Audiobooks

[Sugar Ape]

Anyone listen to audiobooks regularly? I've been listening to them for a while now when I go for a run, and it's much better than the same old music which you get bored of.

 

Now, a good book does not necessarily make a good audiobook. A lot are read by boring middle of the road male Americans. Some have a full cast reading them which is ace, or as in the case of the Alan Partridge one are read by the author themselves.

 

Another thing is the price of them. Unreal. The complete Song of Ice and Fire boxset is £233 on Amazon. Obviously I wouldn't advocate illegally downloading them, so I will include the links so you can avoid them.

 

Anyway the aforementioned Game of thrones books are superb, all 5 plus the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas which are set roughly 100 years before the series can be downloaded here

Download George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire. Books 1-5, novella Torrent - KickassTorrents

 

Alan Partridge, read by Alan Partridge himself is also great.

Download I, Partridge - Alan Partridge (Unabridged) Torrent - KickassTorrents

 

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is a favourite book of mine. The tenth aniversary release last year performed by a full cast is boss. Well work a listen Neal Gaiman - American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition - Demonoid

 

The Price of fear was a radio show performed by Vincent Price for the BBC in the 70s. 22 episodes for about 30mins each. Roald Dahl wrote some of the episodes and they are a bit like Tales of the unexpected.

Download The [Vincent] Price Of Fear - Audio Drama - MP3 - Slimoo Torrent - KickassTorrents

 

There are also some great abridged BBC adaptations of various novels with a full cast that last about 3-4 hours, such as

Download Stephen King - 'Salem's Lot (BBC dramatisation) Torrent - KickassTorrents

Download Dracula by Bram Stoker - BBC Radio - SeymourDAC Torrent - KickassTorrents

Download iPod Audiobook - I Am Legend - M4B-128k - BBC Radio - cheops Torrent - KickassTorrents

 

Anyone else got any decent ones they have listened to?

[VladimirIlyich]

Anyone listen to audiobooks regularly? I've been listening to them for a while now when I go for a run, and it's much better than the same old music which you get bored of.

 

Now, a good book does not necessarily make a good audiobook. A lot are read by boring middle of the road male Americans. Some have a full cast reading them which is ace, or as in the case of the Alan Partridge one are read by the author themselves.

 

Another thing is the price of them. Unreal. The complete Song of Ice and Fire boxset is £233 on Amazon. Obviously I wouldn't advocate illegally downloading them, so I will include the links so you can avoid them.

 

Anyway the aforementioned Game of thrones books are superb, all 5 plus the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas which are set roughly 100 years before the series can be downloaded here

Download George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire. Books 1-5, novella Torrent - KickassTorrents

 

Alan Partridge, read by Alan Partridge himself is also great.

Download I, Partridge - Alan Partridge (Unabridged) Torrent - KickassTorrents

 

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is a favourite book of mine. The tenth aniversary release last year performed by a full cast is boss. Well work a listen Neal Gaiman - American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition - Demonoid

 

The Price of fear was a radio show performed by Vincent Price for the BBC in the 70s. 22 episodes for about 30mins each. Roald Dahl wrote some of the episodes and they are a bit like Tales of the unexpected.

Download The [Vincent] Price Of Fear - Audio Drama - MP3 - Slimoo Torrent - KickassTorrents

 

There are also some great abridged BBC adaptations of various novels with a full cast that last about 3-4 hours, such as

Download Stephen King - 'Salem's Lot (BBC dramatisation) Torrent - KickassTorrents

Download Dracula by Bram Stoker - BBC Radio - SeymourDAC Torrent - KickassTorrents

Download iPod Audiobook - I Am Legend - M4B-128k - BBC Radio - cheops Torrent - KickassTorrents

 

Anyone else got any decent ones they have listened to?

 

how do you put them on your mp3 player,do you use wmp or a particular programme?

 

I listened to a novel called Paranoia by Joseph Finder and that was quite good. I`ve read a few of his and they are quite decent.

[Sugar Ape]

 

how do you put them on your mp3 player,do you use wmp or a particular programme?

 

I listened to a novel called Paranoia by Joseph Finder and that was quite good. I`ve read a few of his and they are quite decent.

 

No I just download them, then right click the files and open with iTunes. Once they are on there then I just sync them with my iPod.

 

It can be a bit of a pain opening all the individual files with iTunes but it doesn't take too long.

