S/D: Audiobooks

heard any good ones lately?

Surprised this is such a short thread! As with ebooks v treebooks I guess this is my equivalent of ilm's tedious format fetish, but: I have recently started listening to books. At work I'll often spend an entire day performing some solitary repetitive procedure, and podcasts are a waste of life, so these are a good way to make the most of the time. The first thing I heard was william gass's the tunnel, read by the author: a book that didn't do all that much for me on the first pass REALLY opened up in aural form - the jokes landed better, the "jingling" musicality came thru, the sense of being trapped in this dude's loathsome and pathologically disquisitive mind was that much more acute; this is only surprising in that the print book's typographical experiments are the most successful I've seen ito understanding how the reader's eye moves across the page, so doing an audio verzh might seem perverse.

Since then I've listened mostly to short literary fiction + airport novels; the format is especially suited to the latter I think, like I've been catching up on the late novels of Stephen King and this stuff was just made to be read aloud by sonorous dudes. I wanna do another enormous "difficult" book tho, has anyone heard the gravitys rainbow?

So far I'd say plus column: short stories where you can't see the final sentence approaching, minus column: the horrible simpering voice these professional sonorous voice dudes all seem to do for all female characters, which in King's case shows up how shit these characters tend to be

I don't know if it's only the UK store, but audible are having a "daily deal throwback sale" all this week, which basically means reinstating the most popular flash deals they've had all at once - a few hundred titles at 1.99 or 2.99 (also a few at .99). Some good stuff there.

Does everything on audible still sound like it was compressed to 32 inside a large tin can, by hand?

Probably! The files are quite small, which is why I like it. I think there's an option to download in HQ?

This is good information, thanks.

I know it's a radio play, not really an audiobook, but it's great to see the first series of the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy on that list.

The audible app is driving me nuts right now. It won’t download whole audio files without me actively watching the download. Switch to another app or let it lock and the download pauses, never to be restarted without deleting and starting again.

I don't know if it's only the UK store, but audible are having a "daily deal throwback sale" all this week, which basically means reinstating the most popular flash deals they've had all at once - a few hundred titles at 1.99 or 2.99 (also a few at .99). Some good stuff there.

I sometimes have weird downloading issues, usually more about my Internet connection than the app itself.

Also want to know if any of those UK sale audiobooks are read by Simon Vance, who seems to never ever pronounce anything wrong.

There are some audio books that have multi-reader, all-star casts reading all the parts. Might be a good Whitman’s Sampler to see which readers somebody particularly enjoys.

Of the books mentioned upthread, I found the Paul Giamatti version of A Scanner Darkly which looks intriguing, but didn’t see Gass’s The Tunnel, except as a CD. Did notice a book by an author he is often confused with, though, The Recognitions.

Search: Davina Porter reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series

Some people are crazy about Vance but I find him a little insipid - he's like a North American's idea of what a British person should sound like. So maybe Vance fandom = accent porn.

From the sale, I'd highly recommend Juliet Stevenson's Middlemarch, especially if you've had trouble reading Middlemarch. And Robert Powell doing 39 Steps unabridged sounds fabulously cosy.

I love Roy Dotrice doing Game of Thrones - if there's still anyone deciding between reading the books or watching the show, the correct answer is the audiobooks.

The British narrator I am allergic to is John Lee. I couldn’t get through his Under The Volcano.

Also want to know if any of those UK sale audiobooks are read by Simon Vance, who seems to never ever pronounce anything wrong.

Ugh, I don't like Simon Vance. He does a terrible Stephen Maturin, and I just can't forgive him for it.

I'm currently listening to Jim Dale reading The Night Circus, and that's pretty great.

Who would do Aubrey–Maturin well? The other reader on the UK audioboks is pretty boring too.

Dan Stevens? Michael Jayston? The ghost of Brendan Brehan?

They have some of the Robert Hardy ones. He's great. Not as good as Patrick Tull, but you can't get Patrick Tull's recordings easily anywhere (or you couldn't the last time I checked, anyway).

Oh, thanks for that tip - I just listened at a section of Tull doing M&C. He's perfectly matched. Gonna see if I can find a bootleg.

The Patrick Tull recordings are all on US audible. They are great, some of my favourite performances.

Speaking of performances, the latest John LeCarre is performed by Tom Hollander rather than Michael Jayston and it’s an OK performance but it feels very wrong.

I don't know the names of any audiobook readers tbh! I should make a note of the ones I like I guess. I generally just spend my one audible credit a month on a book I'd like to hear (usually one I've read before or one I don't care to read but am curious about)

Easily my favourite audiobook reader is Peter Kenny who does an incredible job with Iain (M) Banks' books. I don't think any of his books are in the current sale though.

The Patrick Tull recordings are all on US audible.

Seriously? I need to move.

What I actually need to do is complain to Audible.

