Any audiobooks that are also just great *books*?
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Anonymous
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With my mental energy still at an all-time low post-pandemic, I have been having a hell of a time actually reading these last years. Into the breach has come audiobooks and podcasts, but I tend to favor more "listen-able" fare like memoirs, light non-fiction, journalism. Which are fun! But it makes me sad that I am missing out on actual literature, e.g. when was the last time I read anything on the Booker Prize or Nat'l Book award shortlists?
Do folks have any recommendations for great, engaging audiobooks that are also great books? Doesn't have to be highbrow (though equally good if it is), just something that really blew you away... but also didn't leave you lost & confused after 20 mins. (E.g. I'm thinking that say, Finnegans Wake or 100 Years of Solitude with 55 characters with the same 3 names, while classics, wouldn't really meet the "Can I follow this while walking to the metro" test...) |
Anonymous
| I just listened to The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris. It was excellent. |
Anonymous
| Happy Place by Emily Henry |
Anonymous
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The Winds of War and the sequel War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk were both great on audio.
I just finished Bonfires of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe and loved it. |
Anonymous
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Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell Cloud Cuckoo Land AND All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin All of these have gorgeous writing and wonderful narrators! |
Anonymous
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I just listened to Gun, Germs, Steel which is nonfiction but absolutely excellent and won a Pulitzer.
However following for some fiction suggestions; I’ve found my audiobook taste is weirdly different than my physical book taste and am interested in trying out some fiction there. |
Anonymous
| I don’t understand this question. Try any book you would consider a “great book” on audio and see how it goes. |
Anonymous
| I've read and listened to Leigh Bardugo's Ninth Gate. Both are great! |
Anonymous
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^Ninth House
mustn't have made the impressions I thought! |
Anonymous
This is a great rec! I mostly listen to non-fiction or memoirs on audio, because I find I have a harder time sitting down and picking those up, but I do enjoy them. When I'm reading a physical book I almost always want a novel. I think it's because I got used to listening to podcasts etc and that translates well into non-fiction long form things. OP, I really liked The Stranger in the Woods on audio. It's a biography, but hearing the voice actor really made the book engaging. |
Anonymous
| For more literary choices, I thought "The Overstory" was pretty good as an audio book. As was "The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois." |
Anonymous
I understand the question. OP doesn't want books that "take awhile to get into" and wants something that will grab them from the start. Audio books aren't the exact same experience as reading. I listen while I do chores or go for a walk, and I find it actually encourages me to do MORE chores, because I am so entertained while I am scrubbing the marks off the walls or dusting the baseboards, I do random cleaning tasks I would normally dread. |
Anonymous
The road (to the metro) is littered with my failures to actually listen all the way through several audiobooks that turned out to be great (dense/ difficult/ slow) reads, fiction and non-fiction. Not every work translates to audio. |
Anonymous
| The audiobook of Pachinko was good. I liked the reader. |
Anonymous
| I am a huge audiobook fan. Sometimes I need to re-listen to the first few chapters, especially with unfamiliar or names that sound similar. A good story is still a good story |