Recommended E-Books & Audio books

Aromantic Ghost

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I like to listen to audio books while travelling to work . As I have almost listened to the majority of Terry Pratchett audio collection, I want to have more variety to listen to.

Often I read an e-book during a work break and am stumped for the next e-book to get next.

Does anybody have any recommendations for any audio books or e-books worth getting?

Am not fussy on material, I like as much varied material to read as possible.
 
I have the entire Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin series as audio books, read by Patrick Tull, and they are simply fantastic. There is another guy who has done some recordings of the same books, but they are nowhere near as good. Tull's reading is crisp, subtle and unobtrusive.

I also had a few recordings of the Inspector Morse novels, read by Kevin Whatley (who plays Lewis in the TV adaptations) and I thoroughly enjoyed those as well.

I can also recommend Stephen Fry's versions of the Harry Potter novels, although he goes a bit over the top with the voices sometimes :)

I'd be interested to know which Terry Pratchett recordings you listened to. I've heard a couple of different ones, and I'm not sure I'm happy with them really :) I've also had trouble getting hold of unabridged versions, which really annoys me because I can't stand abridgement (although I can appreciate that some of the typographical effects that Pterry uses don;t easily translate into audio form)
 
Somebody mentioned before that some of the Pratchett audio books differ as to who is reading them. Some of the audio books have different endings. Some end abruptly. I've not really noticed I just push play and listen.

I think one of the readers I have in the collection is Nigel Planer. I will check the rest out.
 
Yeah, I think one of the Terry Pratchett versions I heard was one of the Nigel Planer ones, which I didn't really like, and one by Tony Robinson - which was not bad, but it was an abridged version so I was immediately biased against it.
 
I had a rough quick flick through the collection and think this is pretty accurate. I think mine are unbridged versions.

Books 1, 2, 4-8, 10-23 are read by Nigel Planer.
Book 3 I am sure it is read by Celia Imrie.
Book 9 and most of the books from 24-36 are read by Stephen Briggs.

I haven't listened to The Carpet People, Strata, Good Omens, Bromeliad Trilogy-Truckers, Diggers and Wings. I think I have also The Dark Side Of The Sun, Only you can save mankind, Jonny and the dead + bomb. Again no idea who is the voice.
 
I listened to the audiobook version of Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie and greatly enjoyed it. Read by a single author who dramatized it, he was very good and very captivating.

I own the BBC dramatization of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which are both very good and can really make the miles fly past.

I also own The Gunslinger read by the author Stephen King, and he does a surprisingly good job of it, adding his own dramatization in the work.
 
The Iliad read by Anton Lesser on Naxos Audiobooks. The one I got is the
William Cowper translation. Very poetic English but pretty close in form to
the original. Truly brilliant! I've listened to it so often I can recite whole
passages by heart. :blush:

Recently I quite liked Richard and Lalla Dawkins reading "The God Delusion"
too.
 
Bone Garden- Tess Gerritson (sp)
There are some good versions of Arthur Conan Doyle, and some bad ones.
There are also some old radio shows that are fun to listen to-
The Black Museum, Suspense, Broadway is my Beat, Dragnet
The Black Tower- Louis Bayard ( newer fiction)
I realize most of these are fiction, but I found them entertaining
 
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I have a large collection, however the best for listening to while commuting

While you are Engulfed in Flames By David Sedaris
Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain By Scott Adams
The Road By Cormac McCarthy
Prayers for the Assassin By Robert Ferrigno
Piccadilly Jim by Wodehouse
No country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Carry on Jeeves By Wodehouse
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night By Mark Hadden.
 
Quite a few appealers have been offered up that sound very promising to while the travel hours away. Maybe the work hours on the side too.

I hadn't realised King had read his own work, so that is of interest to see how the master of the word manages to bring a book to life by voice.
 
#7
Recently I quite liked Richard and Lalla Dawkins reading "The God Delusion" too.
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I very much agree with this. The people who accuse RD of being arrogant and aggressive should most certainly listen to the consistently courteous way in which he and hiswife read the books.

Having been recently introduced to Jasper Fforde's books, I have listened to as many of the 'Thursday Next' and 'NCD' books as I can, unabridged, and well read, versions (borrowed from the Library. There are laugh-out-loud sections, but he really knows his Eng Lit so just listen and enjoy! Better to listen in order, I think. The World Croquet Final in Something Rotten is very funny.