There's a labour-of-love, all-metadata'd-up O'Brien/Tull bootleg that's quite easy to Google for

I will do that. Thanks.

I did have them all in one handy place some years ago, but successive laptop and phone changes cut them adrift somehow.

Something told me that the mere mention of Simon Vance would draw this kind of fire, that he would be in that category of British things that Britishes hate like, say. The Beautiful South.

Does anyone else do the whispersync thing? I did it with a couple of books, but have gone off it lately. Occasionally husband will come into the room while I have an audiobook going and will listen along for a little while. He did not enjoy A Little Life at all. Kept hearing snatches of it and asking, "What IS this? Why are you listening to this? It sounds HORRIBLE."

your husband OTM

I don't like swapping between audio and reading, it makes books feel too system-y, a bit too much like work.

A Little Life IS horrible

In both what it's about, and its execution.

I won't disagree with that. But I did find it compelling and highly involving. Certainly I was in a hurry to see what happened in the end.

I don't like swapping between audio and reading, it makes books feel too system-y, a bit too much like work.

I still don't know if my inability to follow The Luminaries properly was because of the book itself or the way I experienced it, but I stopped doing whispersync after that.

You may not like Simon Vance, but whazzabout Simon Prebble?

I’ve gone off these a bit

Like I still listen to them but I feel like I enjoy them most often despite the readers, who can feel like a nuisance intermediary for the text - the tunnel was the book that really turned me on to these and as a rule a good book read by the author is best, I find a lot of these actorly types approach every work of literature as though they’re Stephen fucking Fry reading Harry fucking Potter, all storytime cadences and squawking cartoon voices

Oh but also I meant to say, someone’s done a recording of the complete novels of mark twain and put it on audible for like £0.80, a penny per hour. Might be a “get what you pay for” type deal but still, tempting at that price. (I have never read any Twain but was thinking of making it a thing next year, this could be a companion piece)

I'd imagine most of Twain's stuff is on Librivox for free

Yeah that’s definitely what I thought too (note to self: know what librivox is)

https://librivox.org/

Ohh, liBRIvox

You may not like Simon Vance, but whazzabout Simon Prebble?

Turns out I only don't like him reading Patrick O'Brian. He's perfect for Anthony Powell.

brian blessed has an autobio that he reads himself. in that voice. all the way through.

I'm driving from Seattle to LA in a couple weeks and would appreciate any recommendations. I've got Graham Hancock and Yuval Harari loaded up but I'm honestly not that excited by either. Would love a lively reading of some epic that I'll never read or a good music bio.

Just a few I’ve enjoyed the last few months:

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Beastie Boys Book - very fun cast of narrators
You Can’t Win by Jack Black - memoir of a former hobo written in the 1920s. Big influence on Burroughs.
The Brothers - Steven Kinzer bio on the Dulles brothers. Fairly infuriating.

Currently enjoying Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties. Have never been that interested in Manson stuff until this year. This blows the lid off a lot of the theories of Manson prosecutor/biographer Vince Bugliosi and raises questions about who he protected.

Thanks Chris. Beastie Boys was indeed an excellent audiobook. You Can't Win is on my radar. Will definitely seek it out.

Currently really enjoying the mellifluous sound of Juliet Stevenson's voice reading Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield.

Have you heard her read Daniel Deronda?

No, but it's on my list.

I've just sent back a book because the narrator sounds like a robot. Are they actually doing this yet, I wonder?

Oh man, I just listened to The Path to Power, the first part of Robert A Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson, narrated by Grover Gardner, and it was GREAT. Compelling, funny, informative, so very long. Really excellent stuff. I highly recommend it.

I’ve gone off these a bit

― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Tuesday, 4 December 2018 17:11 (four years ago) link

Like I still listen to them but I feel like I enjoy them most often despite the readers, who can feel like a nuisance intermediary for the text - the tunnel was the book that really turned me on to these and as a rule a good book read by the author is best, I find a lot of these actorly types approach every work of literature as though they’re Stephen fucking Fry reading Harry fucking Potter, all storytime cadences and squawking cartoon voices

― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Tuesday, 4 December 2018 17:17 (four years ago) link

This is still kind of where I’m at tho I go back and forth. I haven’t listened to anything this year & cancelled my audible sub ages ago. The silly voices are a real obstacle, I always like when an author reads their work relatively free of affect and I supply the characters’ voices just as I would when reading print books.

A funny thing I’ve encountered a few times is when an American narrator will be reading an American book set in America and because there’s a character named sergeant o’rourke or Bobby Macfuckface or whatever they feel they have to attempt a horrible faux Irish accent for this person & you’re like… I think this character is actually just American mate, you don’t need to do this

I am in the middle of a long-ish McCartney biog but the narrator is reading every other phrase almost with one eyebrow cocked, so it's got this weird air-quotes-ish feeling.