/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18613063]

What does /lit/ think about audiobooks? They're very obviously convenient, but I could see some possible cons. Also could see some feeling snobbish towards them.

[Anonymous No.18613168]

convenient and can be more entertaining but i focus way less and the experience is completely different

[Laura Numeroff !BmHtx5LcGM No.18613175]

I like them for books I’d otherwise never find the time to read, and for Great Courses history lectures. Kenneth Harl is a very based man.

[Anonymous No.18613573]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB2l3DENCMQ

[Anonymous No.18613586]

>>18613573
one of the best audiobooks ever.
i had read the first half of the book and then found this and it improved the whole experience.
in the end i didnt enjoy the book too much but i really liked him reading for some reason

[Anonymous No.18613616]

>>18613063
This one is really good. A book read by the author; a story told by a true storyteller.

[Anonymous No.18613626]

hard for me to stay focused on them.
what would be a gamechanger is a format or system where i could switch between an e-book and audiobook as needed. a 2-in-1 file format that keeps your place and you can switch between freely.

[Anonymous No.18613643]

>>18613616
looks pretty reddit

[Anonymous No.18613681]

I liked the catch-22 audiobook but there is a lot of detail you miss when listening. Wouldn't recommend listening to classics but some lighter books are great.

[Anonymous No.18613692]

One of the best things about reading, in my opinion, is that you ”drive” it yourself, with your own mind, and how focused you have to be to do that. I consider audio books a different medium for this reason, and personally I don’t like it.

[Anonymous No.18613914]

I'm not normally into audio books, but I was thinking of getting the Iliad and Odyssey as audio books. Any /lit/ approved versions?

[Anonymous No.18613924]

>>18613626
Not to be an Amazon shill, but they do that. Called whispersync. You just need to be careful to get the correct edition of the ebook.

[Anonymous No.18614332]

>>18613626
For Swedish anons, Storytel has exactly this feature.

[Anonymous No.18614348]

>>18613914
Nah you should read them my man. But I can recommend you to listen to the first 10 episodes of the Trojan War Podcast (or all of them) before approaching The Iliad. It covers all the events that lead up to the war and it helped me a lot when I was reading it.

[Anonymous No.18614363]

>>18613063
They're my primary format of 'reading'. I thoroughly enjoy being able to loop chapters and have a verbal dialogue with the author in my head.

>>18613914
These two have excellent narrations,
The Iliad - Penguin Classics
Narrated by: Steve John Shepherd

Odyssey - Robert Fagles
Narrated by: Ian McKellen

[Anonymous No.18614376]

fine, but they're not reading.
and also i am highly suspect of anyone who uses them because i know they aren't really paying attention. reducing literature to the same level of artistic merit as fucking podcasts is the complete antithesis of what actual reading is about to me, but most audiobookfags are probably >muh entertainment nerds and only """read""" garbage anyway

[Anonymous No.18614378]

>>18613063
if there is an audiobook version available on MAM, i usually listen along when playing videogames after having read the passages from epub/pdf.

[Anonymous No.18614382]

'ate audiobooks
simple as

[Anonymous No.18614467]

>>18614348
>Nah you should read them my man.
Weren't they originally "written" as oral stories though? Audio versions of them feel like the more authentic version.

[Anonymous No.18614545]

>>18614467
Yes
Reject written words, embrace oral tradition

[Anonymous No.18614591]

I've read books first and then listened and listened and then read. I don't think I miss all that much. They are a great way to get through books. I listen to them on all my commutes and as I do chores.

I've found pretty complex works (The Blank Slate, Origins of Political Order, Conciousness Explained, etc.) work fine, but complex style does not. So, I loved listening to War and Peace and can't listen to any Dostoevsky due to the sentence structure.

Mostly I have histories but I have 190 audiobooks in my library....

[Anonymous No.18614610]

>>18614591
>So, I loved listening to War and Peace and can't listen to any Dostoevsky due to the sentence structure.
That's interesting, it was kind of the opposite for me. I loved Crime and Punishment but Anna Karenina kept me stumbling through. I think it was all the character switching where in a physical book, I could easily flip back to refresh my memory as to who was who.

