As audiobooks become more and more popular, I thought it'd be interesting to share what we're listening to and how we liked it.

This thread will be the place to discuss particular books and readers. See the Audiobook Basics sticky to find or recommend resources for acquiring Audiobooks.

When posting, please use the following format.

Title :
Author:
Reader:
Genre:
Warnings:(if applicable)
Links: (to sites where the book may be purchased, rented, ect. if you have them)

Then include your own review or (non-spoilerish) summary. If using reviews/summaries from other sources, please give credit. If linking to a page that contains spoilers, please warn.

Tell us if you liked/ disliked this book. Did you like/dislike the story itself or this reader's interpretation in particular? Would you recommend it to others?

If you're primarily recommending a particular reader include his/her name and several titles he/she has read as well as why you like this person's style.

I'll start by sharing the book I just finished...

Title: The Hobbit
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Reader: Rob Inglis
Genre: Fantasy
Links: none. I checked out the unabridged CD version from my local public libarary.

All sorts of information (and spoilers) on The Hobbit can be found at bookrags.com.

Here is an interview with Mr. Inglis concerning the recording of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.


For anyone who's unfamiliar, this book precedes The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It focuses on the adventures and misadventures of the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, as he travels with Gandalf and a group of dwarves to re-claim a stolen treasure from the dragon Smaug. It is full of action and adventure, but has a lighter feel than the LOTR books.

I have read the book several times and enjoyed the audiobook very much. I thought Mr. Inglis did an excellent job voicing the different characters and the story has MANY characters to voice. I particularly liked his Ganalf and Gollum. I also enjoyed his versions of the many songs sung throughout the book.

I would recommend this book, both written and audio versions, to anyone old enough to read this review.

Now go out and read, I mean listen, and let the discussion begin.

Title: Melting Stones
Author: Tamora Pierce
Reader: Grace Kelly (narrator) and the Full Cast Audio Family
Genre: Fantasy
Links: Amazon and Chapters

Review from Amazon.com: Book Description

An audiobook first! New York Times bestselling author Tamora Pierce has written the new novel in her popular Circle of Magic universe to go directly to audio--preceding the print version by at least a year.

Residents on one of the islands south of Emelan have sent a call for help to Winding Circle temple: Their plants and trees and the animals that live around them are mysteriously dying. From Winding Circle come two familiar figures: prickly green mage Rosethorn, whose plant magic will help her decipher what's ailing the plant life, and Briar's former student, the stone mage Evvy. With them comes the eager, nervous Dedicate Initiate Myrrhflower and Luvo, a being best described as a walking, intelligent rock. All are pulled into the island's mystery when Evvy is caught up by the wild spirits loose in an immense bubble of molten rock. Can they evacuate the island in time--or will they try to shift a volcano?

Personally I really enjoyed the book though it was weird hearing it before reading it. I would recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed the circle of magic series.

That sounds like something I'd really enjoy, Missy. I've not read (or listened to) any of that series. It's interesting to see how technology changes the way authors can reach their audience.

I was thinking that I might enjoy hearing the Hobbit as I could never get past the first chapter because I got so bored with the description. Once things die down in relation to school and life I may go to my library and see if they have a copy. If they don't there is also a place in the city that rents audio books out so I may ask there.

In regards to the Melting Stones, Tamora Pierce mentioned that she enjoyed doing the audio book before the written because that meant that she could change the book so that it sounded right in the audio which is something that can't be done when the book had already been published as they people recording must stay true to the book.

If you can wait I'll bring my copy to Dallas and you can ship it back to me when you're done with it.

Title: The Autumn Castle
Author: Kim Wilkins
Reader: Richard Aspel
Genre: Fantasy
Warnings:(if applicable) Mild sex scenes, mild language
Links: I borrowed this one from the library, but heres a site anyway:

www.simplyaudiobooks.c...tle/29191/

And the review from the site:

From the dazzling and Aurealis Award-winning author of Angel of Ruin, The Resurrectionists and The Infernal.

Berlin in autumn: Christine Starlight lives in an artists’ colony with her lover Jude, whose patience and beauty have eased her battle with chronic pain. But Christine begins to be haunted by childhood recollections of a little girl’s disappearance and the flapping of a blackbird’s wings. Then her world is rocked by the return of a childhood friend …

Mayfridh rules over a land where a wolf is the queen’s counsellor, fate turns on the fall of an autumn leaf and mortals feel no pain. As Christine becomes addicted to Mayfridh's world, so Mayfridh grows addicted to Christine's, falling dangerously in love with Jude.

I love Kim Wilkins: her fantasy novels are always so descriptive and realistic, given that the majority of them are set in our world and in another, more fantastical one. Most of them have a dark twist. This one is one of 3 novels called the Europa Suite, where Kim uses the mythologies of Ancient Europe in her stories. My favourite one is Giants of the Frost, but this one is also a good read - or listen, if you prefer

I have Tess of the D'urbevilles on CD, but I haven't listed to it yet. I found it an op shop once. If I do ever listen to it, I will post a review here.

