I didn’t know where to put this, so I thought this is as good a place as any.
After the sponsorship of Audible in the podcast, I thought I’d recommend anyone to “Deep Space Nine: The 34th Rule”. It’s an excellent DS9 book, co-written and read by Armin Shimmerman (Who plays Quark). He does a wonderful job reading it, and it’s a great story.
So good I listen to it virtually any time I have a long drive ahead of me.
I have been thoroughly engrossed with the “Ender’s Game” series. Beautifully performed. If you get the anniversary edition there is an interview with the author. So worth the listen!
John Hodgman’s “Areas of my Expertise.” Absolutely brilliant. And it’s different enough from the written book to be interesting even if you’ve read it. (Fewer charts, more Jonathan Coulton.)
As always, I agree with Pike. This is a great audiobook. I imagine if you are not familiar with John Hodgman you may not get the humor, but if you are familiar with his work or his bits on the daily show then you will laugh out loud.
I HEART audio books. And I was glad to hear that GWC got some sponsorship! The summer after I graduated I was unemployed and seriously depressed about it. I moved back in with my mom and did all sorts of things around the house so I didn’t feel like a total loser mooching off of her. It took my the entire Dark Tower series on audio book to finish repainting the bannisters and door frames and to rescreen the back porch, but they were great to listen to aloud. I’d read the first 4 as well, so I can say that they were almost more fun to hear than to read.
I also like mystery novels on audio for long car rides.
I’d like to nominate the auidobook Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I just finished it for a bookclub and thought it was great. I’d never read any NG despite friends and family pestering me to read Sandman for years. I wish I could hear more about the Anansi Boys but sadly it’s over.
If you liked it, read American Gods. Also, I am reading Neverwhere right now and liking it quite a bit. Neil Gaiman- hooray!
Some ideas for audible picks from me!:
everything from the groups reading forum.
Just about anything recomended by shows on the TWiT network…
If you are a Harry Potter fan or ever wanted to read the books but felt you don’t have time, the audio books read by Jim Dale (narrator of Pushing Daisies) are excellent! I’ve read and re-read the books and listened to them many times on audio. They never get old. Jim Dale’s performance of them on the audio versions just adds an entire new, enjoyable dimension to them.
I used my credit to procure David Sedaris’ new book: When You Are Engulfed in Flames. He is truly a brilliant writer of non-fiction comedy. A great deal of the humor comes through his voice, which is why his audiobooks are awesome.
This is a steal as the book is priced at a whopping $26 bucks. I recommend every book he has ever written.
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[li]Holidays on Ice[/li][li]Dress your family in corduroy and denim[/li][li]Naked[/li][*]Me Talk Pretty One Day - This one has one of my all time favorite stories…David is taking a French class in France. The description of having to describe Easter to a non-Christian in 101 French will have you rolling on the floor.[/ul]
If you want your Audible purchases to be DRM free (and you do, even if you don’t realize that yet) you’ll want to check out this post by an author who’s trying to convince them to do just that.
Honestly, it’s what’s kept me from actually buying audiobooks on Audilble so far.
Couldn’t agree more, I’ll read through say Chamber and be like “Meh” at Aunt Marge’s antics but when Dale reads it I’m like “RARGH PROPHET SMASH PUNY FEMALE DOG”
Anyhoo, after much deliberation and failure to find books suggested by the GWC book club sub forum (Downbellow Station in particular…) I went with Spin. I’m about a 4th of a way through it and it’s pretty cool
Heh. There are ways around it. Nice and neat MP3s not AA files, I mean come on.
The audio books for Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy are fantastic. Pullman himself plays the part of the narrator and the other characters are portrayed by a full cast. It’s more like the old school radio dramas than an audio book but I can’t imagine them being presented any other way.
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I got Dress Your Family… and Me Talk Pretty…on audio from the library. Listening to them via iPod right now. I want to get the new one when it’s available.
Solai, I just listened to the “Six to Eight Black Men” part of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Hilarious!!! I’m really enjoying this book. You are right, David’s voice and intonations makes his stories all the better. One thing I noticed is that he’s more lively when reading in front of a live audience.
I was going to recommend anything by David Sedaris on audiobook also. “Six to Eight Black men” is just one of many pieces that have had me laughing out loud while listening at the gym.
Other cool people to listen to as they read thier own work:
Sarah Vowell
David Rackoff
Roy Dotrice’s narrations of the first three books in George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” series.
World War Z is a great listen (I used my Audible credit on it) but sadly it is the abridged version.
Brooks does a good job (like BSG does) of making the fantastic feel relevant.
World War Z is an oral history ten years after the end of the Zombie War. George Romero on a world wide scale. Brooks plays it straight which gives the subject weight and succeeds in pulling you in.