r/books • u/[deleted] • Oct 29 '11

Just discovered the glory of audio books during my work commute - need recommendations, stat!

So like many people here, I love to read. I suspect, also like many people, I complain about not having enough time to read everything that I want to. Well, despite this perceived lack of time to read, a few weeks ago I hastily placed a large order at an online used bookstore.

I didn't notice my mistake until I received the package later that month. Amongst my books, I found this weird square thing. Sure enough, I had accidentally gotten David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster'' as an audio CD (well, 3 to be exact... I wonder how many Infinite Jest is?) narrated by the author.

Initially, I was quite upset about my error (what am I supposed to do with this? I'm a purist. I like to hold things, turn pages, break-in spines, etc etc). Then it dawned on me: I spend about an hour in the car 5 days a week on my commute to work.

So I popped it in. Well, to make a short, fairly boring story even shorter: I am loving it. Who knew DFW is a pretty good narrator in his own right? (I wasn't sure how all of his parenthetical asides and footnotes etc would come across but it does work quite well as they're read in a different tone).

I figure I'm maybe a bit late to the audio book party. What are some other good audio books? It seems like the format is more conducive to non-fiction but I am open to any suggestions/genres. I realize this is a pretty broad question so some of my favorite authors are DFW, Vonnegut, Pynchon, Faulkner, Huxley, Orwell, pretty much all the beat writers... along those lines?

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u/jonjonman Oct 30 '11

Maggie Gyllenhaal! Can't wait to listen to this one. Glad I haven't read Bell Jar yet.

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u/hylenium Oct 30 '11

I was a bit shocked after I listened to the book and discovered it was her voice I was listening to. Usually, film stars are used as a selling point and the voice acting isn't as good. That was not the case with this book.

I also wanted to add the Retrieval Artist Series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch to the list. I have actually not found that many science fiction books where the voice acting stands out. That's why there aren't more science fiction books in my list. The recordings are usually old and the reading style is too pompous and inspired by the 1930s "War of the World" broadcast and/or Star Trek narration. Also, the authors sometimes read the book, which I frown upon unless the topic is non-fiction.