What We Are "Reading": Audiobooks

What audiobook are you listening to right now? Share it!

(And don't forget to mention the narrator!)

I don't normally listen to audiobooks on school breaks, but I am addicted to them when school's in session. Just started Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore today narrated by Ari Fliakos.

The print version of the book was one of my faves. How is the narrator?

I love audios and currently I listen more than I read. I just finished listening to The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber narrated by Jill Tanner. Brilliant story and brilliant narrated.

Started yesterday evening on Tortilla Flat - John Steinbeck narrated by John McDonough, so far very good.

I'm currently listening to Call the Midwife read by Nicola Barber. The only difference I've noticed from the TV series so far is that Dr. Turner has a living wife and more than one child.

I'm listening to E.L. Doctorow reading his novel Ragtime. I think I like the book, but I'm having trouble with his reading - it's just a bit too fast for my preference. Especially after he began the book by quoting Joplin's comment that "Ragtime should never be played fast".

And as a result, I'm listening to The Martian in the evenings - narrated by R.C. Bray, who's doing a great job.

>3 drneutron: Jim, I like it so far, and the narrator is very good.

I'm so happy I found this thread. I'm currently listening to Wuthering Heights read by Patricia Routledge, who plays Hyacinth Bucket on Keeping Up Appearances. She is excellent! I highly recommend giving this one a listen for all WH lovers.

>8 WordMaven: I listened to that audiobook in 2014. I liked it more than I thought I would. I think some of that was the narrator. :)

Right now I'm listening to The House of Four Winds by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory, narrated by Emily Sutton-Smith. I'm actually hoping to finish it tomorrow so that it will count towards my 2014 count.

After that I've got the following on deck:
A Dance of Dragons - George R R Martin, narrated by Roy Dotrice
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens, narrated by Jim Dale (a fantastic narrator)
Cinder - Marissa Meyer, narrated by Rebecca Soler
The Demon King - Cinda Williams Chima, narrated by Carol Monda
Finnikin of the Rock - Melina Marchetta, narrated by Jeff Cummings
and Seraphina - Rachel Hartman, narrated by Mandy Williams

All of which have been on my TBR for quite some time. :)

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is next up on audio. It's narrated by David Ledoux, Joe Barrett, Therese Plummer, and more. Hopefully it's good. :)

>8 WordMaven: Eep, Patricia Routledge! She's one of those people who I'd forgotten existed... now I just have visions of Hyacinth Bucket sitting and reading Wuthering Heights, which is a little alarming if anything.

>9 Kassilem: I love Roy Dotrice reading G.R.R. Martin - and a big fan of Jim Dale too :)

Audiobooks make up approximately 1/3 of my overall reading. My current audiobook read is Andrea Camilleri's The Paper
Moon, narrated by Grover Gardner. This is book nine in the Inspector Montalbano series and Gardner has been the narrator of the previous eight audiobooks, so it is kind of like listening to an old friend. ;-)

Currently "ear-reading" The Rise and Fall of Great Powers one of the books on the longlist for the Maine Reader's Choice Awards. The narrator Penelope Rawlins is terrific, but I'm finding the story line which goes back and for in time, a tad difficult to follow in audio. I'm keeping the print copy close by to be able to flip back and forth sometimes just to make sure I didn't miss anything!

Started Gone Girl a few days ago. Hope I do not take forever and a day to finish it.

I'm currently listening for the nine thousandth time to Going Postal, my favorite Terry Pratchett novel read by my favorite Pratchett reader, Stephen Briggs.

I tend to finish more audio books per year than print books and usually have a few on the go at the same time. My current listens are:

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett read by Nigel Planer
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel read by Simon Slater
Great Battles of the Ancient World by Professor Garrett G Fagan

Some books I have as ebooks and audio, Wolf Hall for example, through Amazon's Whispersync. All my listens are unabridged.

I started my odyssey through Discworld last year with books 1 to 17 and hope to finish either this year or in 2016.

