Hi there!

Boring background stuff for context: I've never been into books. I thought they were just quite boring and other than mandatory reading at school, I never really read much. If at all. I thought I didn't like them.

Well, when looking back at my relationship to reading, I mainly figured out that the reason I didn't like reading was because I always had to read relatively dry, old books that just weren't pleasant in any way. First I was forced into it, second they were always relatively old and their importance was so hammered into my head that when I actually read them, I was always underwhelmed. Also, didn't help that the books were always old as shit, so those old books felt like holding a clump of dust, drying my hands and smelling like a retirement home.

So I thought to try picking something myself, but was sorely disappointed that there was no "IMDb for books" or anything similar that'd compile all books with user given ratings and recommendations with audiobook options with them.
Since I like playing games and also listening to something while having to walk somewhere, I thought I'd give audiobooks a shot. There was an issue though. I have given 2 books a shot. Both books had the issue of being too long for my taste. And while I can totally spend hours on end on games, those two books never really captured my attention for longer than a few hours in total.

The actual request: So I'd like to ask you, do any of you have any audiobook recommendations on short and interesting books? The shorter the better, I'd say. As for the genre, I don't really care. Though I'd be most interested in horror, detective novels, maybe some sci-fi/fantasy. Though I'm open to anything at this point.

Extra gratitude if it's free or cheap.

Sorry to say I currently don't have anything to give away, though my currently running giveaways are either public or for whitelists. If I get a great recommendation that I enjoy, I'll throw a blueheart at you. I know it's not much, but I can't give anything more right now.

Thanks in advance :)

EDIT: Screw you all! I thought this thread would have 4 answers and it'd die off so I can start reading something and move on from that! But ya'll have ruined that by giving me so much cool stuff to read that now I'll never stop! >:(
In all seriousness though, thank you to everyone for giving me these things to read. It's already obvious from the comments, but you've also helped others with this thread. You're all cool people. :D

5 years ago*

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Do you think audiobooks are a better way to get into books than actually reading?

View Results
Yes
No
BoOkS aRe jUsT bOrInG moViEs!

This might not be exactly what you are looking for, but have you tried listening to podcasts? They're free and and cover almost every subject. There are educational ones, informal talk ones, and many fictional storytelling podcasts, some of which feature an entire cast of actors performing them out like a play.

Check out the Audio Drama subreddit. Horror, mystery, and science fiction are very popular genres. New shows get posted there on a daily basis and people ask for and receive recommendations all the time.

https://www.reddit.com/r/audiodrama/

Some good fictional storytelling ones to start out with include:

We're Alive: https://www.werealive.com/ A zombie podcast that is sort of like an audio version of The Walking Dead. it's very professionally produced, has several seasons of episodes, and is performed by a large cast of actors.

The Black Tapes: http://theblacktapespodcast.com/ A fictional audio documentary series, done in the style of an NPR radio show, in which journalist Alex Reagan researches the exploits of professional paranormal debunker Doctor Richard Strand.

ars PARADOXICA: https://www.whisperforge.org/arsparadoxica "When an experiment in a time much like our own goes horribly awry, Dr. Sally Grissom finds herself stranded in the past and entrenched in the activities of a clandestine branch of the US government. Grissom and her team quickly learn that there's no safety net when toying with the fundamental logic of the universe."

This is just the tip of the iceberg, though. There are thousands of free podcasts out there.

5 years ago*
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I do listen to podcasts and I've found some that I really love. Actually, when I got into a more dramatic, narrative based podcast, I did have the whole idea I'm presenting now. While they were good, they were one third flat just ads, sponsorships and another tenth just "previously on this podcast" and "this podcast was made by this company" with another minute or so with "Haha, this narrator's a silly boy! Well, with our company, we enjoy making these so much" crap.
It's a fine idea, but all the professionals or semi-professionals just have a lot of ads or jerk-off sessions where they praise themselves and think they're so cool that we need to hear about them for 5-10 minutes mid-story.

I'm excited to check out those podcasts though. The first one sounds like perfection for me. The other 2 sound interesting enough to check out and I wouldn't be surprised if I'd become a massive fan. Thanks for the comment. Subbed to the subreddit too :D

5 years ago
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Yeah, the style and quality can vary greatly, since pretty much anyone can produce a podcast. They can be professional productions (sometimes with lots of ads) or just one person talking into a microphone. But there are some real gems out there. Happy listening!

5 years ago
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+1 for podcasts, and if you are into Lovecraftian horror or have a weird sense of humor try Welcome to Night Vale.

5 years ago
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A recent comment also mentioned it and seeing you mention it too makes me quite hopeful of the podcast. I've already queued up all the episodes on my Podcast app, so I can start listening to it whenever I feel like it. Probably today... :D

5 years ago
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Well, I've never been into audiobooks, but as a reader, I'd say the IMdb you are looking for might be Goodreads.
It keeps track of your read books, it gives you suggestions based on ratings and your preferences.

About funny short books... "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams?

