To which audiobook are you currently listening?

If you're a fan of hard-boiled mysteries, Will Patton does a bang-up job of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux and Billy Bob Holland series. However, avoid at all costs Joe Mantegna's rendition of the Spenser novels...as if they weren't pretentious enough already.

I'm listening to Simon Vance read Master and Commander...Top shelf.

I've got a really nice version of Slaughterhouse 5 read by Ethan Hawke.

I used to rent audiobooks from 'audiobooks.com', but they discontinued the service late last year. Are any of you guys renting audiobooks? If so, from where?

Convenience. I could go to the library and rent movies, too, but I subscribe to Netflix.

To be fair, if you're buying something from Clarke, whether it is book or adapted audio book, you can't really expect "conflict". The strength of the novel is Clarke's evocation of the incomprehensibly alien.

I was hoping you were going to say Ancient Sumerian Texts read by Rick Moranis.

To those Americans who are thinking about purchasing the domestic Jim Dale narrated Harry Potter audio books: do yourselves a big favour and try to locate the British ones featuring the god-like wit that is Stephen Fry.

There really is a galactic gulf between the two.

I've just spent the past five minutes looking through Amazon's "top rated" list of SF audiobooks to see if I can find you a decent alternative. I gave up after 7 pages of Trek, Rings, Star Wars and similar stuff drained the essence out of me. It seems that all the decent SF books either haven't been transcribed or are so hopelessly buried you'll quit searching long before you find them.

Sorry Frank.

Edit: My apologies, Ender's Game is available. At what quality is anyone's guess.

There's no harm in that. If you are interested in reading a good Clarke book, I suggest The City and the Stars. It's an achingly beautiful piece of far-future fiction.

I doubt it's available on audiobook though.

You really do have a great job, don't you Frank?

I just finished David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. It was great, and consequently I'm going to pick up Me Talk Pretty One Day the next time I go book buyin'.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy read by Douglas Adams himself.

hmm, i havent yet tried audio books but was wondering what the perks were in comparison to regular books beyond the obvious?

Nothing beats them for long rides. And if you have an excellent reader, it's always interesting to hear their interpretation.

Last few were _Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim_, _Don't Know Much About History_, _His Excellency: George Washington_, _On Bullshit_, and and now partway through _Blink_. _Blink_ is truly great, entertaining on an anecdotal level but also thought provoking. The author is quite engaging as a reader.

_On Bullshit_ was a horrible waste of more money than I care to think about... a one-hour cynical joke pointed straight at whoever bought it. I would be much less bent if I could get my ass to the library to rent these things rather than taking the Barnes & Noble easy way out.

It really deserves it's own thread, but I agree with you both. Malcolm Gladwell is a goddamn genius. After _Blink_, I read his entire archive of New Yorker articles, and I'm almost at the end of a two month wait to check out _The Tipping Point_ from my local library.

I'm glad to hear that he records his own audiobooks.

Flipping back and forth between Vance/O'Brian's Post Captain, and J.L.B.'s Crusader Cross.

I'm currently relistening to the only audiobook that's ever seemed preferable to reading the actual book -- The Kid Stays in the Picture by Robert Evans. If you've never heard it, and you have any interest in movies at all, you owe it to yourself to pick it up. It's on iTunes for like $16.

Does Evans narrate it?

You bet your ass he does.

I'm listening to a couple of Koontz books right now... yea 2... Velocity and Frankenstein Book 1

It generally takes me awhile to get through 'em because I will listen in the car which works ok or before going to bed, which doesn't usually fair well, because I wind up falling asleep, waking up in the middle, search for my spot, repeat, until I've listened to the same section of story two or three times.

2000x

Check out 2000x. A short Science Fiction story radio play series voiced by
Robin Williams, Richard Dreyfus and Harlan Ellison.

Disc One:
Blood by Frederic Brown
By His Bootstraps by Robert A. Heinlein
The Choice by Wayland Young
Disc Two:
RUR by Karel Kapek
Disc Three:
Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler
Merchant by Henry Slesar
Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Disc Four:
Shambleu C.L. Moore
And Miles to go before I sleep by William F. Nolan
Even The Queen by Connie Willis
Disc Five:
Revival Meeting by Dennie Placta
Pillar of Fire by Ray Bradbury
Sentience Today by Yuri Rasovsky
Disc 6:
Knock by Frederick Brown
Dear Pen Pal by A.E. Van Vogt
"Repent Harlequin" Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison

apart from that the best Audio Books ive had (for clarity and content) are "Oryx and Crake" by margaret Attwood. and "The Plot against America (Ron Silver nar)" by Phillip roth.

Ended up liking _Blink_ a lot, although the author seemed to be so in love with the great anecdotes that he never really wrapped up and brought the book back to how the whole 'thin slicing' thing could be applied and become useful to the reader. Oh well, maybe he figured you just have to be smart enough to be storing away all that as you read and there was no need to summarize for us dummies.

And now I'm on to _On The Road_, read by Matt Dillon. Totally great material, although I feel there's a small disconnect between the author's intensity and Dillon sounding like he's, frankly, a little dumb. This is another one of those audiobooks where I wish I had a paper version too, to dig out some of the fantastic quotes and ideas when I'm not in the car. A real HS Thompson vibe (without the insanity) to the whole thing, as an added bonus.

The 'classics' audiobook thing that Barnes & Noble has has been tempting me, but I doubt I'd be able to concentrate on the road much while trying to decipher _The Illiad_ or whatever. Already looking forward to whichever one is next (probably _Ready For Anything_ by David Allen, since I'm in the middle of trying to become a GTD ninja).

The Jacobi version of the Illiad is fantastic. I had a long commute to work a couple of winters ago, and I listened to it every day in the car. It was amazing--I wanted to stay in the parking lot and keep listening even after I got to the office.

I've been listening back and forth between Chuck Palahniuk's "Haunted" and Ian Rankin's "Dead Souls" this summer while I was traveling. Both pretty good.

The Constant Gardener, read by Le Carre. Great stuff, I may have to watch the movie.

Now America by the Daily Show cast

Just Finished Millions. I haven't seen the movie yet but the audiobook was incredible.

At last count, the age of Shakespeare was 51. How's that for dry?

Just finished The Traveler, moving on to Anansi Boys by Gaiman.

If you haven't checked out The Traveler yet, wait longer. It's not bad, just quite slow to go anywhere. (It's the first in a trilogy apparently, so take that into account)

I read the Traveler and actually really enjoyed it... I thought the info about privacy and the way the government and everyone can track you down is fascinating. I also enjoyed the spiritual aspect of the book and thought Maya was an interesting and kick a$$ herione. What didn't you enjoy?

Those both sound good, Frank. Have you read/heard the Traveler? I know Andrew wasn't the biggest fan, but I liked it and was wondering what you thought. Has some interesting parallels into real life events...check out this article, the author discusses these chips in the book as an invasion of personal privacy:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...w165817D09.DTL