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LifeQuestioner's avatar

Any Audible book recommendations?

Asked by LifeQuestioner (4244points) 2 months ago

So Amazon finally got me. I’m not a big audiobook person but they had a really good deal for 3 months and I decided to take them up on it, but then will probably cancel once the 3 months are up. I did find out there’s lots of neat free books on there too so I’ll have to think about if I really want to cancel.

Anyway, since I really need to stop buying books, I thought I would go this route for a while. Not that I’m going to stop reading books, but I make crafts in the evening and now the baseball season is over, I like to have something else to listen to while I work. (I usually listen to baseball on the radio because I refuse to pay ridiculous prices for cable so I can have MASN -the local station that has a monopoly on our baseball games.)

If you recommend something, or several somethings, please give me a brief synopsis or at least what type of book it is. I do particularly like good fantasy novels, although not necessarily all the trash that is out there nowadays. But I’m willing to consider other options as well.

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6 Answers

cheebdragon's avatar

It would help to know your age and if you prefer romance, drama, comedy, etc?

ragingloli's avatar

“Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors” by Matt Parker.

“What makes a bridge wobble when it’s not meant to? Billions of dollars mysteriously vanish into thin air? A building rock when its resonant frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap’s 1990 hit I’ve Got The Power? The answer is maths. Or, to be precise, what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world.

As Matt Parker shows us, our modern lives are built on maths: computer programmes, finance, engineering. And most of the time this maths works quietly behind the scenes, until…it doesn’t. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near-misses and mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman empire and a hapless Olympic shooting team, Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world.

Mathematics doesn’t have good ‘people skills’, but we would all be better off, he argues, if we saw it as a practical ally. This book shows how, by making maths our friend, we can learn from its pitfalls. It also contains puzzles, challenges, geometric socks, jokes about binary code and three deliberate mistakes. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.”

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Richest man in Babylon.

It describes the mindset and overview of how to become rich and wealthy.

Scott Adam’s has some funny life lessons. Just go on Amazon and enter his name in the search.

Earth a visitor’s guide. By Jon Stewart.

Is a tounge in cheek breakdown of American culture.

LifeQuestioner's avatar

@cheebdragon I’m in my early 50s and really the only genre of books I do not like is romance. Now if I’m reading a book and it has some romance in it, but not as the main plot point of the book, then that’s fine. But I can’t stand books which are just nothing but man meets woman, they get together, they have struggles, and everything resolves. There has to be an underlying story if that makes sense. Otherwise, I’m open to pretty much anything.

@ragingloli sounds interesting! And I love math so I’m definitely going to check that out. Thanks!

@RedDeerGuy1 not sure this one’s going to be my cup of tea but I’ll look into it a little more.

Caravanfan's avatar

@LifeQuestioner I go less by the book and more by the reader. It helps that the readers like the kind of books that I enjoy listening to (history, sci fi, thriller). My favorite readers are R.C. Bray, Ray Porter, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Jones, and Bronson Pinchot. I also listen to a lot of series books by downloading the audiobooks from the library (Libby or Hoopla) and then purchasing the ones that aren’t available on either of those services.

But if I have to pick one audiobook to listen to, I would go with Watership Down, read by Doctor Who himself Peter Capaldi, or The Martian read by R.C. Bray (not the version read by Wil Wheaton—it’s not nearly as good)

LifeQuestioner's avatar

@Caravanfan thanks! I love Watership Down and I’ve read it numerous times but I’m going to have to check it out because I like Peter Capaldi’s voice. And I’ll check out the Martian too!

As I was browsing yesterday on the audible site, I saw several books that I thought about getting but when I listened to the sample, I wasn’t crazy about the person reading them, or more specifically their voice. So I understand what you’re saying. I did find one book, I think The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, who I love, that’s read by Alan Rickman! He had a wonderful voice too.

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