Early Retirement Extreme Forums

What are your favorite audiobooks? I find many are hot or miss depending on the narrator. In my new job, I'm allowed to have an earbud in while working. So far I've listened and enjoyed The Graveyard Book and also the Emperor of Maladies.

Any to recommend?

Bueller? Nothing standing out?

I listened to Unbroken:A World War II Story of Survival and really enjoyed that. I forgot to mention that I also listened to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in the spring. That had good narration. Both are considered good books in their own right but the audio didn't appear to make it any worse.

I've been looking at lists compiled online. Ready player One is considered by many to be one of the top audiobooks. I'll look into listening to that soon. Also up on queue is The Nix and The Argonauts. I've listened to Lincoln in the Bardo but was distracted for a while and am unsure what is going on.

I like Will Patton's narration of Alas, Babylon. My family also liked the audio versions of Seveneves and New York 2140.

eta: They also liked Tribe because Junger narrates it.

lectures from The Teaching Company (I've just checked that they've changed name to Great Courses).

everything by Neal Stephenson

I'm no critic, so I will leave the reviews and recommendations to others. But congratulations on your new work environment. Audiobooks are the best way to get through the work day.

I get my audiobook files online, thru my library. So it's not so much what is best as what is available. Still, they have more files than I have life left to listen to.

So I download whatever seems like it could be interesting, and feel no pressure to finish what I start.

I have had the best results by listening to titles I didn't find interesting, but simply didn't know anything about. Advancing areas of interest and expertise is difficult, but filling in areas of ignorance is easy and rewarding.

No clue on the audiobooks as I just don't listen to audiobooks, but I will +1 the Neal Stephenson recommendation as far as fiction books go.

I'm a huge audiobook fan, and my Audible membership is something I highly value. It's not cheap--$15 a month--but for that price you get one "free" audiobook a month, a discount on other purchases during the month, 2 free other selections a month from a special group--different each month--and periodic deals. They had a customer appreciation week a few weeks ago with a free book everyday.

I think what's a good audiobook depends on what you like. I started listening to American Gods as an audiobook, hated it (which surprised me because I'd heard so many good things) then read the book and hated it, too. Just not my thing.

Personally, I like things like Michael Connolly books for long car trips. Entertaining, they are all well produced, and you don't have to listen SO attentively that you can't concentrate on other things. (Some books just require more attentive listening, in my opinion).

I thought the Outsider by Stephen King was decent--I think Will Patton is a GREAT reader. (Recommendation: go for books that are read by actors you've heard of. My opinion: they tend to be way higher quality). Stanley Tucci is a also a great reader, as is Titus Welliver (Bosch series).

I tend to go more for fiction myself in audiobooks, but I a good history non-fiction lends itself pretty well to listening, too. Bart Ehrman's books about the New Testment (more historical than religious) are good. I listened to one not too long ago on the history of Prohibition... sorry, the name escapes me just now.

If you haven't listened to them already, the Hardcore History podcasts (by Dan Carlin) are great. Some of the subjects take as long as an entire audiobook (~15 hours). If it hasn't changed, you can only download episodes from the last couple years on the normal podcast apps. You can buy them all for like $60. Or.... torrents..

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. It's been working out pretty great so far. In 2 weeks of work I have been able to listen to 10 books, finishing 8 of them. All for free thanks to the library.

The good-great: Unbroken , The Graveyard Book, Dicipline Equals Freedom Field Manual, Boys in the Boat, The Complacent Class, Henry V

Books I somewhat liked- Emperor of Maladies (Good info, but long and dry) I contain Multitudes (Interesting but somewhat repetitive and not completely earth shattering)

Books I didn't get drawn into and didn't finish- Lincoln in the Bardo, Homecoming

If you were interested enough to try Lincoln in the Bardo, you've probably read other stuff by George Saunders already. But if not, his short story collections are fantastic. I'd start with "In Persuasion Nation."

FYI ... Audible is having a sale and I saw a lot of books that have been recommended on the forum. I remember seeing Junger, Leopold, Halladay, Pink, Greene, Kondo and others.

C40 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 23, 2018 1:35 pm

If you haven't listened to them already, the Hardcore History podcasts (by Dan Carlin) are great. Some of the subjects take as long as an entire audiobook (~15 hours). If it hasn't changed, you can only download episodes from the last couple years on the normal podcast apps. You can buy them all for like $60. Or.... torrents..

Dan Carlin's new book The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses is out today. Carlin narrates it (of course) if you prefer the audio book.

Last Heard:

'Tis by Frank McCourt and narrated by the author.

I know I've enjoyed an audiobook when I try and speak like the author...kind of like developing a hankering for pasta and making my own tomato sauce after watching too many goomba movies and speaking in that manner... sometimes to the amusement of my partner who suspects my mental age to be well below 46

Some that I have enjoyed recently

One Summer; Bill Bryson
The Wright Brothers; David McCullough
The Stranger in the Woods; Michael Finkel
Ghost in the Wires; Kevin Mitnick

My current favorites are:

Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca by Andrés Reséndez