Books Audiobooks

duffer

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Despite being neither blind or unable to read I recently downloaded the audiobook version of The Lord of the Rings.

It was excellent on a long train journey and just before going to sleep (like a bedtime story on my Ipod!)

Anybody know of any good audiobooks?
 

Maroon Lucifer

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For a short period of time, I had a job in another town. I got a few audiobooks during that time. A few Stephen King short stories were excellent. They were read by this old bloke with a rusty voice. Those were great.
The Ricky Gervais podcasts are a good listen as well.

Oh, and I listened alot to stand-up comedians then too. Thats when I "found" Mitch Hedberg whom I love. Good times.
Those aren't exactly "books" but I do recommend those :)
 

BAMSOLA

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Despite being neither blind or unable to read I recently downloaded the audiobook version of The Lord of the Rings.

It was excellent on a long train journey and just before going to sleep (like a bedtime story on my Ipod!)

Anybody know of any good audiobooks?
Try getting the entire Narnia series. if you like i can pm you a link.
 

brad-dyrak

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The Teaching Company
www.teach12.com

At last count I have 340 hours of downloaded lectures - History, literature, physics, geology, etc. You name it. Browse their sales bin. Great stuff.
 

FC Ronaldo

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Does anyone know where I can get a couple of these from without paying such fees that the iTunes store are offering?

Thankfully there aren't many torrents of the ones I want so my quest to report them to the authorities has been short.

Fergie's and other footballing books in particular.
 

Pexbo

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I love audio books. I find my eyes too tired to read for hours and hours at night like I used to when I was a youngster and I'm generally too tired to do that anyway so I've replaced that with audio books. Great in the car, on plane journeys and best of all on the beach when it's too bright to read a book and you can never get comfortable.

Only gripe is that they always narrate it at best at half the speed you normally read so books take longer to chomp through.
 

Simbo

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I spend over 2 hours a day in the car commuting, audible has been a godsend. Thing with these is the narrator is as important as the book itself, some of these guys are amazingly talented, two I can highly recommend are Sean Barrett and Simon Vance.
 

Stringer

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Does anyone know where I can get a couple of these from without paying such fees that the iTunes store are offering?

Thankfully there aren't many torrents of the ones I want so my quest to report them to the authorities has been short.

Fergie's and other footballing books in particular.
If you have Amazon Prime, there is a free 3 month trial for their service. You also get £10 credit to spend on what you want.
 

FC Ronaldo

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If you have Amazon Prime, there is a free 3 month trial for their service. You also get £10 credit to spend on what you want.
Thanks. Anybody know of others?
 

swooshboy

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I loved listening to Ball Four:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/ball-four-final-pitch-unabridged/id517551786

Ball Four: The Final Pitch is the original book plus all the updates, unlike the 20th Anniversary Edition paperback. When Ball Four was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. Bouton was called a Judas, a Benedict Arnold and a “social leper” for having violated the “sanctity of the clubhouse.” Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book wasn’t true. Ballplayers, most of whom hadn’t read it, denounced the book. It was even banned by a few libraries. Almost everyone else, however, loved Ball Four. Fans liked discovering that athletes were real people--often wildly funny people. Many readers said it gave them strength to get through a difficult period in their lives. Serious critics called it an important document. David Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer for his reporting on Vietnam, wrote a piece in Harper’s that said of Bouton: “He has written… a book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact that it is by no means a sports book.” In 1999 Ball Four was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the “Books of the Century.” And Time magazine chose it as one of the "100 Greatest Non-Fiction" books. Besides changing the image of athletes, the book played a role in the economic revolution in pro sports. In 1975, Ball Four was accepted as legal evidence against the owners at the arbitration hearing, which lead to free agency in baseball and, by extension, to other sports. Today Ball Four has taken on another role--as a time capsule of life in the 60s. "It is not just a diary of Bouton's 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros," says sportswriter Jim Caple. "It's a vibrant, funny, telling history of an era that seems even further away than four decades. To call it simply a "tell all book" is like describing The Grapes of Wrath as a book about harvesting peaches in California."
The key here is that it is narrated by the author - so it is more like listening to him telling you stories directly, than him reading a book. He laughs at the stories as he is telling them, and a chapter where he is talking about the loss of his daughter is extremely emotional.

I am not a huge baseball fan at all, but I love sports books (particularly American sports) and this is certainly one of the most influential sports books.
 

Alock1

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I've got Kingkiller, Rivers of London and others for fiction.

For non-fiction I've started Yuval Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Recommend both based on the few hours of each I've listened to so far.

Also listened to Islam and the future of tolerance: A Dialogue which is grand for anybody interested. It's a discussion on Islam and it's influence on extremism between Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz.
 

Vidic_In_Moscow

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Can anyone recommend software to use to play downloaded audiobooks? Don't wish to use itunes as it's a pig. Preferably something simple with a small footprint.
 

Xeno

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Richard Dawkins is a great narrator, if that's you irreligious leaning. His earlier stuff probably better than his later work, The Ancestors Tale excepted which is excellent.

Andrew Marr - History of the World.
 

GBBQ

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Any recommendations for Audiobooks? Joined audible a few months back and have gone for some short story / biography type books as I find them easier to consume.
 

Stack

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A number of years ago i got Bill Brysons " A short history of nearly everything". I got the version he narrates. I tend to listen to it on long driving trips, its about 5-6 hours long. I love it, havent got tired of it and have listened to it about 50 times now. Never boring and his narration has just the right amount of sarcasm, comedy and gravity when needed.
 