[Anonymous No.18614614]

I would rather listen to a news article or light nonfiction than a novel. It's far from the same experience and you can't ruminate on or absorb the material as you would reading.

[Anonymous No.18614615]

>>18614467
>more authentic version
Are the English versions read in dactylic hexameter?

[Anonymous No.18614674]

>>18614591
So here's my last year less some I didn't listen too. All of them were pretty listenable, except for PoS which I only got because I knew I could return it and is absolutely incoherent in spoken form.

Also haven't listened to the Book Thief yet, accidentally included it. My problem is I have a ton of 2:1 sale books I haven't started yet.

Point being, for me at least, I can get through fairly dense content as long as I am doing something else that is simple (driving, mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, etc.). I get through an extra few thousand pages a year this way. Also nice in the sauna.

[Anonymous No.18614693]

>>18614674
>Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit
>Purchased: 04-28-21
>Returned on 04-28-21
kek

[Anonymous No.18614716]

>>18614674
>for me at least, I can get through fairly dense content as long as I am doing something else that is simple (driving, mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, etc.). I get through an extra few thousand pages a year this way. Also nice in the sauna
Ultrabased Hegel listener

[Anonymous No.18614720]

>>18613063
I find them very handy for heavy note taking and sometimes I just want to hear a book read. Never listen to books I have not already read.

[Anonymous No.18614771]

>>18614720
It was very nice for grad school because you can get through relevant texts and get the gist.

A lot of non-fiction books repeat the main thesis over and over with different case studies, so zoning out or quitting early doesn't matter.

[Anonymous No.18614776]

>>18613175
Utterly based

[Anonymous No.18614796]

>>18614615
Are any of the translations written that way? I would assume/hope that the ones that are would also be read that way.

[Anonymous No.18614822]

>>18613063
If one is only orated by someone with an irritating voice you're SOL

[Anonymous No.18615068]

I'm trying to listen through the Count of Monte Cristo while i work but I'm finding it impossible to pay attention and have to end up reading the chapter summaries when i restart

how the fuck do i consistently get the new captcha right

[Anonymous No.18615655]

>>18614674
>Phenomenology of Spirit
>Status: Returned

[Anonymous No.18616169]

What are some good websites for audiobooks other than youtube?

[Anonymous No.18616183]

What are some good websites for free audiobooks other than youtube?

[Anonymous No.18616283]

I mostly listen to stuff I've already read on paper first either as I lay in bed or while doing something that doesn't require my full attention. It honestly helps me internalise works. When I've listen to for example Against Nature, The Decay of Lying and Confessions of an English Opium Eater 15 times each I feel I've come to understand them more than if I had re-read those works 2 or 3 times after the first time.

There are also those audiobooks which add to the experience of the novel like Jim Carroll reading his own stories that adds so much more atmosphere or the Richard Burton full cast audiobook of Under Milk Wood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fPyA1C0Ms

[Anonymous No.18616447]

>>18613063
Thanks to audiobooks, I get paid to read books. Feels cash money, man.

[Anonymous No.18617145]

>>18616183
Yes, if only there was a board for piracy.

[Anonymous No.18617207]

>>18614796
No idea, I read it in Swedish and basically all of the available translations are written that way so that is why I was wondering.

[Anonymous No.18617225]

If it's a memoir, and it's read by the author, I go for the audiobook.

[Anonymous No.18618384]

>>18617225
A good narrator can definitely enhance a book. Patrick Tull's narration on the Aubrey/Maturin series is pure kino.

[Anonymous No.18618402]

>>18613063
Prefer reading in all cases but there are some situations where that's impossible. I listen to them while working out or as I am falling asleep.

[Anonymous No.18618452]

>>18617225
This felt like being read to by my grandfather. Extremely comfy listen.
I’m interested in finding more audiobooks read by one person who does convincing voices for each and every character.

[Anonymous No.18618482]

>>18614674
>Trying to listen to the Phenomenology
I think that would make me puke.

[Anonymous No.18618580]

>>18617145
Some of us might have reasons why we can't break the law.

