Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 5,559,185
  • Total Topics: 106,348
  • Online Today: 741
  • Online Ever: 3,311
  • (July 08, 2021, 03:14:41 AM)
Users Online
Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 05:52:27 AM

Login with username, password and session length

nonfiction audiobooks

Started by hewantstolurkatad, November 13, 2016, 01:23:36 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

hewantstolurkatad

Seeing as I routinely listen to 6 hour long podcasts (#lapsed), I feel like I may as well move into audiobooks too. Fiction is a nightmare to follow in audiobook form for me so I only really want nonfiction suggestions.



Got that steve jobs biography and nixonland lined up, anyone got any suggestions?

Steven


Patman

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, One Man Against The World (also about Nixon), The Billion Dollar Spy, Looming Tower.

marquis_de_sad

I can't really listen to audiobooks. I don't know why, something about the tone of voice people adopt when they read that makes me tune out. Personally, I prefer to listen to people discussing their work unscripted. They're volunteer and so vary in quality, but the New Books Network is good for this sort of thing. Each podcast has a theme — so New Books in History, New Books in Economics, New Books in Buddhist Studies etc etc — and a host that specialises in the area. It's funny, when everyone was making fun of Tai Lopez "reading" a book a day for nawledge, the one thing I quietly agreed with him on is that you can listen to interviews of authors talking about their books and get a lot out of it.

Another thing in a similar vein is Ken Hollings' show on Resonance, Welcome to Mars. It's all about the weird world of scientific fantasies of the 50s, and while there's a (very good) book out, the radio programme is him, not quite speaking off the top of his head, but improvising over notes. It's great.

Black_Bart

If you can stick Paxo's voice his The Political Animal is worth a listen.

Camp Tramp

Fiasco by Thomas Ricks is good.

I can also recommend The Longest Winter by David Halbersturm, he had a good feel for the people involved in the Korean conflict and accurately describes their characters, I grew to really respect some of the major players and loathe overs.

studpuppet

Who On Earth Is Tom Baker? - possibly the best audiobook I've ever listened to. PM if you're having trouble finding it online.

hewantstolurkatad

Does the Tom Baker one have any value for someone who hates Doctor Who? I like what I know about Baker as a character, but Doctor Who can get t'fuck.


Cheers for the suggestions all!
Nixonland is going bloody well so far (listened to about a sixth of it today alone).

ZoyzaSorris

Audiobooks got me through a long stint of dull freelance work so i have listened to a lot. I agree that i get on much better with non fiction than fiction, which may be because im usually doing something else so if you miss a bit its not quite so important.

If you can handle dawkins his are always good i think.

Eric schlossers command and control was a good long listen with interminable details about the inner workings of 1980s missile silos.

Silk roads was an exotically intriguing wander through the history of the world around its true long term centre of gravity, western and central asia.

Sapiens was good but much preferred the first half to the second.

An astronauts guide to life on earth by chris hadfield was an interesting insight on space life.

Overall i quite like my audiobooks slightly more populist and easy to digest than i might otherwise read, as its easier to dip in and out.
Ill have a look through my audible account and see what else pops up.
I, partridge isnt non-fiction but still an obvs must listen. Best 6 hours created by humanity.

If you havent done the hardcore history podcasts they are bordering on audiobook length and depth.

DrGreggles

Absolute Pandemonium by Brian Blessed (obviously read by the great man himself) is the reason why the audiobook exists.

hewantstolurkatad

Just to give everyone closure here, I discovered Robert Caro's gigantic biographies of Robert Moses and LBJ are available as audiobooks so that'll be the next two years of audiobook listening sorted.

Shaky

Quote from: DrGreggles on November 15, 2016, 08:12:39 AM
Absolute Pandemonium by Brian Blessed (obviously read by the great man himself) is the reason why the audiobook exists.

Be careful not to listen to this through headphones, though.

studpuppet

Quote from: hewantstolurkatad on November 15, 2016, 04:48:12 AM
Does the Tom Baker one have any value for someone who hates Doctor Who? I like what I know about Baker as a character, but Doctor Who can get t'fuck.

I never replied to this did I? Yes it does have value - the Dr Who stuff takes up very little time, compared to his time as a monk, for example.

phantom_power

The two Alan Partridge books

Anything by Jon Ronson

Ptolemy Ptarmigan

Best audiobook I heard this year was Caitlin Doughty's "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", read by the author.  Her account of working at the crematorium she joined when she was 23, and her reflections on death.

Milverton

Quote from: DrGreggles on November 15, 2016, 08:12:39 AM
Absolute Pandemonium by Brian Blessed (obviously read by the great man himself) is the reason why the audiobook exists.

I got an hour in before I had to give up. I really like him, but the prospect of thirteen hours was just too much.

The Everest preamble was great though. 

Milverton

I recently found Longitude by Dava Sobel on the audiobook bay with foreword by Neil Armstrong. It's one of my favourite books and this version didn't let me down. It runs for 4 hours 20 minutes so it's not going to be a huge commitment.

Twit 2

I've had an account for about 20 months now and downloaded 1 thing. So that's 200 quid for an audiobook. Have downloaded my 6 existing credits, making it the incredible value overall of £28 per title. Well done Audible. Gonna close my account and smash my shed down with a sledgehammer, sobbing audible.

bgmnts

I only really listen to audiobooks if it is done in the style of a radio serial or stageplay or whatnot, with different voiceovers for different characters.

For example, World War Z I think had a brilliant cast and it really worked, made it seem more real. Rather than one bloke playing 6 or 7 different characters with slightly different voices. I listened to Grapes of Wrath on audiobook and it suffered due to this.

Chris Barrie does a great job on the Red Dwarf novels though.

And of course Alan Partridge is a must.

Quote from: hewantstolurkatad on November 15, 2016, 04:48:12 AM
Does the Tom Baker one have any value for someone who hates Doctor Who? I like what I know about Baker as a character, but Doctor Who can get t'fuck.


Cheers for the suggestions all!
Nixonland is going bloody well so far (listened to about a sixth of it today alone).

No interest in DW but listened to the audio book after it being recommended on here and is as good as they say.

Lord Mandrake

I consume audiobooks like a cunt, this year alone have finished 16 books, of the non-fiction I enjoyed;
A man called Intrepid - William Stevenson
Operation Mincemeat - Ben Macintyre
Soldier spy - Tom Marcus
What we cannot know - Marcus du Sautoy
Quantum, a guide for the perplexed - Jim Al-Khalili
The Nazi hunters - Damien Lewis


I know we are not discussing fiction but a Legacy of spies by Le Carre narrated by Tim Holland is unmissable.

studpuppet

Quote from: Lord Mandrake on June 14, 2018, 01:28:24 PM
I know we are not discussing fiction but a Legacy of spies by Le Carre narrated by Tim Holland is unmissable.

Might be worth a split topic - I love listening to dramatised fiction (normally Radio 4 ones) - Their Complete Smiley series with Simon Russell Beale is something I've listened to more than once.