5 years ago
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+1 for Goodreads
+42 for H2G2

5 years ago
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Oh snap, Goodreads seems to be what I needed. Funny how I knew about the site, but I always thought it was just a publication with reviews and articles, yet my dumb brain never thought to make sure. Thanks so much! :)

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" seems to be of a good length and its reputation is also great. Gonna give it a shot.

5 years ago
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Glad I helped you a bit ^^
feel free to add me on GR if you decide to join.

5 years ago
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Ah Goodreads looks cool, now I gotta figure if I can use it with german books properly. :) Thanks Smollo!

5 years ago
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You can!
I'm italian and I use it with translated books ( you can even scan your bookcovers to add them faster to your shelves).

5 years ago
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Excellent Smollo, thanks again, I will give this a try because this seems like a nice way to keep track of what I've read somewhere along the way. :D

5 years ago
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Some how I never considered the hitchhiker as short.

5 years ago
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Well, the first one is 100 pages at best!

5 years ago
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Not saying it's wrong, just that it somehow doesn't feel so short imo. Haven't read the last two parts. The complete book somehow went AWOL.

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I'd add also Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett! ù-ù

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Havent read the books, but the show is absolutely fantastic.

5 years ago
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You've piqued my interest with a few of these. Thanks for the response!

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5 years ago
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Hmm I may be able to help you. I too am recently into audiobooks, and for all the similar reasons. I can never read books after work, way too tired, despite my interest in many topics. I have always listened to the radio sports talk 1/2 hour to work and 1/2 hour back home everyday. This was actually kinda toxic as the morning and afternoon shows more or less regurgitated the few stories. Anyway, for the past few months I have yet to listen to the radio and always listen to audiobooks. My interests lie primarily in nonfiction.

Here is what I have or am currently listed/listening to:
Replay: the short history of video games
The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

These were actually all through Audible, which after a few months came to the duh realization that I should look at audiobooks through youtube. From my Audible wishlist I was able to find about 10 books that are full books read on youtube:
What If
Get Well Soon
Algorithms to Live By
Thinking Fast and Slow
The Girl with all the Gifts - this probably is closest to your horror/sci-fi interests

Now, unless you have youtube premium you have to leave the youtube app open on your phone. But a way around this is if you find any third party "youtube to mp3" conversion site. So listening now you are not streaming the book and saves you some battery.

Hope this helps you. Feel free to ask any questions!

5 years ago
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The Woman Who Smashed Codes, Bad Blood and The Girl with all the Gifts sound pretty great, so I've made a note of them. I'll find a way to listen to them though. Youtube isn't a huge issue for me on my phone, even without the Premium, so that'll be fine.

Thanks for the recommendations :D

5 years ago
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Song of Fire and Ice >:D long as fuck but the audible version is absolutely awesome, with the reader playing with his voice and acting as multiple characters, different tones, speeds, accents and speech patterns for each.

Jokes aside, Rivers of London was pretty cool both as topic and as audiobook, I think it's relatively short with it's 10 hours

Sadly I haven't listened to others.
To your question - I read far faster than how an audiobook goes, so performance-wise oldschool reading all the way. But treating the audiobook as music, entertainment to pass time, it can be a real treat and super enjoyable. They can well coexist in my world :)

5 years ago
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Added Rivers of London to my readlist. I tend to also read faster, but at some points, my brain kind of shuts off and I start thinking of something else, unaware that I'm actually reading so I'll come to around a page or two later without remembering anything I was reading. That doesn't happen with listening though luckily, so it helps.

5 years ago
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Games are interactive books. xD

Thus I read alot.

5 years ago
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5 years ago
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Depends which but yeah there are games out there I've played, which had more narrative depth and characterization than some books off the NY Times best seller list and I don't just mean 50 Shades of Grey :P

5 years ago
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I currently hardly read and mostly listen to audiobooks during commute.

I buy my audiobooks at Downpour, mostly on sales. I like Downpour because its books are DRM-free. I also have a few from Humble bundles.

I've been recently listening to some of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga, and I like these books. They aren't exactly short, but they aren't all that long (9-11 hours) and they have so much stuff going on in them that they're never boring. They are also read by Grover Gardner, who IMO is one of the best readers out there. The Warrior’s Apprentice isn't where I started (I started with Shards of Honor) but it may be a good place to start (Shards of Honor is also good place to start, IMO, but you seem young and The Warrior's Apprentice stars a 17 year old, while Shards of Honor are over 30).

There are quite a few other audiobooks I enjoyed, but they are slower, and I'm afraid you might end up thinking of them as too long.

It's not free. It'd cost $13 (membership credit) if you don't get it on sale. There are free audiobooks, but I haven't tried most of them, and one I remember trying I can't find offhand (don't remember its name).

5 years ago
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Instead of audio books, you might want to look into fully acted audio dramas. Big Finish and Graphic Audio both do high quality, licensed productions in a wide range of genres.

https://www.bigfinish.com/
https://www.graphicaudio.net/

Both have free samples and demos if you dig around a bit,

5 years ago
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Oh wow... That's fucking amazing. I feel like I've discovered a completely new world. Thanks for the links!