But one that I have listened to is:

Title : The Adventures of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny
Author: Beatrix Potter
Reader: Harry Geelen is the narrator, and other people do the voices.
Language: Dutch
Translator: (can't figure it out...)
Genre: children's
Warnings: naughty bunnyrabbits in abundance!
Links: www.peterrabbit.com/

On the CD are the stories of Peter Rabbit and of Benjamin Bunny, told in Dutch! There's cute music on it too, before the story starts. I love listening to Dutch being spoken by people with Dutch accents!

You can find out all sorts of fascinating things about Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter and more at the website above. And, they even have a Peter Rabbit desktop calender to download, but it may be last year's...

The story, which was originally written in English, goes something like this: Peter Rabbit's mother lets Peter and his siblings out into the meadow, so they can have some grass. Peter Rabbit, being a bunny with a mind of his own, goes into the farmer's vegetable patch, which his mother has forbidden, and manages to lose his coat and shoes in there. He knows he'll be in trouble if he doesn't get them back, so then the real adventure begins...

I haven't listened to the Benjamin Bunny story yet, but I have read it before, and it's very cute.

I ran across a site today that has some audiobooks for free. It's Gutenberg.org. I haven't looked around too much, but they do have Jane Austen's books, e.g. you can download Emma here You just need to scroll down to the download section.

I haven't looked at the specifics, but I thought it might interest you guys.

Ooh, yes, I've seen that site before. It's good! It's got an entire text copy of Ulysses on it. Though, reading 800 or so pages online could be a bit hard on the eyes...

*does Jedi mind trick* This is not a spam post.

Nope Mina, not a Spam Post. Telling us the opinion of a site recommended is never spam. One person telling you something is good is good, but could just be their opinion or preference. When more than one person tells you it’s good, it probably is.

I listened to one of Jane Austen’s books on Gutenberg a couple of evening ago. The reader was a bit bland, in my opinion, and I’m not sure I could listen to her for hours on end. It was only one though and I don’t know if they used the same reader for each book.

My mind trick worked!

No, in all seriousness, thanks Canute. Sometimes I do wonder what counts as Spam.

I guess it would be great if I added that my literature lecturer at uni recommended that website last year! So there, it has academic approval.

Yes, I know, it can be a bit ambiguous at times. Usually one-liners are discouraged, but we often let posters who otherwise have a good reputation in the actual discussion threads slide a bit when it comes to the more relaxed forums like The Burrow or Immeritus Chat. You can’t be serious all the time. It’s more of the serial spammers we crack down on. I’ve seen whole boards full of comments like “I really like James” or “Harry is HOT” It gets a little boring when that’s all there is to read and say. That’s what we’re trying to prevent really. We don’t want people to feel like they can’t joke around with each other and have fun. That’s allowed, as long as the whole thread doesn’t turn into a private joke.

Having said that, even if you are backing up someone’s opinion, most of the time it’s better to say why you like or dislike something. It gives the people who read it even more information that they can use, and says that it’s not just your opinion.

Does that help?

It does, thank you!

Thanks for the link Canute! I'm about to go there and *hopefully* find a book Josh is currently listening to at school, Number the Stars. I've listened to several books since starting this and will try to get back in here to post links and reviews before too much longer.

So, I'm not certain how many books I've listened to since starting this thread, but I obviously haven't posted a bit about them here. Bad, bad Dexy.

Title: The Call of the Wild
Author: Jack London
Narrator: Garrick Hagon
Genre: fiction -- (realistic adventure)
Warnings: Characgter deaths and life/death situations

Summary is in the link.


Title: White Fang
Author: Jack London
Narrator: Garrick Hagon
Genre: fiction (realistic adventure)
Warnings: Character deaths and life/death situations


I checked both of these out from my local library a long while back. While hunting up links for this post I discovered free downloads, but narrators may be different.

I enjoyed listening to these, largely because I want to see Alaska and am a dog/wolf lover. I confess I think I may have zoned out on some of the more highly descriptive passages and could see why American kids forced to read these novels might not find them terribly enjoyable. I'd suggest anyone required to read these, try listening to them as well if they find the reading something that's not keeping their interest.

ETA: The narrator did an excellent job with the different voices, though there are relatively few human characters. In the stories themselves, I especially like getting into the thought processes of canines. Having owned a really smart dog myself, I found the animals behaviors very believable.
I also think Call of the Wild touched the hermit in me that would be fine with living in a shack in the middle of nowhere.

I agree with you about keeping interest better if you're listening Dex. It's hard to sit still and read something that's not all that interesting, but if you can listen to it while you're doing something else, it makes it a lot easier to stick with it. I find this especially true when I don't have much time and know there are things I should be doing besides reading.

One such book was

Title: Anna Karenina
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Narrator: Davina Porter
Warnings: Mention of extra marital affairs, suicide

Like Dex, the summary is behind the link and if you want to listen to me babble on about it, you can visit my book blog here. I bought the book from Audible.com and was really pleased with the narrator. It's 37 hours from start to finish, so the narrator is really important. She had a good, pleasant voice which made it easy to listen, her characters were definable, but not overdone and she read at a good pace without being too quick. I also quite liked the story, which surprised me because I've had difficulty with Russian authors up until now. This was a much lighter story than many that I'd tried and that's what made the difference. I can recommend it to just about anyone who likes a good story with a little bit of meat behind it.