Ash HN: What is your must-read audiobook?

21 points by uvu ↗ HN
What is your must-read audiobook?

24 comments

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Dune is the book that got me sold on audiobooks https://www.audible.com/pd/Dune-Audiobook/B002V1OF70
Great book. Great casting for the audiobook. Scott Brick is great, but Simon Vance steals the show for me. Highly recommend this to anyone that wants to get into audiobooks.
Yanis Varoufakis "Adults in the Room" is a book I enjoyed on the plane, but would probably never read in print format. It describes all the back-room dealing going on during the Greece economic meltdown. It was very insightful to see how the PR presented by the EU and Germany was so different from their real goals (protecting the banks and the rich from any losses - even if all their populations had to pay on bad loans that were structured to fail.)
Gods in America is done really well. I also enjoyed listening to the Game of Thrones series on the way to and from work every morning for like 8 months. Gave me something to look forward to in the morning.
I usually listen to them but anyways (I had to, sorry!!) - I really enjoyed Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble. It's a very cynical take on the startup culture, which usually isn't something I'm into, but the author really did a good job at keeping it fun (he was one of the valleywag people) and has enough experience from the inside that there's actually plenty of subtle insights.
American War by Omar El-Akkad, read by Dion Graham. Not many characters but a riveting story about a plausible second American Civil War.

The Power of the Dog and The Cartel by Don Winslow, read by Rob Porter. A must read just for the vast characters Porter plays, many of whom are Hispanic. An amazing feat that tells a riveting story.

A number of great selections from The Great Courses, including:

The Great Ideas of Philosophy [0]

Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It [1]

The History of the United States [2]

World War II: A Military and Social History [3]

There's also this new translation of The Odyssey [4], which I've just started but like so far.

[0] https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Great-Ideas-of-Philosophy-2nd...

[1] https://www.audible.com/pd/Great-Scientific-Ideas-That-Chang...

[2] https://www.audible.com/pd/The-History-of-the-United-States-...

[3] https://www.audible.com/pd/World-War-II-A-Military-and-Socia...

[4] https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Odyssey-Audiobook/B07GLN33S8?...

Jurassic Park got me into audio books. Incredible book, fantastic narration by Scott Brick.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - a creative and compelling deviation from typical true crime storytelling.

The author and the narrator do a brilliant job at really transporting you into Savannah, Georgia (I'm not even a fan of the city, but I nevertheless was totally consumed by the fascinating characters, society, and atmosphere).

The Areas of My Expertise - John Hodgeman.

Sold me on the format and is more like a 7 hour stand-up comedy special than a book per se. Also features Paul Rudd.

My favorite audiobooks ever are the His Dark Materials trilogy, by far. A different actor reads each character's dialogue, and the casting is absolutely _perfect_.

The series is general is really special to me, and the audiobook is the best way to experience it.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, written and narrated by Carlo Rovelli
I know I'm late to the party, but I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - It's a BBC Radio Play, but was my first exposure to the story, and a fantastic one at that. I also really enjoyed the Star Wars radio drama.
> I know I'm late to the party, but I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - It's a BBC Radio Play, but was my first exposure to the story,

Also, the world's first exposure. The BBC Radio Play preceded the books (the first two “phases” preceded the first two books, more specifically.)