Reccomend audio books

[Anti_Hypeman]

I am starting to get into audio books. Good books dont always equal good audio books. Some readers just stink I hate the male ones that try to do a female voice its just creepy. The DaVinci Code gave me nightmares about Sophie trying to make me his prison bitch. If you want to use voice acting then get a complete cast otherwise just stick to narration.

My reccomendation is

Star Trek, Deep Space Nine: Legends of the Ferengi
Ready by Armin Shimerman

[Cheap Thrills]

I've just finished Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys" (unabridged), read by UK funnyman Lenny Henry (http://www.lennyhenry.com/home/index.aspx). I've listened to lots of audiobooks, all genres, and this is the best one I've heard in recent memory. Not only is it an engaging story (sort of magical-realism) but Henry infuses every character (both male and female) with a completely realized and unique voice. Quite a tour-de-force in audiobooks narration, this is a rare instance were one narrator pulls off what a complete cast often fails to do. Highly recommended!:)

[Dragonrock]

I enjoy a well read audio book, and men using falseto to simulate female voices doesn't bother me. Nor do women using baritone for men's voices. I've "read" dozens of audio books and the only thing that has ever bothered me was on Ben Bova's Mars audio book where they lowered the audio quality when the reader was doing voices that came over the space suit's radio transmitters. This was done to make the book seem more real, but it really just annoyed me as I had to turn the volume up so I could understand them.

One's that I have enjoyed were the Harry Potter books, Steven King's Dark Tower books, some by Dean Koontz, and I'm about to start the series by the guy who wrote Master and Commander.

[Curnir]

The Harry Potter books read by Jim Dale.

American Gods Niel Gaiman unabridged

[SusanB-M1]

The Harry Potter books read by Stephen Fry ... I didn't know they had been read by Jim Dale too.

Yes, several books I have had to give up on when the reader thinks it is a good idea to reduce the voice to a near whisper. The reader is so important. The best one of all I think is Diana Bishop whose voice 'fades' into the background and all you hear is the story. She reads 'Cyanide in my Shoe' the story of a woman who was one of Churchill's personal secret agents - 8 men and Josephine Butler. I buy only a few of the unabridged books, but this one I have. ISIS audio booksIAB 950512

[Slothrop]

Over the past year I've been going through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series on audiobook as read by Patrick Tull. 20 books, all of them utterly fantastic and Tull gives every single character a unique voice. He does great Irish accents, Northern-Irish accents, French. The naval jargon is handled perfectly. The only slight problem is hearing a raspy-voiced male do female characters but he even does this pretty well. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

[Orb]

The Time Traveler's Wife

But you'll cry your eyes out!

[tkingdoll]

The Harry Potter books read by Stephen Fry

Seconded.

[Orb]

I also "read" tons of audio books (I knit, 'nuff said)

Audible.com has the best deals I've found, and you can subscribe for a flat fee every month for book credits. It's cheaper than buying them retail.

Anyway, here are some more audio books I thought were great:

Bill Bryson's - A short History of Nearly Everything (Educational, funny and a good narrator too)

Cornelia Funke's - Dragonrider (Brenden Fraser narrates and is very talented. Its a children's novel, but I really enjoyed it)

Garth Nix's - Sabriel (Young adult novel, Tim Curry narrates beautifully)

Alain de Botton's - Consolations of Philosophy (Sounds boring, but actually quite funny. Has some great quotes from the masters. I re-listen to it often)

Michael Shermer's - Borderlands of Science (Shermer rocks, woot!!)

Sucky books include:

Brian Green's - Fabric of the Cosmos (Educational but soooo Boooooring ZZZZZZZZZZ)

Stephen King's - Salem's Lot (OK story, just didn't transfer to audio well)

And the crappiest audio book in the universe award goes to:

Dave Freedman's - Natural Selection (Horror novel apparently written by a 4yr old boy, and read by his mentally challenged uncle)

[brodski]

Not exactly audio books, but for some great FREE audio drama and comedy, can I recomend http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/

[Brown]

The Harry Potter books read by Jim Dale.

I have a complete set of these. They are some of the best I've ever heard.

And Dale gets better with each new book. Dale's presentation of the most recent Harry Potter story--about the Half-Blood Prince--is not so much a reading as it is a performance.

