotr or classic stephen king
i also wonder if my less than focused brain will keep up with audio books as i tend to skip back when theres loads of characters ,think i lose concentration
As Angelilion says audio books are different to reading in that you can find it easier.

However I'm a huge reader (the likes of Peter F Hamilton's 800+ page books don't phase me at all), but I've yet to get more than a couple of hundred pages into the wheel of time series, despite trying at least three times (sometimes it takes me a couple of attempts to get into a new author/story especially with mammoth books).

One way I've found of discovering new authors whose work I might like is to read short stories by them first, it often gives an indication of the writing style.
 
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2 of my favourites are :

Ready Player One
By: Ernest Cline
Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

&

Armada
By: Ernest Cline
Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

"I have been told" that with audible if you sign into someone else's account, sync books then log out. you still have the books on your device.
 
Soldato
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I like Audible for non-fiction/pop-sci books as well as fiction.

In September we drove to Germany and listened to Mythos, written and narrated by Stephen Fry, which was an interesting mix of the two.

I also listen to a lot of podcasts and Malcolm Gladwell's new book 'Talking to Strangers' blurs the lines between the two.

Gladwell is famous for popularising the '10,000 hours rule' and he gets a fair amount of flack for being less than scientific in the way he presents his research. However, if you read his books for entertainment rather than as objective non-fiction, he does have some interesting theories and anecdotes.

He has a podcast series called 'Revisionist History' where he "goes back and reinterprets something from the past: an event, a person, an idea. Something overlooked. Something misunderstood." It's well worth a listen because it's interesting, it's free and it will let you decide whether you like his voice/style before buying anything.

Most of the non-fiction audiobooks I've listened to are narrated by the author (with varying degrees of success) but they are just reading the text as it's written. In 'Talking to Strangers', Gladwell approaches the audio more like his podcast. When he refers to a historical moment (like a televised speech), he will get the audio from that moment, rather than him just reading out the words. If he has interviewed someone, he will use clips of the interview rather than reading out 'their parts'. He also uses music and sound effects — it makes the whole experience more engaging.

I'd like to think that this could be a new approach to audiobooks but it obviously requires a lot of planning up-front, with the intention of doing it this way from the outset. I think the next Freakonomics book could be done this way, given how good they are on the podcast side of things.
 
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Er.. *** NO Discussion of Illegal sources *** - Armageus

Gates Of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield (Author)
Possibly the best war story part based on fact – ever - if you liked the movie 300 this is cool.

Carry On, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
The ones read by Jonathan Cecil are the best in my opinion.

Travels with Charley By: John Steinbeck narrated by: Peter Marinkerhis is an amazing part fact, part story, I listen to it every year in the autumn while I am doing my garden. Love it.

God is not great & Hitch 22 read by Christopher Hitchens

Master and Commander series, there are 21, I am about half way, book 2 was ok but the rest are great.

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn (Author)

A Brief History of Time Hawkins

Bravo two zero & The one that got away – same story – two different perspectives – amazing adventure story and factual.

Possibly:
American Sniper
Band of Brothers
The God Delusion – read by Dawkins.
Of Mice and Men By: John Steinbeck
One Bullet Away: The making of a US Marine Officer: The Making of a Marine Officer
Touching the void
Making the Corps By: Thomas E. Ricks
 
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Soldato
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Harry Potter series narrated by Stephen Fry has been really good.
We picked up the last few HP books on audible, having bought the first few on cd, for our son to listen to. Audible was much better value once you hit the big books

Personally, though, I hated being in the room or car when he had it on, as I found Stephen Fry's voice just exhausting. I really don't fancy trying audio books myself, will stick with podcasts.
 
Soldato
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I'm addicted to them I'm with audible at times I can burn a year subscriptions 24books £110 in a month, I've been on an economy drive trying to relisten to old books. I have about 800ish
 
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Craig Alanson - Columbus Day ......then the series

Premise is aliens invade and kick ass. Soldier back home makes use of what is available and hasn't been flattened :D Laughing thinking about it now, he achieves legendary status from it. The legend follows him everywhere and he just wants to curl up and be left to die from embarrassment :D

Starts off as a basic revenge, then more is revealed and the scope gets bigger. Then bigger again and keeps getting bigger with the help of a thing.

I won't spoil it and there are >10 books and flow plot wise from one to the other. The new book is out tomorrow. Anyone who is into sci-fi is in for a treat!

Paraphrasing:-
'You, restart the reactor?? Pfft, as if, you monkeys have not yet figured out how the door knob works!'
'I think we have made good progress on that front'
'Pfft, please'

:D

edit:- Narrated by R C Bray, who has won a lot of awards for his voice acting.
 
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Soldato
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I find audible to be a great service, though the site can be a bit cumbersome from time to time.

My top pick recently, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, narrated by Stephen Fry.. 70 or so hours of terrific storytelling.
 
Soldato
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Regularly listen to audiobooks whilst travelling or out running. Recent highlights are 'The count of Monte Cristo', 'Shogun' and anything else in the James Clavell Asia series for that matter. Also 'The Body' really good fact based listen.
 
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