[Bobby Hundreds]

I'm a member of audible it's 8 quid a month you get one free credit ( not free i guess, its 8 pound ) which is one book. Always offers like two books for one credit, I love audio books always unabridged ones though. The terry pratchett books are great on audio as are science ones like Neil de grasse Tyson's death by black holes or pulp physics. Stephen kings the dome is ace on audiobook. I'm currently listening to the lotr books they were on offer the lot of them with my one credit. I always go for the longest books.

[Lee909]

Audible is good value,better if you live in the IS as there is a bigger range of books.

 

 

Anthony Bourdains Medium Raw is pretty good if you like his show or cooking in general.

 

I like Conn Iggulden,Massimo Manfredi historical fiction.

 

 

Terry Pratchetts disc works is a must in audio book for me.

[Guest ShoePiss]

Really good for long car journeys, especially with someone else. It's good to share a book this way.

[VladimirIlyich]

I'm struggling to get audiobooks from my microsd card on my tablet into the android audiobooks app at the moment.

I'm just having to play the book section by section in the music player. I've got plenty of audiobooks to listen to if I can get them onto the app.

[Lee909]

any new recommendations

[Sugar Ape]

any new recommendations

 

You a member of iptorrents? I got The Godfather audiobook off there the other week and its very good.

[md1892]

God is not great by Hitchens is a good listen, he has a very soothing voice.

Also got Work, Consume, Die by Frankie Boyle which is very, very amusing.

[Uncle_Meat]

A couple of favourites I'm listening to at the moment.

 

A positively final appearance - Sir Alec Guinness. Genuinely good story and, being read by Alec himself, so easy to listen to.

 

Star Trek memories and Star Trek Movie Memories - William Shatner. It's written and read by William Shatner. What more do you need to know?

 

A Liar's Biography by Grahame Chapman is a good listen too.

 

I tend to save my audiobooks for long car journeys. Find a good one and the time just flies by.

[SammyAftershave]

Have recently got through:

 

'In the Heart of the Sea' by Nathaniel Philbrook. Incredible but true epic tale of human endurance in light of a series of catastrophes. This is the story that influenced Melville to write 'Moby Dick'. Highly recommended.

 

Roddy Doyle's 'Paddy Clarke ha, ha, ha' beautifully read by Aiden Gillen. Regardless of the quality of the source material I feel the narration can make or break an audio book. I read the book some years ago in a Dublin accent so here 'Paddy Clarke' sounds exactly how I imagined him to. A fine example of bringing an already wonderful book 'alive'.

[Evelyn Tentions]

Some great suggestions and tips here already.

Audible (and the rest of them) piss me off with their DRMs.The retail price they charge for audiobooks is not reduced enough to cover their savings in paper, printing,distribution etc so, once I've listened to it, why shouldn't I be able to pass it on to friends as I would with a book? It's not like the author or narrator are seeing much of it.

2 tips

Stay away from Usenet (newsgroups) Newshosts these days hold over 1500 days of posts which puts an awful lot of temptation in your path.

Costs about $10 US a month but also gives you heaps of TV, movies,books, porn etc.

 

news.astraweb.com - Usenet News Server - $10/month

 

is $20for 3 months unlimited at the moment

Most EPL matches posted as HQ mkv files. Uses the same ssl encryption as paypal, banks and the like so that the man might know that you're downloading heaps but he doesn't know what you're downloading.

To see what temptation might lie in your path, search for anything you desire at

 

https://www.binsearch.info/

 

OZusenet.info USENET

 

tells about usenet whilst

 

Slyck.com - Guide To The Usenet Newsgroups - QuickStart

 

tells you how.

 

Tip 2

 

Stay away from irc.

This is about ebooks but applies for audiobooks too. Its just a case of going to the right host.

How to download EBooks for Free on IRC, no spam and no torrent searches (OSX/Mac+windows) | Mireille Raad

 

Rather than use Mirc, Nettalk is free

 

Nettalk - www.ntalk.de - IRC-Chatclient

 

Tip 3

Many libraries now have lots of talking books on CD. Borrow them, take them home and make mp3s on your computer.

Use the library catalogue to see what's available locally. Most stuff is available on inter library loans which makes it cheaper than buying from Audible or whatever.

 

Terry Pratchett.