Audiobooks account for more than half my reading these days. It's easier than straining my tired old eyes. Currently, I'm listening to Maplecroft, read by Johanna Parker and Roger Wayne.

I listen to audiobooks while doing housework, walking the dog and driving the car.

Get a lot of reading done that way. Right now I am listening to Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth and narrated by Nicola Barber.

Way back when ... mid 1960's, still in high school I decided, that I was going to go to university to become a nurse and then I was going to go to England and become a mid-wife. There were no good training programs here in Canada at that time. I did become a nurse but I gave up the midwifery dream, followed another dream instead , and got married in my last year at university.

I am loving this book, 61 pages in, listening to the book narrated by Nicola Barber. At first I was having trouble understanding what she was saying because of the English accent but I caught on quickly. I usually listen to my audio books on double speed but had to slow it down initially. I am now back up to double speed and it works.

I remain ambivalent about audiobooks. I listened to The Luminaries in 2014 and thought it might take the rest of my life to finish it; it only took the rest of the year, but for me, it wasn't worth it. I think the trick is picking the right book/narrator. The Night Circus was a good one to listen to.

I listen to audiobooks when I am walking, and since I walk more often with friends than alone, it takes a long time to get through a book. Right now I am listening to We Are Not Ourselves read by Mare Winningham. Her affect is a bit flat for me, but I am enjoying the book. And it makes three miles go much faster!

I just finished Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke, narrated by Will Patton. I'm currently on Pegasus Descending, same author and narrator. Patton's narration on these really works for me.

Deleted as I already posted about this one in >13 tututhefirst:/

I'm currently listening to Birdy as my commuting fare. enjoying it more than I'd expect form the reviews and promo stuff.

Just started "The Wind is Not a River" - another MRCA Long List book. The audio, read by Mark Bramhall, is fabulous. I'm struggling to keep my eyes open this afternoon because I stayed up late last night to read/listen to about 200 of the 300 pages. This is definitely a good one.

I finished Murder on the Ballarat Train by Kerry Greenwood last night. I really enjoy this audio series. I need to check out the TV show.

This morning I started listening to Bossypants by Tina Fey had me laughing out loud within minutes.

I need to confess that the reason I opted for audio for this book is that I cannot have the book cover in my house or on my Kobo screen - it totally creeps me out. Luckily the audio is a great way to experience this book.

I can only manage 'light' reading at the moment and I've gone from some Just William stories to my next Georgette Heyer - The Unknown Ajax. It's read by Daniel Philpot who seems pretty good.

>24 SuziQoregon: - Juli, I thought Bossypants on audio was perfect. Listening to Tina Fey read her own work added a lot to it.

I just finished listening to The Ballad of the Sad Cafe on audio, and I would recommend not doing that. I really didn't like a couple of the narrators, although the one who does the title novella was very good. I wish that I had read it in print format not just because I didn't care for all of the narration, but also because McCullers writes the kind of quirky stories that make you want to reread bits here and there - hard to do with audio.

Currently I am listening to Foxglove Summer, which is narrated by the very fabulous Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.

Finished The Wind is not a River and now listening to Symphony of Echoes, the 2nd book in the Chronicles of St. Mary's series by Jodi Taylor, read by Zara Ramm Loads of fun. The perfect pick-me=up as I sit knitting in front of the fire, looking out at the frozen river on this sub-zero day in Maine.

Heard so many good things about Bossypants! It's up next on the audio queue.

Currently listening to Night Shift, an anthology with Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews and two others I haven't yet read. Not crazy about the reader (Angela Dawe) though, so many stop after the Andrews and get it in print form.

I haven't listened to audiobooks much in the past, but I'm trying them out to make more time for both knitting and reading.

Currently listening to The Yiddish Policemen's Union narrated by Peter Riegert. He reads it with the classic "I'm a hard-boiled detective" voice, which is great but leaves me wishing the story were written in the first person instead of the third.

I wasn't crazy about the narrators for most of The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. I liked the first narrator for the title story pretty well, but after that it was hit and miss. I liked the book, but think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it myself.

