Books on tape have been around for half a century, but audiobooks have exploded in popularity in the last decade. What is the appeal of the audio format? Which books and narrators do we enjoy the most? And does listening to an audiobook even count as reading?
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Books Mentioned:
- Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, narrated by Kim Mai Guest
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, narrated by Frazer Douglas
- The Wicked King by Holly Black, narrated by Caitlin Kelly
- The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks, narrated by Simon Vance
- City of Lies by Sam Hawke, narrated by Rosa Coduri and Dan Morgan
- The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley, narrated by Simon Vance
- The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, narrated by Angela Brazil
- A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, narrated by Kate Reading
- Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron, narrated by Vikas Adam
- Red Rising by Pierce Brown, narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds
- The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal
- Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe, narrated by Nick Podehl
- Free the Darkness by Kel Kade, narrated by Nick Podehl
- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, narrated by Michael Page
- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Will Patton
- Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente, narrated by Heath Miller
- Dune by Frank Herbert, narrated by a full cast
- Minimum Wage Magic by Rachel Aaron, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller
- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Hero Forged by Josh Erikson, narrated by Josh Erikson
- Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal, narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal
- The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, narrated by
- Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, narrated by
- The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien, narrated by
- Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchet audio drama
- The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, produced by Graphic Audio
- Rose Drive audio drama, produced by Raul Vega
- The Heart of Stone by Ben Galley, narrated by Adam Stubbs
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, narrated by Peter Kenny
Transcript:
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Nice podcast. I have been listening to audiobooks since the 1980s. Checking out a suitcase full of Cassettes from the library and using my Walkman. I would add the narrator of the Expanse Series Jefferson Mays . As for authors who do a good job reading their own books, I will add Mur Lafferty Six Wakes and Emma Newman’s Planetfall Series . Also my favorite book of 2019, A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World was read by the its author C.A. Fletcher. . Single POV books are the easiest to listen to, Time Travel books the hardest. I believe the more you listen to audio books, your brain gets molded to the task .