Audible...and other audiobook delivery mechanisms that may or may not be available

[Anne Summers]

On 20/10/2021 at 04:19, Danster said:

Don't know if it's been mentioned before, bit Alan Partridge From the Oasthouse, a collection of podcasts is a freebie to subscribers. It's very funny.

Really hoping we will get a series 2 of this. Seems likely, as I've read it was a huge hit for Audible. And Partridge projects do tend to come in twos. (True for all of them except the movie, I think). 

[Vimster]

On 20/10/2021 at 08:55, davidcotton said:

Check out Big Finish and Graphic Audio. 

Tons of Big Finish audio dramas on Spotify BTW. 

[Vimster]

Having a punt on Bob Mortimer's autobiography read by the man himself. 

[Stopharage]

5 hours ago, Vimster said:

Having a punt on Bob Mortimer's autobiography read by the man himself. 

I've listened to that. It's wonderful. The chapter on the games he played as a kid was an absolute delight. Enjoy. 

[Timmo]

Yeah, I think the words national treasure are massively overused but Bob really is one and is just a wonderful human.

[disperse and recoagulate]

I've a few books I want to read but as I've not been on holiday in ages, I've just not. So I figured I'd put podcasts on hold for a little while and listen to an audiobook in the car instead. I only get like 15 mins a day but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. Can see me listening to more once I've finished this one. First one I've gone for is an Elliott Smith biography, Torment Saint. Widely panned by fans, mostly because he used a misheard lyric (torn mid sail) as the title and well apparently he backs up Jennifer Chiba who most of us want to believe did a murder, rather than believe our sweet sweet prince took his own life, but I'm really enjoying it.

Best part is, if I didn't know better, I'd say it was being read to me by Agent Doggett from the X-Files, aka T-1000, so it all sounds cool as fuck. I've never heard throwaway stories about 15 year olds recording songs onto a cassette in their mates garage sound so damn badass.

[Miner Willy]

I got seven pages through the black Friday deals before giving up. The only thing to tempt me was one of the original Dragonlance books, which I enjoyed as a teenager, but I left it as I suspected it was unlikely to have stood the test of time (and my ageing) very well. 

[Timmo]

£1 sale, today only, members only.

 

https://www.audible.co.uk/ep/sale

 

Some really good stuff there but also lots of mid-series stuff, which makes nio fucking sense.

[Miner Willy]

Piranesi is in the £3 sale. 

 

Actually, there's loads of good stuff this time. Including at least the first two of McCarthy's border trilogy, and The Men Who Stare at Goats, which is maybe my favourite ever Audible book. 

[Mike S]

I've just started listening to 'The Only Plane In The Sky' after seeing it recommended here (or maybe in the Kindle thread) and it seems that the regular book version would be a very poor comparison. Hearing the actual voices of all these people, along with contemporary cockpit/ATC/ etc recordings made on the day, must surely be the only way to experience this?

 

I do normally struggle with paying attention to audiobooks but this is entirely gripping and, although I'm only a short way in, already profoundly moving.

 

Thanks to those that have recommended it.

 

 

[Timmo]

A bunch of £1 and £3 books in a new sale, members only.

 

https://www.audible.co.uk/ep/sale

 

One of the £1 books is the 63 hour JG Ballard short story collection which  @ZOK always recommends.

 

There's also The Negotiator which has good reviews and is read by Steven Pacey, who could read a milk carton and be worth listening to.

 

Then there's a bunch of mid-series stuff which no-one will buy.

[ZOK]

Yes, an ultrabargain. Iirc it’s 60 hours long, and all amazing. Several top notch narrators too.

[Miner Willy]

The Code Breaker is in that sale too. I read it recently and thought it was excellent. 

[Stopharage]

YOU MUST BUY STRANGER THAN WE CAN IMAGINE. 

 

I'll reimburse you if you don't think it's fantastic.

[Miner Willy]

I listened to that recently too and really enjoyed it. 

[Laine]

Melmoth is well worth £1.

[Timmo]

I wanted to start Lord of the Rings and couldn't decide which version to get.

 

Turns out there's an unofficial version which has music from the movies and I'm enjoying it so much. It has had way more effort put into it than anything else I've listened to.

 

It's all on archive.org

 

https://archive.org/details/the-fellowship-of-the-ring_soundscape-by-phil-dragash

 

I could see some people not enjoying it as it can sometimes sound very busy, but I'm loving it.