Abizzz

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Recently stumbled across this excellent audiobook of Andrew Carnegie's autobiography:
Then proceeded to look around a bit and found this autobiography by Benjamin Franklin:

Both highly recommendable.
 

redspoony

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I've got an Audible account. £7.99 a month for any book you like.

The Ian Rankin books read by James Macpherson are superb.
The Stand and IT by Stephen King are both excellent and long, you really get your moneys worth.

Other stand out listens, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon, any John le Carre read by Michael Jayston.
 

Nick 0208 Ldn

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So i just received my annual Audible summary email, and according to them i've listened to 55,674 minutes of books in 2016. I think that's more than last year...
 

Rory 7

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Odd bump I know but I'm now a firm fan of Audilble, great for anyone who travels or even walks. Anyways, am listening to the Morrissey Autobiography audiobook. Worth a listen for those of us familiar with Manchester and Moz.
 

ivaldo

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I spend a good 4/5 hours a day in the car for my job and I get pissed off listening to the radio all day so audiobooks are an absolute god send.

Tend to stick to fantasy, much better value for money on audible. 35 hour books are one credit, no more expensive than your average 10 hour book.
 

Rory 7

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I spend a good 4/5 hours a day in the car for my job and I get pissed off listening to the radio all day so audiobooks are an absolute god send.

Tend to stick to fantasy, much better value for money on audible. 35 hour books are one credit, no more expensive than your average 10 hour book.
I'm a complete convert to the world of audiobooks of late. Some great stuff out there.
 

Wedge

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If you're an alien fan I can't recommend enough the audio drama, alien river of pain
 

Hullyback

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Thanks. Anybody know of others?
There's loads on YouTube, as long as you have headphones you're good to go.

On topic, Nomad by Alan Partridge is the best I've listened to, not great for bedtime though as it's laugh out loud quite often.
 

GBBQ

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Beastie Boys Book is one of the best audiobooks I've listened to so far. Nice history of the new York scene and BB anecdotes with great guest narrators like Chuck D, Ben Stiller, Snoop Dogg dropping in for chapters. Interplay between Mike D and Ad Rock calling each other out on their recalling of events is brilliant too.
 

Big Andy

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On topic, Nomad by Alan Partridge is the best I've listened to, not great for bedtime though as it's laugh out loud quite often.
I'm currently listening to "I, Partridge", is Nomad also read by Partridge himself?
 

Snow

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World War Z is probably the best audiobook there is. Movie is irrelevant, the only thing the two had in common was the title. The audiobook has a massive cast, 1 actor for each role. The book itself is great and unique and I heavily recommend them.

If you like fantasy novels James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) does a good read of the Dresden Files (sort of gothic horror film noir).
 

Reddy Rederson

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The audio books of Bruce Campbell’s autobiographies are good. The man himself does the reading. And I find anything that’s read by RC Bray to be really good just because he’s got a voice made for reading audio books. On the last book of 13 or the arisen series. He makes the series better than it is. Next up on the list is the expanse books series.
 

GBBQ

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Really liking Calypso by David Sedaris. Narrated by him and includes some live readings of his essays mixed with him just narrating on his own. Definitely think it lends itself better to an audiobook format than book.
 

GBBQ

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Listening to Moby's new audiobook. I was curious to see whether the story about Natalie Portman was taken out of context (especially since he produced a photo of them together) and what he was like in general.

He comes across really badly in this book. A fame hungry self obsessed weirdo. I had heard the Heavyweight podcast about the stolen CDs so was already wondering how much of his fame was pure luck/stolen. Speaking in his own words does little to convince me that he is in any way talented and just lucked out on getting those blues samples for Play and lived off that fame since.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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What I talk about when I talk about running

Part memoir, part philosophical wander through what runners/people are.

It’s ace.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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Listening to Moby's new audiobook. I was curious to see whether the story about Natalie Portman was taken out of context (especially since he produced a photo of them together) and what he was like in general.

He comes across really badly in this book. A fame hungry self obsessed weirdo. I had heard the Heavyweight podcast about the stolen CDs so was already wondering how much of his fame was pure luck/stolen. Speaking in his own words does little to convince me that he is in any way talented and just lucked out on getting those blues samples for Play and lived off that fame since.
He’s a weirdo, but he’s a talented one without doubt. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
 

VeevaVee

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Enjoying How To Be Right by James O'Brien. It's a good insight on how he teases people with crappy views in to spilling their heart out, to the point where they look silly, rather than just telling them how wrong they are and them doubling down to the point where it's just your view vs theirs.
 

FreakyJim

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Despite being neither blind or unable to read I recently downloaded the audiobook version of The Lord of the Rings.

It was excellent on a long train journey and just before going to sleep (like a bedtime story on my Ipod!)

Anybody know of any good audiobooks?
Recently went through "All the King's Men" R.P. Warren and "Swan Song" by R.McCammon, both great (audio)books
 

VeevaVee

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I need some recommendations. Spending a lot of time driving and a lot of time listening to audiobooks.

Currently listening to Sapiens, as I've intended to read it for years but never got round to it. Only probs is the narrator. He's alright but I just seem to completely stop listening to his voice for some reason (Derek Perkins for those in the know). Doesn't happen with most others.

Got Snowden's book lined up after that.