Some years ago I bought one or two unabridged audio books and there is one called 'Cyanide In My Shoe' by Josephine Butler which is the absolutely amazing story of Churchill's only personal secret agent who was a woman. He had 9 who worked directly through him. I do not know if it is still available, but I really recommend it.

The Terry Pratchett book, Nation I bought last year, intending to read it with my CCTV, but I realised that it is a book which needs reading at a good speed. Since October, I have had two readers who come once a week each and one of them, a retired English/Drama teacher, this week finished the book. I now realise that it would have been a good idea if I had made a recording as we went along!

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlo Ruiz Zafon - recently the Audio Book club choice, was very well read and we all thought it was a good story.

Try The Bible, A Biography by Karen Armstrong (on CD) which I am almost certain must be a synthetic voice, but you have to listen hard to consider that. It is very well produced I think.

ETA Timothy West reads the 'Flashman' series very well.
 
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For humour, if you can find them, the audio books of Patrick McManus are well worth listening too. The titles of his work are enough to make you smile.
 
For politcal humor/satire, try Boomsday by Christopher Buckley, read by Jeanane Garofalo. Especially if you find A Modest Proposal intriguing.
 
Aurelian said:
For politcal humor/satire, try Boomsday by Christopher Buckley, read by Jeanane Garofalo. Especially if you find A Modest Proposal intriguing.
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Having Gooogled it,it seem worthy of adding to the E-library.

A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole read by Barrett Whitener
Unabridged, from reviews it appears the paper way is the way to go for this book. The audio seems to fail to bring alive the humour

DEAD I WELL MAY BE by Adrian McKinty. UNABRIDGED read by Gerard Doyle. Is however recommended.

Case of the Abducted Asphalt -- A Gas Town Mystery: IN COLOR!
Author : Glenn Carlson Genre Humour.

Hear a sample on this link

Monday: Police Chief Van Dusen hires Vancouver BC PI Stanley Park to find the city's stolen roads in time to save the Grand Prix.
Tuesday: Vancouver BC radio detective Stanley Park is joined on the case by Inspector Angus MacBlow and busy-body traffic reporter LuLu Richmond.
Wednesday: An unexpected proclamation leads PI Park and posse to a Latvian bakery where things aren't what they seem!
Thursday: Park and pals are trapped ... will they Beat the Heat?!?
Friday: Stanley Park races to the finish line in the accelerated finale to the "Case of the Abducted Asphalt".

THE CASE OF THE ABDUCTED ASPHALT was produced in conjunction with WHAT You Say Productions. Listen for the ridiculous product placements in each "daily" 2 minute installment. Written by and featuring Glenn Carlson, Digby Christian, Scot Crisp, Terri Dien, John True
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Reluctant Metrosexual, The: Dispatches from an Almost Hip Life
Author : Peter Hyman Narrator : Peter Hyman. Genre- humour

Read by the author, an essayist and stand-up comedian, this collection of hilarious essays is about a single guy attempting to live on the right side of hip. If Peter Hyman is a metrosexual, a straight man with gay tastes, then he is one reluctantly, being loath to hitch himself to an au courant cultural trend, unless doing so would get him a movie deal or an actual girlfriend.
Peter Hymans musings, more pop cultural than philosophical, range from the heartfelt to the absurd, whether hes describing the scotch-soaked grief of a bad breakup or his unfortunate attempt at a mnage trois. With sophistication and enviable wit, The Reluctant Metrosexual chronicles the promiscuity and perils of modern manhood
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I love to listen to Neil Gaiman read, so I'd recommend his Coraline. He also has a couple of cd's of him reading some of his short stories. One of which is called Warning: Contains Language.
 
I listen to books on CD all the time, probably at least 200 over the last 5 or 6 years.

The one that I liked so much I listened twice was "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire (read by John McDonough). The next book in the series "Son of a Witch", read by Maguire, not so good ....

Charlie (been a while) Monoxide
 
Good more to add to the list.

I got mum hooked on listening to books, so much so it cost me a new MP3 player as she nabbed mine.
 
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