[Miner Willy]

31 minutes ago, Timmo said:

I wanted to start Lord of the Rings and couldn't decide which version to get.

 

Turns out there's an unofficial version which has music from the movies and I'm enjoying it so much. It has had way more effort put into it than anything else I've listened to.

 

It's all on archive.org

 

https://archive.org/details/the-fellowship-of-the-ring_soundscape-by-phil-dragash

 

I could see some people not enjoying it as it can sometimes sound very busy, but I'm loving it.

 

That sounds interesting. I didn't like the movies very much, but nothing wrong with the music.

 

I actually listened to all three books recently and thought the Rob Inglis narration was a really good fit. It's quite old school, but felt right to me, as I basically spent my teens reading Tolkien on repeat. 

[ZOK]

To give myself a brief John Le Carré break I took a quick listen to some of the Audible freebies, and there’s a great dramatic read of Around the World in 80 Days with Toby Jones as Phileas Fogg.

[Padster]

4 hours ago, Timmo said:

I wanted to start Lord of the Rings and couldn't decide which version to get.

 

Turns out there's an unofficial version which has music from the movies and I'm enjoying it so much. It has had way more effort put into it than anything else I've listened to.

 

It's all on archive.org

 

https://archive.org/details/the-fellowship-of-the-ring_soundscape-by-phil-dragash

 

I could see some people not enjoying it as it can sometimes sound very busy, but I'm loving it.

The 1980s BBC radio adaptation is fantastic. 

[Wiper]

On 11/02/2022 at 23:40, Padster said:

The 1980s BBC radio adaptation is fantastic. 

 

Yeah, it's a lovely, thoughful adaptation, with bonus points for the fact that it has a young Ian Holm voicing Frodo!

 

In other classic fantasy news, Michael Moorcock's Elric is finally on Audible. Haven't had a chance to listen yet, but as I'm right in the middle of rereading the Von Bek collection, I've picked it up for when I'm done.

[ZOK]

Nice, I’ll get on those myself once I’m done with Le Carré!

[Miner Willy]

Some good stuff if you can be bothered to sift through the usual piles of dross in today's £3 sale.

 

Would highly recommend The Windrush Betrayal.

[ZOK]

I’m listening to another Audible freebie at the moment: Arabian Nights: Volume 1 by Marty Ross, narrated by Zahra Ahmadi, Raghad Chaar, Omid Djalili, Walles Hamonde, Mandana Jones, Adam Sina.

 

This is superb, and anyone who likes full cast recordings should be all over it.

 

 

[Stopharage]

Whitehouse and Mortimer’s Gone Fishing is £1.99 today. It’s life-affirming and wonderful; a much needed diversion from reality. 

[SozzlyJoe]

Can I just recommend Samuel L Jackson's reading of a Rage in Harlem? It's just as amazing a performance as you imagine it's going to be, plus it's a fantastic story, a Harlem twist on the noir detective genre (except the detective is a cross-dressing junkie nun), and it builds to a most amazing punchline in the final chapter.

 

[ZOK]

If you like the classic Russian novelists (and you should), there are some great narrations in their subscribers freebies selection. Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler, Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata, Gogol’s Dead Souls and a collection of shorts with The Overcoat in all get cracking reads.

 

Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time is bizarrely allocated to a narrator who seems to be reading in English for the first time ever, after having been taught to speak by Alexa, but it kind of adds to the nihilist flavour so I give it a pass anyway. It’s pretty much the best novel ever written apart from One Hundred Years of Solitude, so even the robovoice can’t crush it.

[the_debaser]

One hundred years of solitude is incredible. You are better off reading it than going the audible route though, as the narrator is awful. 

[Danster]

Schismatrix is a good listen, decent narrator. Listening to the Swarm after watching the Love Death and Robots short was interesting. Much love to the Spider Rose short though, I love that story.

[HarryBizzle]

I've just renewed my mobile contract and have got 3 months of audible for free. Can anyone recommend some good audio books? I like sci-fi but am open to anything. I don't read as widely as I should, unfortunately.

 

I was thinking about Dune Messiah, having only read the first, or possibly Foundation, having never read any of them, but am open to pretty much any genre. I don't listen to many audiobooks and am not sure of how to know whether the narration is decent or not, which feels like an added layer of complexity when deciding on a book.