Thank you, Lydy! Best audiobook EVER

[dreamshark]

Thanks to lydy for recommending the audio version of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. A wonderful book (which I had never read) and yes, it worked extremely well in audio format. Usually I poke along through audio books, listening only when I'm walking or doing simple chores, but this one was so good that it ended up sucking hours out of my day because I couldn't wait to get back to it and couldn't find that many useful ways to occupy my hands while I listened.

I finished it yesterday, and I feel bereft. Any more recommendations?

Comments

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

I want audiobook recommendations! I just finished the latest Pratchett.

[guppiecat]

The best audio book I've listened to in years is Jane Austen's _Lady Susan_.

It's like it was written with the intent of being turned into an audio book 200 years later.


Before that, I like the Jack Flanders series by ZBS media and the Hitchhikers series that the BBC did.

Simon Winchester's books on the OED (Meaning of Everything and Professor and the Madman) turn into good audiobooks.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

HCLIB doesn't have any of those in audio format, but they do have some other Austen and Winchester books.

What other Austen books do you think would work well in audio format? I've had a hard time appreciating Jane Austen as much as so many of my friends, but haven't given up. Maybe I'd like her writing better read aloud.

And I've never heard of Simon Winchester before - have you read others of his books besides the 2 you mention? HCLIB has "The Men Who United the States," "Atlantic" and "The Crack in the Edge of the World."

[guppiecat]

I've listened to fantastic versions of Pride and Prejudice and Emma. Most of her books would work well, I think, except for Northanger Abbey. Also, if you go for Mansfield Park, be sure to read up on the social roles of women with respect to social class and religion in England at that time. That may be my favourite of her books, but there's a ton of history wrapped up in it.

I've read read a few of Winchester's other books, but not those ones. He's really hit and miss, but the OED books are definite hits. I really disliked his book on Krakatoa.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll give Mansfield Park a try then. The historical insights are a big part of the reason I like reading 19th-century literature.

[guppiecat]

There's a lot of that in Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility as well. They're just more understandable to modern audiences because they don't tie as directly to the issues of class separation and religion.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I've given up on "Pride and Prejudice." Much as I've tried to like it, I just don't. I'm hoping it's just those particular characters that don't work for me and that I'll eventually find some Austen that I like.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

The book "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" is best described as "Too much Jane Austen, not enough zombies."

[carbonel]

I've listened to a bunch of Simon Winchester books, including the OED ones.

I liked A Crack in the Edge of the World and parts of The Map that Changed the World. The latter has a chapter-long person digression that's totally irrelevant.

Outposts started out well, but the actual audio in my copy was so bad that I had to give up on it. I also liked the Krakatoa book.

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky is also worth listening to.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I've had a hard time appreciating Jane Austen as much as so many of my friends, but haven't given up.

I long ago surrendered to my dislike for Jane Austen and have not once regretted it. Come to the dark side!

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I get all my audiobooks from the public library, so my selection is rather limited. But here's a list of books that I thoroughly enjoyed in audio format:

The Time Traveler's Wife(Audrey Niffenegger)
Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)
Cold Sassy Tree (Olive Ann Burns)
The Stolen Child (Keith Donohue)
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D (Nichole Bernier)
Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut)
The Difference Engine (William Gibson/Bruce Sterling)
The original Foundation series (Asimov)
Tunnel in the Sky (Heinlein)
Villa Incognito (Tom Robbins)
Roughing It (Mark Twain)
Golden Apples of the Sun (Ray Bradbury)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

There have been others that were good books but just didn't work well in audio format. I thought I would like John Crowley in audio because of the beautiful language, but I didn't - slow moving and rambly and too hard to keep track of the characters. On the other hand, Tom Robbins works great for me, despite a similar tendency to ramble off on tangents.

"The Great Gatsby," on the other hand, is better in audio than on the page, IMHO. I don't really think it's that good a book, but the language and imagery are irresistible when read aloud.

Golden-Age sf works wonderfully well on audio. The language is crisp and to the point, the plots move right along, and the characters are distinctive but not too intrusively self-reflective.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Many thanks to Lydy for the recommendation and to you for reporting on how good it is. I've been meaning to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell pretty much since it came out and haven't managed to do so yet. I'll have to see if we have it in the NESFA library.

I've done well with audio book versions of super-long works, such as the start I've made on George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. I totally recommend Neal Stephenson's Anathem." It was wonderful listening material during my road trip to ConFusion.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommend. I have all the available Stephenson on my HCLIB wishlist, including that one, but that tells me where to start. I find Neal Stephenson a little intimidating, having been completely unable to make it through Cryptonomicon. A recommendation helps.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read Snowcrash, I'd suggest starting there. I haven't heard an audiobook version and it's been decades since I read it, but it's still my canonical Stephenson. I don't think the following is a spoiler. I hope it isn't! It's by far my favorite takeaway from the entire book:

~"Snowcrash: is it a drug, a religion, or a language?"~

~"Is there a difference?"~

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Oh, I LOVED Snow Crash. But Cryptonomicon defeated me, and I haven't had the courage to try another one.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Anathem takes 400 pages to get to the plot. I enjoyed both the first 400 pages (I'm estimating) and the plot, but it takes a long time.

[pameladean]

Steve Brust and Skyler White's The Incrementalists has a dynamite narrator in Mary Robinette Kowal. I'd listen to her read anything at all, frankly. I also love the book, but I don't know much about your taste in literature, so I can't address whether you would.

P.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Oh my I loved that audiobook with the two narrators, but not in dialogue.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

It's a silly little propaganda piece from the second world war, but the audio version of The Moon Is Down from the HCLIB was really enjoyable. The reader brought a lot to the story.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"The Moon is Down" by Steinbeck? Not seeing an audio version at HCLIB, just e-book.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

It was a few years ago that I listened to it and it stuck with me as memorable. I believe that I listened to it on CD. As of this modern era, I see that they have it both in downloadable audio and cassette tape.

I don't think I listened to it on cassette, it couldn't have been that long ago.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Library Catalog --->Search By Format --->Limit Results to All Audiobooks

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Jeremy Iron's reading of Nobokov's _Lolita_ is remarkable and stunning. It's an example of a book that I probably would not have made it through on my own, but the recording is very involving.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if you can find them, Zelazny reading the Amber books is quite lovely. (It is important to remember that there are only five true Amber books, of course.). I have them all on cassette tape, but have no idea if they are available digitally. I am willing to lend them, but of course a Walkman is considerably bullied than an iPod shuffle.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Bulkier, autocorrect, damn your eyes.