Audiobook Week 2012

I just found out about this from Tanya Patrice on GirlXOXO, and even though it’s the last day, I had to dive in.  I love audiobooks.

It’s Audiobook Week 2012 (sponsored by Devourer of Books). I won’t be following the routine since I’m diving in late, and will simply be snagging this opportunity to list a few audiobooks I adore.  I have been a member of audible.com since December 2003, almost ten years, and I love it.  I listen to books when I’m driving or when I’m puttering around the house cleaning, or sometimes going to sleep at night. You can listen to samples on their site to hear the voices.  [For books that aren’t available on audible (like Harry Potter) you have to go to Amazon or elsewhere to hear samples.] If you decide to join audible, feel free to say that dallaspooks sent ya.  I think if enough people do, I get a free book or something.  Since I have never gotten a free book, I can’t swear to that.

But that is my answer to Devourer’s question:

Where do you learn about great audiobook titles? Find reviews? Buy your audiobooks? Share your secrets with the rest of us!

I scour audible, sometimes reading reviews, sometimes listening to samples, checking out genres and authors and narrators I love. Clearly I need to get more into the audiobook reviewers because I’m probably missing a lot.

So. The best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to, and the Resident Storm Chaser loved them all, too:

   Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman, read by Lenny Henry. Damn, I loved listening to this book. I need to listen to it again. Lenny Henry was born to read this wild tale with its wide-ranging variety of accents from London to LA to Caribbean. This is the only Neil Gaiman I’ve ever totally loved, and I still don’t know if it’s the story or the reader. I am pretty sure I read that Gaiman had Henry’s voice in his head when he was writing it, and though a very quick google didn’t turn up that bit, I did find this. If you love Gaiman, I don’t see how you can go wrong with this. Seriously.

In a totally different direction, The Last Juror, by John Grisham, read by Michael Beck. Beck’s gentle Southern drawl is perfect for this story. A tale of a prejudice-laced trial in a small southern town, it wraps its way gently around you and sucks you in. The narrator isn’t a lawyer this time, but is a big city transplant who owns the local newspaper. His relationship with the town is captivating, and the story of the last juror is stirring.  Grisham knows these worlds, and it shows.  And yes, this is another one where I have no idea which involves me more–the story or the narrator.

And finally, you knew I couldn’t let these pass, didn’t you?

Harry Potter by JK Rowling, read by Jim Dale, or Harry Potter read by Stephen Fry.  Jim Dale read the US version, and Americans love him. Stephen Fry read the Brit version, and the Brits I know are horrified by the Jim Dale version.  I love them both, but you have to be pretty hardcore to buy the UK edition and have it shipped to the US, since the weak dollar and price of shipping is alarming.  But these books are magical, and both readers are amazing. You can’t go wrong.

Jim Dale

 

 These are just the tip of the iceberg for me. It bothers me to stop here, because I love so many others, but time is a-wasting and I must attack some of my own work, now.

Do you listen to audiobooks? When and where?

Which are your favorites?

And the killer question:  Dale or Fry?

Let the bloodletting begin!