Chaos Reading discussion

The audiobook for Ready Player One came up over in the group read thread, which made me think of asking people about audiobooks they particularly recommend. Here are some of the ones I’ve really enjoyed. I tend to go for lighter fare with audiobooks, since my attention frequently wanders:

Any of the Terry Pratchett books, both Nigel Planer and Stephen Briggs are excellent readers.

Neil Gaimen or Harlen Ellison reading their own stuff.

Lolita read by Jeremy Irons may be THE classic audiobook, and it is pretty fantastic.

James Marsters reading The Dresden Files.

Surprisingly good was Brad Pitt reading All the Pretty Horses, but it’s an abridged version so I don’t recommend it unless you’ve already read the book.

Kathy, I get audiobooks from the library in CD format. They make commutes to/from work more enjoyable. I've also gotten a few from audible.com for my ipod. I listen to those while out jogging.

Some audiobooks I've enjoyed are:
The Flavia de Luce series
The Blood of Flowers
The Passage and The Twelve
The White Tiger
A Clockwork Orange
Middlesex
Still Missing
The Vish Puri series by Tarquin Hall

Whitney, Jeremy Irons did a great job in Lolita. Creepy!
Neil Gaiman reading his books is also good.

You can also download audiobooks from the library for your iPod or phone.

Petra, thanks for the recommendations. Is there anything in particular that made the readers of these books good? Would you recommend any of these audio books over (or in addition to) the hard copy?

I'm an avid audiobook reader (listener?) myself.

Neil Gaiman was mentioned as a great author/narrator (and I agree), but I also wanted to throw out one of his titles read by another: Anansi Boys read by Lenny Henry. Gaiman even said that when he wrote the book it was Henry's voice he heard in his head.

Others I'd highly recommend:
The Parasol Protectorate books, which start with Soulless
The Book Thief
Wolf Hall

And in case anyone is interested, there is a website that is giving away two free audiobooks a week starting May 30 until August 21. It's designed to get teens listening to audiobooks, but they pair each teen read with a "classic" title, so it's not just YA titles. The website is http://www.audiobooksync.com/

The vast majority of titles are available with no international restrictions, but there are a handful of titles that are only available to listeners in the U.S. and Canada.

Theo wrote: "And in case anyone is interested, there is a website that is giving away two free audiobooks a week starting May 30 until August 21. It's designed to get teens listening to audiobooks, but they pai..."

Great link, thanks! They've got some good stuff on there.

I hadn't thought this through, now I'm going to have a 'to listen to' list growing as fast as my TBR list.

Whitney, I enjoyed the audios of The Blood Of Flowers and The White Tiger for their narrators. The readings, with their accents and inflections, added to the story lines.

I enjoy a good YA story but don't always enjoy reading them. Reading makes the stories sometimes overly simple. They are exactly what their target audience needs and enjoys but the words, sentence structure and plots can read simplistically to an adult. However, the audiobooks read like stories being told around the fire, at a family gathering. They are fun to listen to and enjoy. Flavia is such a wonderful character and the narrator's intonation of Flavia is delightful to listen to.

I found the spoken slang of A Clockwork Orange to be understandable and it added so much to the darkness of the story. I've heard that when read, the slang can be distracting and confuse the story. It's like another language that can be understood when listened to but perhaps not when in read.

I stumbled on Middlesex by accident. It's such a rich story. I'd love to read it one day. Either way, audio or printed form, this book has something to offer.

I haven't read any of these books, so can't compare the audio versions with the printed ones.

Whitney wrote: "I hadn't thought this through, now I'm going to have a 'to listen to' list growing as fast as my TBR list. ..."

LOL Good point! Great topic though, Whitney. I really struggle with audiobooks. As mentioned in the other thread, I've given up on the Wil Wheaton reading of Ready Player One. I just don't pick up all the (excellent) references when listening to it being read.

Petra wrote: "However, the audiobooks read like stories being told around the fire, at a family gathering. ..."

Yes, well put! I think that's one of the reasons I enjoy the lighter stuff on audiobook.

I found the spoken slang of A Clockwork Orange to be understandable and it added so much to the darkness of the story. I've heard that when read, the slang can be distracting and confuse the story.

The copy I read had a dictionary of the slang in the back. The movie was one of the classic midnight films of my teenage years, viewed over and over at my local theater, so I was already familiar with a lot of the more commonly used slang. (They were a lot less concerned about ratings and age-appropriate audiences in those days, some the other films that we saw over and over included Dawn of the Dead, Eraserhead, and Videodrome :-)

Petra wrote: "Whitney, I enjoyed the audios of The Blood Of Flowers and The White Tiger for their narrators. The readings, with their accents and inflections, added to the story lines..."

I started listening to The White Tiger. Good recommendation, narrator is indeed excellent. The letter format sometimes make me feel like I'm personally being taken to task for my ignorance of Unseen India.

Whitney wrote: "Petra wrote: "However, the audiobooks read like stories being told around the fire, at a family gathering. ..."

Yes, well put! I think that's one of the reasons I enjoy the lighter stuff on audiob..."

I remember watching Blue Velvet at 3am on free-to-air tv in about 1990, but they had replaced every single "fuck" with "freak". So there were classic lines such as, "I'm gonna freak you, motherfreaker!" Very, very odd.

Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind - I enjoyed all the enderverse on audiobook!

The The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and sookie stackhouse books are also good audiobook choices.

For me, an audiobook needs to have alot of dialog and very little description, otherwise my attention is scattering all over the place xD

I'll be checking out the ones mentioned also, thanks guys!