3 readers - Stephen Briggs , who is great and increases the enjoyment of the book

Tony 'Baldrick' Robinson who is aslo brilliant but who reads fucking useless abridged versions. Is he too lazy to read the whole fucking thing?

Nigel 'The Young Ones' Planer who is fucking terrible

 

Sammy Aftershave has it right about author/narrator spot on.

My personal favorite combo is Peter Temple "The Broken Shore" read by Peter Hoskins

 

Covering long distances here down under, audiobooks not only pass the time but help with alertness (unless it's Nigel 'I'm a twat' Planer)

[Evelyn Tentions]

Double post somehow. Sorry about the Monty Python moment. I mean of course 3 tips

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Stalin Ate My Homework - Alexi Sayle.

 

Also got 1984 and The Art of War to eventually liaten to.

 

Will be getting on to some of the suggestions on here too.

[Lee909]

Bern listening too Antony Beevors WW2 again. Got a few other war books to listen too. Need to find somewhere good to get the ones not available on audible though. Any suggestions

[Bob]

I'd heartily recommend all the John Le Carre novels on audible as read by Michael Jayston.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Been listening to Nixon and Kissinger recently.

[SasaS]

I'd heartily recommend all the John Le Carre novels on audible as read by Michael Jayston.

 

Jo Nesbo read by Sean Barett used to be my regular summer indulgence. Now they have American female rock legends reading Nesbo instead, which totally ruins it. Thanks Audible.

 

Read all of Le Carre, except that one silly book everyone skips obviously, but never as an audio book. Must remember to give it a try.

 

Love audio books but it's really fascinating how simple it seems to produce them and how many things can ruin it. I hate American readers of Scandinavian crime, more than one reader, a reader which acts too much, over produced audio books with some silly music. It is an art, and an art of understatement at that.

[Bob]

Jo Nesbo read by Sean Barett used to be my regular summer indulgence. Now they have American female rock legends reading Nesbo instead, which totally ruins it. Thanks Audible.

 

Read all of Le Carre, except that one silly book everyone skips obviously, but never as an audio book. Must remember to give it a try.

 

Love audio books but it's really fascinating how simple it seems to produce them and how many things can ruin it. I hate American readers of Scandinavian crime, more than one reader, a reader which acts too much, over produced audio books with some silly music. It is an art, and an art of understatement at that.

Absolutely true, those final words.

 

I listened to Tom Rob Smiths follow up to child 44, and it drove me mad.

 

The book was a bit shit, but the English narrator was far worse. He only applied accents to the baddies henchmen, and for some reason they all got a Dickensian cockney accent.

 

Awful

[Tony Moanero]

I've always fancied listening to some Doctor Who audiobooks. Could anyone recommend some, please?

[SasaS]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fastest-growing-format-in-publishing-audiobooks-1469139910

Audio books are the fastest growing format in publishing and publishers are increasingly adding star narrators.

*sigh*  And we used to be so happy.

[Lee909]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fastest-growing-format-in-publishing-audiobooks-1469139910

 

Audio books are the fastest growing format in publishing and publishers are increasingly adding star narrators.

*sigh* And we used to be so happy.

Whats the issue?

Do you not like them

 

I have listened to them since i was a kid and im a audible subscriber now. Two books £15 month. Its great. I listen to them when im on gatehouse duty snd going in and out of work. Also great when going shopping as it beats hearing women on their phone,kids crying. I cannot deal with the noise when im out.

Not sure what it was called but apparently its a mental disorder thing. Once im out and hear everyone talking and kids shouting it drives me mad to the point of leaving the shopping in the trolley and just fucking off home. So audio books and podcasts are a godsend

[SasaS]

Whats the issue?

Do you not like them

 

I have listened to them since i was a kid and im a audible subscriber now. Two books £15 month. Its great. I listen to them when im on gatehouse duty snd going in and out of work. Also great when going shopping as it beats hearing women on their phone,kids crying. I cannot deal with the noise when im out.

Not sure what it was called but apparently its a mental disorder thing. Once im out and hear everyone talking and kids shouting it drives me mad to the point of leaving the shopping in the trolley and just fucking off home. So audio books and podcasts are a godsend

Go back a page.

[Lee909]

Ah,i agree. A poor narrator can completely fuck it up. A wanting 'bug names' could well do that. Its like vouce actors for animation it really is nore than just having a voice