[Anonymous No.18618593]

>>18618580
yikes.

[Anonymous No.18618901]

>>18616183
Librivox

Some volunteers suck tho
The narrator for anything Aristotle is the worst nasal nerd voice I ever heard. But Faraday experience was nice. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was also easy to follow though I zoned out after 2 hours.

[Anonymous No.18619697]

>>18618901
I have never heard a good Librivox recording.

[Anonymous No.18619752]

>>18613063
>convenient
For what exactly? Besides the blind, and maybe language learners, what is the advantage? "Reading while you do something else?
I feel people who prefer audiobooks are so over stimulated and think they are "so busy" thath they need to multi-task as much as they can. If you read a book you should solely concentrate on it, not see it as just another distraction.

[Anonymous No.18619946]

Just make sure it's narrated by Charlton Griffin, and you're in for the comfiest experience possible.

[Anonymous No.18620821]

good nonfictions audiobooks?

[Anonymous No.18621579]

>>18613063
this was great

[Anonymous No.18621712]

>>18620821
How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain (very entertaining and read by the author)

The Thomas Sowell Reader (excerpts from his various writing - good food for thought on a range of issues)

Prisoners of Geography (a good book for perspective building on the geographical positions and how it affects the viewpoint of those countries)

[Anonymous No.18621806]

>>18620821
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
On Human nature by E.O Wilson

[Anonymous No.18622186]

Anyone know of a resource of free/pirated auidobooks similiar to libgen?

[Anonymous No.18622692]

I've listened to a few but even doing trade work it can fuck you up when people ask you questions and whatnot. Have to skip back and derails me. I've used it more for consuming swill that entertains me that I'd feel bad about wasting my time with in a physical book. Im probably 47/ 47 /6 podcast music audiobook.

[Anonymous No.18622869]

>>18618901
>when the narrator is a pajeet

[Anonymous No.18623103]

>>18622186
audiobookbay and perhaps piratebay, the selection is limited though.

[Anonymous No.18623144]

>>18622186
Libravox

[Anonymous No.18623477]

>>18622186
Everything you need is in this thread -- and I'm not talking about the librivox crap.

[Anonymous No.18623936]

>>18613063
They are only good for dummy ESLs like I who have the shittiest pronunciation despite studying English for almost my entire life.
Otherwise I still do not understand why does a native speak like these so much.

[Anonymous No.18624689]

>>18620821
The Disaster Artist

[Anonymous No.18624890]

Is the audiobook selection on RED or Bibliotik any better than the one on MAM?
I see faggots on soulseek who have audiobooks I want that they aren't sharing that aren't on any public tracker or semi-private that I have access to.

[Anonymous No.18625021]

I listen to them all day at work. Not much difference in information retention between reading or listening. Also librivox is fine if you aren’t a stuck-up cunt.

[Anonymous No.18625083]

>>18625021
>librivox is fine if you aren’t a stuck-up cunt.
BASED

[Anonymous No.18625149]

>>18624689
based, that book was better and more moving than i thought it would be desu

[Anonymous No.18625230]

>>18613063
I can only enjoy podcasts as an audio medium. I can’t form imagery in my mind if my eyes are focused on other things then the text itself

[Anonymous No.18625403]

>>18625021
>Also librivox is fine if you aren’t a stuck-up cunt.
Yeah because not hearing the narrator's voice crack when voicing Zeus in The Iliad is too much to ask for.

[Anonymous No.18625529]

>>18625403
>complaining about a product he got for free
choosy beggar. but to solve this, please, more people rip professional audiobooks and drop it on the bay

[Anonymous No.18626097]

>>18625403
Anon, there are like 3 or 4 English versions of the Iliad on librivox. Plus you should be focusing on the words, not the voice.

[Anonymous No.18627502]

>>18623144
even popular ones are non existent trash resource

[Anonymous No.18627764]

>>18613063

Here's is the formula I follow:

>normal day, not tired
Read book
>long day, tired
Alternative between reading and text-to-speech on my eReader
>driving or some other activity where I can't use my hands
Audiobook

[Anonymous No.18627772]

They ok