I was just reminded of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian read by the author. It's a great story and semi-autobiographical, so Alexie's voice gives the story added truth and he does a great job.

Frozenwaffle wrote: "For me, an audiobook needs to have alot of dialog and very little description, otherwise my attention is scattering all over the place xD ..."

That's a really good point, Fro'. I've found the same thing with short story podcasts.

I've got another credit to spend with Audible, so I'm doing some trawling. I've found a few things I might enjoy, (I've been checking out some short story anthologies) but I also wondered if people found non-fiction enjoyable in audio format? I feel like it might be okay since often the books are broken up into discreet chapters - I thought I could treat it like a podcast or similar. Then again, maybe it's too hard to retain the fine detail that way. What do people think?

Ruby wrote: "I've got another credit to spend with Audible, so I'm doing some trawling. I've found a few things I might enjoy, (I've been checking out some short story anthologies) but I also wondered if people..."

I haven't listened to any non-fiction books, but i have listened to lots of non-fiction podcasts. I'm thinking how well a book works would really depend on what kind of non-fiction it is. The kind that's more story telling / conceptual would probably be fine. I wouldn't try advanced calculous or home repair manuals, though.

Theo wrote: "I was just reminded of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian read by the author. It's a great story and semi-autobiographical, so Alexie's voice gives the story added truth and he does a ..."

I'm listening to this now. Wow! You are right, it is a pitch perfect book as read by Alexie. Definitely going to the the top of my 'great audiobooks' list!

Whitney wrote: "Theo wrote: "I was just reminded of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian read by the author. It's a great story and semi-autobiographical, so Alexie's voice gives the story added truth a..."

What a coincidence. I was just listening to a short story by Sherman Alexie. It was really good.

Audiobook wrote: "Inferno audiobook was amazing no spoilers here lol i recently joined and im new guys. i was reading other topics and there recommending. http://www.unlimitedaudiobooks.com/

Best 20 dollars i ever ..."

Well, this isn't an obvious scam / pirate site at all! I'm flagging the above post.

Audiobook wrote: "Inferno audiobook was amazing no spoilers here lol i recently joined and im new guys. i was reading other topics and there recommending. http://www.unlimitedaudiobooks.com/

Best 20 dollars i ever ..."

haha lol im deleting you k bye now have a nice day

Ruby wrote: "haha lol im deleting you k bye now have a nice day ..."

u r such hater! ok fine u jus do what you wan it your lose!

Whitney wrote: "Ruby wrote: "haha lol im deleting you k bye now have a nice day ..."

u r such hater! ok fine u jus do what you wan it your lose!"

You are frighteningly good at that.

I had forgotten about a great audiobook from the wayback, William Hurt's reading of Hearts in Atlantis is amazing.

Whitney wrote: "I had forgotten about a great audiobook from the wayback, William Hurt's reading of Hearts in Atlantis is amazing."

Thanks for mentioning the Tenth of December earlier too. I had forgotten I've still got George Saunders' self-narrated Fox 8: A Story to get to.

There is some great stuff available in podcasts from Mike Bennett. He is an amazing reader. The "Mike Bennett Sometimes" podcast has perfect readings of several stories, he especially excels at reading Saki, and his Lovecraft isn't too shaby either. Lots of his own work is also available. I'm currently listening to "Underwood and Flinch", his vampire novel. The anecdote for those who are sick of the current plethora of tame vampires in popular culture. He also has many of his own short stories available.

The audiobook for The Teleportation Accident was excellent. The reader (John Lee) managed to project a combination of boredom, self-absorption, obnoxiousness, intelligence and cluessness that was also somehow (sometimes) endearing. It fit perfectly with the anti-hero of the story.

I can appreciate that audiobooks can go horribly awry when the reader attempts to do anything other than play it straight, but this one was extremely well-executed in my view.

Others I liked recently:
The Lives of Tao
Life After Life
Odds Against Tomorrow

ETA: Looking at Lee's audiography, I just noticed that he was the reader who performed The White Tiger. I read that a few years ago (while in South India!), and I imagine he'd be great for that as well. He also performed 2666 and Invisible Cities, two that I've been meaning to pick up for some time.

Nicholas wrote: "The audiobook for The Teleportation Accident was excellent. The reader (John Lee) managed to project a combination of boredom, self-absorption, obnoxiousness, intelligence and cluessness that was a..."

Great, thanks for the recommendations, I'll check those out.

Not sure how well 2666 and Invisible Cities would work on audiobook. At least for me, books that are primarily good storytelling work much better that books that are more about ideas and/or have complex sentence structure.

I just finished listening to Alan Rickman's reading of The Return of the Native, which was fantastic.

Whitney wrote: "Not sure how well 2666 and Invisible Cities would work on audiobook. At least for me, books that are primarily good storytelling work much better that books that are more about ideas and/or have complex sentence structure."

Fair enough. I've only started listening to audiobooks within the last year or so, and so far Lee has been the only performer that's made me want to seek out other readings. But what you say makes sense.

And I bet Alan Rickman would do a great reading.

Nicholas wrote: "And I bet Alan Rickman would do a great reading. ..."

Swoonworthy.

Highly recommend "Mumbo Jumbo" by Ishmael Reed. For my audiobooks I usually make distinction between difficult "literary" books which I listen to over and over and "entertaining" "plot" books (generally genre fiction) which I just listen to once. But "Mumbo Jumbo" fits both categories for me because of entertaining way Reed plays with language, narrative techniques and genre elements.