Uhm... According to Audible, I've paid for 259 audiobooks. There was maybe 6 months when I wasn't downloading, but that's 2 per month since August 2007. Not gonna lie. I've torrented more. But hey. That's more than $1500 worth of my money going to authors and publishers via Amazon. And that doesn't include the $4.95 sales. So I guess what I"m saying is asking me for "audiobooks" is kind of like asking me for "books." There are a lot. Gimme a genre or a length or an interest or something 'cuz, well, the scope is in need of narrowing.
I don't have a genre per se, but can we play a bit of a random association/see what comes from the ether? What audiobook made a long drive just completely melt away? Like holy shit, we're in Rhode Island already!? Is there one that comes to mind? Because I have a 16 hour drive to Michigan coming up soon. Alone. And I'm looking for a way to make that shorter. Also, are we all assuming that Audible is the best? Are there any alternatives? Checking the price, hmm, 15 a month for a free book. Maybz.
You can librivox, you can torrent, you can get them from the library, you can do lotsa stuff. I do Audible because it's convenient. Books that go really quickly and take a long time: - Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - Th1rt33n by Richard K Morgan - Anything by Michael Lewis (anything) - Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (I'll bet anything by Ken Follett) - The Martian by Andy Weir - Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (SKIP THE OTHER BOOKS IN THE TRILOGY I MEAN IT) - Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely - Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi - Worm by Mark Bowden - The Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson That'll get you started.
These are gems. Ship Breaker is one of my recent favs. But couldn't be a fan of the zombie one.
Big fan of Ken Follet.
Guess I have to start The Martian ASAP as I have heard a lot of good things. Recently got done with Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. I'm new to the topic and it was just enough for me to go research a bit more. Amazing book. I expected to see On Aggression on that list too. And... I can see you talk about librivox. I personally hate that site. Specifically their library. It has never lead me to the ones I want ever. Maybe I'd learn to love it some time soon. I'm not losing hope on librivox but it's just not my cup of tea. Speaking of torrents, are you talking about private or public. Just wondering, which private trackers(good for audiobooks) should I look for while we are talking audiobooks? Already know of Myanonamouse.
I did Windup Girl, Ship Breaker and Drowned Cities. Windup Girl was enough to make me rave. Drowned Cities was enough to make me stop. I read On Aggression 15 years ago. I haven't revisited it as an audiobook. It was certainly formative, especially as I was breeding cichlids (well, Angel Fish) at the time. I've never used it. yakov mentioned it and he seems clever. Me? I mostly use Audible or I crack stuff down to M4As and play them in iTunes. Or I did before Android. I'll have to figure something out but hey - you saw my backlog. I only do private. What.cd currently returns 11,000 hits for audiobooks; another private tracker whose name I'm not allowed to mention lists a thousand more. You probably know more than I do; when you're committing to spending $240/year on audiobooks and you don't have a commute, you don't really need to go much deeper.Ship Breaker is one of my recent favs. But couldn't be a fan of the zombie one
I expected to see On Aggression on that list too.
I can see you talk about librivox. I personally hate that site. Specifically their library.
Speaking of torrents, are you talking about private or public.
Oops, I have no opinion on librivox one way or another. I found a book through Podcast Addict and librivox was just where it was hosted.yakov mentioned [librivox]
Man, I'm not a fan of the narrator for Windup Girl / the sprawl trilogy. I got less than a chapter in before deciding that I didn't want to be put to sleep by a monotone voice again. You're not the first person I've heard to recommend the book, either :( Text-to-speech really needs to get to the point that you can point an arbitrary computer voice at a any book and get an awesome audio out...I did Windup Girl, Ship Breaker and Drowned Cities. Windup Girl was enough to make me rave. Drowned Cities was enough to make me stop.
I read Windup Girl. Ship breaker I did audio and you're right, he sucks. There are worse, though. I strongly disagree about text-to-speech. A decent narrator is a thing of beauty. Roy Dotrice's reading of Game of Thrones is sublime, and the Hunger Games are read by Carolyn McCormick, who I'm sure has smaller hair these days: Text to speech will never get there. The last financial book I listened to had a narrator who didn't know how to pronounce "arbitrage." If humans can't even pull it off, robots will always be infuriating. And I own a professional text-to-speech engine. The handwork necessary to make things passable is pure drudgery.
It'd be nice to have an awesome narrator for any book, not just the lucky ones. One can dream though... And hey, there are some phenomenal vocaloids out there in the world of music: I have no depth to my knowledge of how much twiddling it takes to produce even those 8 minutes, though.
I'll bet Vocaloid is less of a pain in the ass when you know Japanese. Yamaha had the Vocaloid team at NAMM. Not last year, but the year before. They were... otaku. They also showed how you could construct a song in like no time at all... in that same way that Avid demonstrates you can make a rap track in Pro Tools that if you haven't done it 8 times a day for 5 months would actually take you two afternoons. As it is even the Japanese, who have pushed a couple Vocaloid tracks to the top of the charts, still use voice actors for game and movie talent. Vocaloid is a thing but it's not going to replace human speech any time soon.
If I may hijack this post...I've recently begun listening and reading more books. Got one spare credit on Audible and a roadtrip coming up tomorrow. Do you have a good non-fiction recommendation for me? Preferably a book that is challenging in ideas (I'd use the word 'mind-blowing' but popsci has abused it too much). Note: my history knowledge is limited.