We are now listening to Watership Down narrated by Ralph Cosham. He can read me anything. Phone book, Auto repair manuals. Whatever. But I am loving sharing this with my kids.

I finished Birdy this morning and started on The Snowman. A bit of a change of pace.

I'm listening to All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill. So far not terribly impressed with the narrator, but interested enough in the story to keep going.

I've been listening to and enjoying greatly To Say Nothing of the Dog.

Totally loving Bossypants. Last night and this morning I've been listening to the section where she relates the Rules for Improvisation to work and life in general. Excellent stuff. I need to look it up online so I can take some notes.

>31 nittnut: Oh, Jenn! The audiobook of Watership Down is wonderful! I just listened to it (again) last year but am already thinking I want to do it again. Do you think that would be too much of a good thing?

>12 lkernagh: Audiobooks make up approximately 1/3 of my overall reading. Me too, Lori!

My current audio was a whim from the library: Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. It's fully dramatized, with fantastic actors, including Sinead Cusack (Mrs. Thornton from BBC's North and South and Ciaran Hinds (Frozen, Harry Potter, Persuasion). It's fantastic!

Currently listening to Nora Webster by Colm Toibin.....Lovely reading by Fiona Shaw. Easy listening, well developing characters, amply delineated by the narrator, and going very quickly. I love it.

I'm currently listening to Nocturnes. Each story has a different narrator. I think there are four narrators for five stories. If that's right, the same narrator probably reads the two stories that share characters.

>39 cbl_tn: Carrie....you hit me with a BB on Nocturnes Short stories is one of my favorite genres, and if I can get it in audio---WOW!

>40 tututhefirst: Glad to help! I think the audio is enhancing my experience. So far I seem to like it more than some of the others who read it for the British Authors challenge.

Oh, you are making me want to revisit Watership Down - I just loved that one on audio! I listened to the Arkangel Shakespeare audio of King Lear over the weekend, and it was very well done. I followed along with the print because it was my first time reading it, but if you are familiar with the play, you would be able to follow it just fine with only the audio.

Still listening to Foxglove Summer, which is fabulous on audio.

>31 nittnut: I have Watership Down but haven't listened to it yet. I got it primarily because Ralph Cosham did the narration. I was so sad when he passed away last fall. I don't know how I'll be able to listen to the Inspector Gamache series without his voice.

My sister-in-law made my morning today. She posted on Facebook that she'd finally listened to To Kill a Mockingbird narrated by Sissy Spacek that I had recommended to her. She loved it of course. That was a case of perfect pairing of narrator and book as far as I'm concerned.

I listened to Watership Down last year -- it was just wonderful.
>31 nittnut: Jenn, how do the kids like it? I considered giving the book (print) to Marina, but wasn't sure.

Just completed audiobook The Rivers Run Dry by Sibella Giorello -
intense suspense - amazing writing -
FBI Special Agent Raleigh Harmon series #2 oasis audio

I'm listening to Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke, narrated by Will Patton.

Well, The Winter's Tale (Shakespeare, fully dramatized) was indeed fantastic. Now I'm enjoying The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer, read by Georgina Sutton.

Finished Nora Webster, now listening to Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. It is by design as colorless as the title so far, but since I lived in Japan for 5 years, I'm enjoying listening to this one.

Finished The Remains of the Day and have now begun The Children's Book.

Listening now to Caveat Emptor, which is (I think) the fourth in the Medicus series set in Britain during the Roman occupation.

>47 AMQS: Anne, who produced that audiobook for The Winter's Tale?

Finished the Murakami. Now I'm listening to On Such a full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee. It's required reading for me as a panelist for Maine Readers Choice, but I'm about 1/2 through and I'm not impressed.

>51 Crazymamie: Mamie, I had to search for the book because I already returned it to the library. It looks like it was produced by The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare. I looked it up on Wikipedia -- looks like an impressive constellation of Shakespearean actors offered here! I'll probably look for more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkangel_Shakespeare

Oh, thanks for that, Anne! I listened to the Arkangel production of King Lear, and that was very well done.

finished on such a full Sea... meh not on my recommended list in either print or audio.

started the narrow road to the deep north..so far it is living up to the hype. I love the narrator David Atlas. the aussie accent is spot on.

