Any audiobooks that are also just great *books*?

[Anonymous]

Daisy Jones and the Six is an AMAZING audiobook!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand this question. Try any book you would consider a “great book” on audio and see how it goes.

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.

True, but OP mentioned that she has listened to good audiobooks, but wants literature and they mentioned the booker prize and national book award. Being a good audiobook is not enough.

I can recommend plenty of excellent audiobooks but not many that are also literary (due to my lowbrow interests, not because they don’t exist). However, I liked listening to the audiobook of Caste and Overstory. My favorite audiobook (not “literature” but a great book) is Project Hail Mary.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a huge audiobook fan, but I loved rereading all of Jane Austen's books through audio. I felt like I could tell she wrote them to be read out loud in a drawing room.

[Anonymous]

I get daily emails from Chirp with audio book deals that are typically $1.99-4.99 which is much cheaper than Audible. If there is a book that sounds interesting I look for it on Amazon, read reviews, read an excerpt, and listen to a sample. Then I know if I want to give it a try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand this question. Try any book you would consider a “great book” on audio and see how it goes.

+1

[Anonymous]

These are great books, with wonderful narration:
Lessons in Chemistry
Rules of Civility
Dutch House (even though I hate Tom Hanks)
To Kill a mockingbird (read by sissy spacek)

[Anonymous]

The Inheritance of Loss
Any book by David Sedaris

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand this question. Try any book you would consider a “great book” on audio and see how it goes.

Have you never listened to an audiobook? A bad narrator can tank a book, so just because something is a great book doesn't mean it will translate well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've read and listened to Leigh Bardugo's Ninth Gate. Both are great!

I listened to that and really enjoyed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daisy Jones and the Six is an AMAZING audiobook!

Someone I know told me I had to read this one because of the way it was done, like the format? Anyway, I've gone back and forth on it ever since and never decided which way to do it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand this question. Try any book you would consider a “great book” on audio and see how it goes.

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.

True, but OP mentioned that she has listened to good audiobooks, but wants literature and they mentioned the booker prize and national book award. Being a good audiobook is not enough.

I can recommend plenty of excellent audiobooks but not many that are also literary (due to my lowbrow interests, not because they don’t exist). However, I liked listening to the audiobook of Caste and Overstory. My favorite audiobook (not “literature” but a great book) is Project Hail Mary.

Yes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Inheritance of Loss
Any book by David Sedaris

His books are great either way, but listening to him bring his stories to life is priceless. I generally only listen to memoirs now, I don't read them anymore. Hearing the author's voice really adds another layer to the story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand this question. Try any book you would consider a “great book” on audio and see how it goes.

Have you never listened to an audiobook? A bad narrator can tank a book, so just because something is a great book doesn't mean it will translate well.

1+, absolutely this. I have several books I still want to "read" in my Audible library--How to Do Nothing (Jenny Odell), The Color of Law (Rothstein)--but I stopped midway through because I just can't with the narrator (second book is more just a dull narration, first is unlistenable for me).

I almost always prefer the author over even the most polished narrator. I realize the job must be a heavy lift but Amazon should nudge (almost) all authors to read their own work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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!

+1 for all the light we cannot see. So good.

The ocean at the end of the lane by Neil Gaiman

The water dancer by Ta-Nehesi Coates

I just listened to a 21 hour version of Great Expectations by Dickens and really enjoyed it!

I second a PP that said this isn’t a big deal. I’ve listened to a few audiobooks that I probably would have enjoyed more as books. But on the other hand, it’ll probably be another decade before I read a book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These are great books, with wonderful narration:
Lessons in Chemistry
Rules of Civility
Dutch House (even though I hate Tom Hanks)
To Kill a mockingbird (read by sissy spacek)

I also liked Dutch House

Reese Witherspoon’s narration of go set a watchman was good, but I’m from the south so maybe more inclined to that southern drawl.

Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes were watching god narrated by Ruby Dee might be my favorite.

I actually really enjoyed the audiobook of Ronald Dahl’s Charlie and the chocolate factory. So fun! Pretty sure there’s only one version of that.

Op if you find a narrator you like you can research what else they’ve done, though it does sometimes throw me off to listen to the same narrator back to back with different books.

Also, not sure where you live but the DC library has a good selection of audiobooks. So if you’re not hooked in the first chapter or 2 you can just return it. I found audible to be really expensive.