[DickK]

Over the past year I've been going through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series on audiobook as read by Patrick Tull. 20 books, all of them utterly fantastic and Tull gives every single character a unique voice. He does great Irish accents, Northern-Irish accents, French. The naval jargon is handled perfectly. The only slight problem is hearing a raspy-voiced male do female characters but he even does this pretty well. Highly, highly, highly recommended. I've been trying to get them for the last 6 months. There are plenty of of abridged versions read by Robert Hardy, but I really wanted the unabridged version by Patrick Tull.

I tried ebay, of course, but always lose the auction, for all love. It is the great auction house of the world, after all.

There's one part I'd really look forward to (apart from it all), the chase of the 'horrible old Leopard' by the Waakzamheid.

To console myself, I've just read the series again, well, you have to, don't you? I've never known reading to be so immersive. Enjoy, Slothrop, you pragmatical ba*tard, if I didn't know better I'd suspect you of enthusiasm.

[SusanB-M1]

Orb
I too enjoyed Bill Bryson's 'Short History'. I thought I'd make a real effort to understand things as I went along, but quickly realised that for me the best thing to do was to listen right the way through and hope I picked up the gist here and there! And as he writes from a non-scientist's point of view, he expresses things so well. Then I listened to it again after a while and took in a bit more.

I've made a note of the others in your list which sound just the sort of thing that I will enjoy.
Susan

[SusanB-M1]

There are three books by Alexander McCall-Smith (of 'No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency' fame)which I enjoyed listening to: 'Portuguese Irregular Verbs', 'The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs' and 'At The Village of Reduced Circumstances'. All read by Hugh Laurie very well indeed. Best to listen in that order. They are gently funny with, here and there, a laugh out loud.

[Charlie Monoxide]

I really enjoyed the audiobook version of "Wicked" by Maguire (blanking on first name). The narrator is an older dude, but has many chararcter voices and is very relaxing to listen to.

The second book in the series "Son of a Witch" is read by the author. Not bad, but I preferred the first narrator.

Character (free Elphaba) Monoxide

[Meri]

I like the Discworld novels read by Stephen Briggs.

[Worm]

I've been trying to get them for the last 6 months. There are plenty of of abridged versions read by Robert Hardy, but I really wanted the unabridged version by Patrick Tull.

I tried ebay, of course, but always lose the auction, for all love. It is the great auction house of the world, after all.

There's one part I'd really look forward to (apart from it all), the chase of the 'horrible old Leopard' by the Waakzamheid.

To console myself, I've just read the series again, well, you have to, don't you? I've never known reading to be so immersive. Enjoy, Slothrop, you pragmatical ba*tard, if I didn't know better I'd suspect you of enthusiasm.

Well I never, more O'Brian lovers than you can shake a pointy stick at! I always imagine that I'm the only one.

The Patrick Tull readings are simply fantastic, although he does make the occasional slip. I'm slowly building up my collection - I'm up to 'The Fortune of War' if I remember correctly. They are not cheap to get from the publisher, and I have to get them forwarded from the US becuase they don't do international shipping, but it is well worth it.

It's worth checking out Amazon - I got a couple of mine from Amazon marketplace sellers secondhand.

I have them playing in the kitchen for when I'm cooking, cleaning, washing etc. - it's very relaxing.

Other recommendations :
Harry Potter read by Stephen Fry (blows Jim Dale out of the water)
Inspector Morse read by Kevin Whately

[DickK]

Worm, strange isn't it, people only seem to speak of O'Brian in superlatives, that or they've never read him at all. A strange one, "the most famous author you never heard of" is a comment I read in the Guardian a few years ago. I'll keep looking, thanks for the tip about Amazon. Enjoy your housework. :D

[kc440_]

I listened to the unabridged The Water Is Wide by Pat Conroy. It was excellent. The actor who played all the parts was great. And, off hand, I don't recall his name!

kc440

[Orb]

OK, I just finished listening to World War Z by Max Brooks.

The "Z" is for Zombies! F-Yeah!

It was great, it was more like an audio performance than just a reading. It even has some famous names doing some of the narration. Alan Alda, John Turturro, Rob Reiner, to to name a few. If you buy it on audible.com before September 25th it comes with "The Zombie Survival Guide" for free! It was just too much fun.

[negativ]

Completely avoid the audio version of "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore. The story is fun but the narrator reads it like he's auditioning for a Ford truck commerical.

[Godmode]

If you're a Red Dwarf fan I highly recommend any of the audiobooks red by Chris Barrie. He's so good with voices that it's morelike listening to an old fashioned radio comedy.