Now that I've finished Nocturnes, I'm listening to the L.A. Theatre Works production of Julius Caesar.

I finished listening to Bossypants yesterday. I decided to start Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. I was in the mood for an adbventure story and this is good escapist fare.

I started March yesterday. It seems to be working well in audio format.

I'm a little ways into 1984 read by Simon Prebble. It's great so far, but I find that Prebble is one of those readers who could make even the phone book interesting.

I need to look at Shakespeare on audio myself at some point.

Now that I've finished most of the list I had a month ago (Post 9), I've got another stack of audiobooks on my iTunes:

The Simarillion - J R R Tolkien, narrated by Martin Shaw
Finnikin of the Rock - Melina Marchetta, narrated by Jeff Cummings
Elvenbane - Andre Norton, narrated by Aasne Vigesaa
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo, narrated by Frederick Davidson
Tongues of Serpents - Naomi Novik, narrated by Simon Vance
Talon - Julie Kagawa, narrated by Caitlin Davis, Macleod Andrews & Chris Patton

>60 Kassilem: I'd love to know how Les Miserables goes - I'm planning to read it this year, but haven't decided yet what format to do it in.

I'll let you know!

>36 Storeetllr: Nope. Not too much of a good thing. :)

>43 SuziQoregon: If there are any more Inspector Gamache books, I will have to read them. Nobody else can read them to me.

>44 AMQS: The kids really like it. My husband occasionally mentions that he finds them a little violent, which is funny, but the kids are into it. Margo especially. She has been able to keep track of who all the rabbits are and even caught the bit about the peg and twisted wire after BigWig is snared, that I missed.

>60 Kassilem: Maybe I should try The Silmarillion on audio. For some reason I've never managed to read it. I'd love to know what you think of the audio.

>63 nittnut: I finished listening to The Simarillion yesterday. I've copied down the review I wrote in my thread here for you :)

I almost gave this a four star but I had to really concentrate while listening to this book, otherwise I would start thinking of other things and miss great swaths of the book. However it has to be a high three star because while it's all tell and no show, the language is wonderful. Perhaps Martin Shaw reading this book aloud for me did the trick but I really enjoyed the sound of the reading - all those elven words sound so lyrical. It was probably a good thing I read The Origins of Tolkien's Middle Earth for Dummies book before reading this, because I feel I was able to take much more out of the stories due to knowing the overall plot-lines of each story. However, the Dummies book does have quote a few spoilers. I enjoyed the fact that this was like a bible for the Lord of the Rings series. And if you know your history, you can pull quite a bit of references out that may have inspired some stories. A lot was obviously taken from Christianity, but there's some Greek history there and Saxon, etc. Probably only for those big fans of Tolkien, but I enjoyed it more than anticipated.

I finished March today. very good.

I finished Arctic Drift yesterday morning. It was fun escapist adventure fare.

Yesterday afternoon I started The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Started Bossypants this morning. It is ok, but I do not have enough awareness of entertainment and media to appreciate many of the references - I'm also enough older and had tame adolescence, so don't connect with some of her experiences. I appreciate her humor and boldness- and it is only four discs.

>67 Helenoel: Oh! I really enjoyed Bossypants, though I understand your reaction since I also can't personally relate to some of her experiences. I'm political enough these days to love her humorous digs in that arena.

>66 SuziQoregon: Isn't Gaiman's reading voice wonderful! (I'm assuming he is narrating Ocean.)

>68 Storeetllr: - Mary - I'm on to the second disc and liking it better. She has a great way with expression.

>68 Storeetllr: yes!! I am loving listening to Gaiman read The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I finished The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton. Very interesting sci fi, and very well read!

I'm listening to Stardust, read by Neil Gaiman himself, and it's wonderful.

I'm currently listening to The Martian. Very glad that I'm listening to this book, I think I'm enjoying it quite a bit more than I would have had I read it.

