I couldn't finish and I was marvelously bored about three chapters in; I don't think it is the novel so much as the delivery. A s.l.o.w. dramatic voice that elegantly enunciates each word. I wasn't engaging and my mind was bored and jumping ahead.
So help me pick something!
I've made a list of a few that have caught my eye. Not only will this be good music for walking, but also for stitching. I can knit and watch a movie, but embroidery is best accomplished with both eyes on the stitching!
Here are my choices:
Game of Thrones: A Song of Fire and Ice, Book I by George R. R. Martin
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
In the Woods by Tana French
Voices of Poetry Volume 1
Richard III by William Shakespeare
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
I'm trusting you guys! Leave a comment and vote for which you think I should
Thanks for the help and feel free to suggest other audiobooks.
6 comments:
The only one of those i've listened to is In the Woods, which was okay but not fabulous.
Outside your list, I have a couple suggestions. 1) The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, read by Alan Rickman. Oooh... 2) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, read by Jeremy Irons - probably the best one I've ever listened to. 3) The Host by Stephenie Meyer, read by Kate Reading. 4) The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, read by Scott Brick. 5) Howl's MOving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, read by Jenny Sterlin. 6) Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, read by Martin Jarvis.
Are you listening on an ipod touch or iphone? If so, there's a button on the play screen that says 1x. You can click this to make it go at 2x speed, which really takes care of that slow enunciation. There are very few books that I listen to on regular speed anymore. The double speed sounds a bit peculiar when you first hear it, but you get used to it quickly, and it makes the audiobooks so much more pleasant.
Don't do game of thrones in your ear. I've read them, but I can't really imagine the listening. There are several divergent and convergent plot lines and I think it would get confusing trying to follow. I didn't make it through Life of Pi on audio. I read the Uglies and I imagine it would translate well to audio. And that's about all I know.
Honestly, what I do is find a good narrator and go from there. I've been reading/listening to the James Bond books narrated by Simon Vance, and I'd recommend anything by him.
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell is awesome, but don't listen if you aren't big on obscenities. It's really funny, though. Robert Petkoff narrates, and he is FABULOUS. I kind of have a crush on him just because of his voice.
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz - also great.
For me, narrator is key, and if I don't like the voice, I just won't keep listening.
Well your first mistake is downloading Phillippa Gregory! … Sorry, that woman got on my bad side a long time ago. *huff*
Terry Pratchett is wicked awesome, especially when read by Stephen Briggs. I honestly can't imagine reading his books any other way. Start with Nation and if it trips your trigger, move on to the Tiffany Aching books. Sarcastic and witty young witch should make the walk very pleasant. hee hee
If you ever want trashy historical fiction, try Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Davina Porter's reading makes the book.
I agree with Amanda on Lolita. Jeremy Irons…. *gah*
READY PLAYER ONE completely kicks ass. I'll eat my copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone if you don't love it. SERIOUSLY. I may be slightly fanatical about that one.
Good luck! Great books make walks much easier to do!
I love Game of Thrones and I have done one of the volumes on audio, but I had already read the book and seen the first season on TV, so I was familiar with the characters. If you don't know the story it might be confusing, though the reader is pretty good. The only others on your list that I've read were Life of Pi and In the Woods, neither of which really impressed me very much.
I second Amanda's suggestion of Howl's Moving Castle, which is really good, especially on audio, and I love, love, love Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. The audio is narrated by Lenny Henry who is WONDERFUL. I think I love the audio even more than the book.
If you like classics the Jane Austen audios on Naxos are fabulous, mostly narrated by Juliet Stevenson (she played Mrs. Elton in the Emma movie); also a lot of the Charles Dickens on Naxos is good too. And Martin Jarvis is just great -- I haven't read Good Omens but the combination of Neil Gaiman and Martin Jarvis is very tempting.
Definitely Ready Player One! It was fantastic on audio! This was a book That was way out of my comfort zone and I loved it!
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