I loved The Martian when I read it. I've heard the audio is great. I might get it for a re-read.

Recent listens:
* Laurie Lee reading his autobiographical Cider With Rosie covering his early childhood in the rural Cotswolds - just like having your grandfather tell you stories, I loved it.
* Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 read by a small cast - it's 47 hours long (!) and read slowly, but it was so enjoyable that I didn't feel tempted to speed it up.
* Ernest Cline's Ready Player One was good fun (particularly if you're familiar with 1980s video games), and I enjoyed it in audio.
* Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice - another relatively new novel, but I was less certain about it, I think I would have preferred the book version of this one.

>73 literary.feline:, >74 SuziQoregon: I loved the Martian in print too but recently got it from Audible so I could listen to it too. Can't wait to get to it!

I started listening to The Camel Club but dumped it after about 5 chapters. Nothing quite like feeling you are being lectured to by an author. In a novel...

>76 Storeetllr:, >74 SuziQoregon: I would definitely recommend the audiobook. It's read by R.C. Bray (who I wasn't familiar with) and he's really great. Happy listening!

>64 Kassilem: Thank you! I will give it a try. I'll just have to make sure I listen while driving - or at least when I'm less likely to be thinking of other things.

These threads are such a wonderful resource. I really appreciate knowing who everyone enjoys as a narrator, because for me, that's "make it or break it" when it comes to audio books. If the voice isn't right, it doesn't matter how good the book itself is, I can't bear it. I'm particularly thrilled to note the recommendations for the audio versions of The Silmarillion, and Watership Down. I'm currently listening to Jeremy Irons reading Brideshead Revisited, and he is fantastic.

Since I had a couple of longish work-related trips to take this week, I started listening to Bossypants by Tina Fey. It's also read by her, and the delivery of her jokes makes all the difference. I believe the last CD includes PDFs of the photos/images, but I may just check out the book, too, so I can see how it's displayed there.

>81 bell7: I really enjoyed the audio of Bossypants!!

David Tennant reading How to Train Your Dragon is a hoot! And I don't care if it is a kids' book ;-)

>83 katiekrug: YES!! We have listened to the first three of that series and they're so much fun! We were just talking tonight about making sure we have the next one loaded on the iPod for our next road trip

Well, I found something today that I've never encountered before. I checked out an audio book from the library One Click collection, and when I went to look for a paper copy to buy for my son for a present, as he'd expressed interest in the title, I found that the item was only available in audio form -- no paper copies, not even an e-book. Apparently it's part of an educational series of lectures by a history professor. I'm still counting it as a book. I see it is in LT, as there is a touchstone for it.

Take me Out to the Ballgame: A History of Baseball in America by Timothy Shutt, from the Modern Scholar audio book series.

Just finished The Dancehall of the Dead audiobook- was unsure how Hillerman would be in audio format, but it went well. Now listening to Saturnalia - Falco with an English accent narrator took a few minutes to get used to, but is fine.

I'm listening to Rachel Dratch's memoir, Girl Walks into a Bar...: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle right now. She does the reading herself, and so far it's one of my favorite comedian memoirs - I like it more than Yes Please (Amy Poehler) and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (Mindy Kaling) and aaaaaaalmost as much as Bossypants (Tina Fey).

>85 tymfos: weird. I've never heard of that before.

>88 drneutron: It really is a college lecture series. They even name a website related to the class. I'm not sure it would work well as a book, but so far the first lecture is fascinating.

I'm finishing up Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man narrated by William Dufris. It is very fun. My best audiobook recently was All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, narrated by Christopher Timothy, who plays Herriot in the TV series.

Oh! I'd love to listen to the audio of Herriot's books. I read them back in the day when pretty much everything was printed and bound, and loved them then. You know there was a British TV series based on the books, right? It was pretty enjoyable too.

I wholeheartedly recommend John Lee reading Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance. I found it initially jarring, as I'm used to hearing him read China Mieville, which is a very different sort of writing, but I adapted in no time. And it's an amazing book.