5 years ago
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Glad to help. Enjoy.

5 years ago
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I actually like to read and think of books. So far I've heard of only two populations who prefer audiobooks: my literature students and females listening to erotica (because no one in the bus sees their book cover). But I guess to each their own, as long as people are interested in books I don't really care if they are printed, e-books, audiobooks, ...

What I know is that when you buy a kindle book on Amazon, they offer you a discount on audiobook too. Might be useful.

5 years ago
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I just seem to gravitate towards audiobooks since I can listen to them in the background during my commute, while playing some simpler game that doesn't require my full attention or just while doing something more simple like cooking or cleaning. Since I'm not properly into books currently, I'm finding it hard to justify dedicating myself to reading books. I'm trying to see if getting into audiobooks would change that.

5 years ago
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I understand. It's a commendable project.

5 years ago
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I tend to agree. I tried audiobooks but I just don't get the same immersion as reading actual books. Even with good readers (which, let's be honest is not always the case), I find myself paying less attention. It's like listening to music, it's just noise after a while.

I actually like to read and think of books. So far I've heard of only two populations who prefer audiobooks: my literature students and females listening to erotica (because no one in the bus sees their book cover).

There definitely are other people listening to audiobooks. My sister's boyfriend is dyslexic so he has a very hard time reading books but he enjoys books so he listens to them. My mother is getting on in years and her eyes are not as good as they used to be at night so she listens to books instead of watching crap tv because she can't read anymore.
But the ones you describe are audiobooks big demographics I guess :P

5 years ago
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I always loved reading books. Actually, I love keeping an old book in my hands ;) And I have a very hard time focusing on audiobooks.

So as you can see my case is a 180 degree different from yours. But I did listen to some audiobooks of literature I already knew (especially if the audio was in native language so I could improve my English). So I discovered LibriVox. It's all volunteers works so you can't find all the books you might want to listen to, but here is my recommendation if you like detective stories:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

If you were looking for modern mystery stories, maybe browse by genre and you find something? :)

Good luck!

5 years ago
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Ayy, Sherlock Holmes would be a lovely thing to listen to! Thanks for the link as well!

5 years ago
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I've just listened to the first chapter of the linked audiobook. The reader is from Texas but he was doing a very good job (as far as a non native speaker can tell). I hope you'll like the whole book :)

5 years ago*
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Thanks for sharing the website!
I'll be listening to some poetry while studying this evening!

5 years ago
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Glad to be of help :)

5 years ago
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I always loved reading books. Actually, I love keeping an old book in my hands ;) And I have a very hard time focusing on audiobooks.

Same. And I don't even like ebooks either. There's a connection with the books just holding them in your hands, isn't there?
Still, it's practical being able to carry half a library in your backpack and it's eco friendlier so ebooks are part of our lives. We can't rewind time, can we?

5 years ago
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I just can't stop myself from putting this here:
How to read a book

5 years ago
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Okay, my recommendation isn't exactly an audiobook but it's an adaptation of a book and it's in audio form.
I recommend Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds – The New Generation. Seriously it's amazing. It's Liam Neeson narrating an amazing classic story. It's definitely not cheap though but you can get it on amazon

5 years ago
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check goodreads.com they list both normal books and audio cds
audiobooks have pros and cons to normal books, don't think they are particularly better way to get into reading but i guess it depends on peoples personalities or if you're regularly hearing the audiobook in a scenario where you wouldn't be able to pick the book up (jogging, cleaning, cooking, whatever)

5 years ago
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bbc radio had a few audio dramas on it regularly:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04xxp0g/episodes/player

dont use it regularly, but i listened to the norse mythology by neil gaiman there the other day, was pretty good, no longer available sadly, they have temporary availability.

5 years ago
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That looks very interesting. Already found a cool short story to listen to from there. Thanks for the recommendation.
From what I can see, you have up to a month to listen to them.

5 years ago
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thank you!

<3

5 years ago
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+1 great audio dramas there.
If you like the BBC audio dramas, there's a large archive of them (a lot not available anymore) on the Internet Archive. All legal for download or streaming.

And if you like those, they also have an amazing collection of Lux Radio Theatre episodes with whole plays and old movies acted out, sometimes by the original cast, sometimes with incredible replacements (big A listers of that time from Cary Grant to Bette Davis or Marlene Dietrich)
More info on 10 years of radio dramas, with cast at Wikipedia

5 years ago
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Thank you very much for the Archive link. I was looking for the BBC dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings for a very long time, never thought it could be available like that :)

5 years ago
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Awesome! That's also how I found it!

5 years ago
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Nothing beats the real thing. There's simply so much that movies, games or even "audiobooks" can't convey. Reading helps develop your vocabulary and writing skills. Don't let books become a thing of the past.

5 years ago
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Reading helps develop your vocabulary and writing skills.

That's what I kept hearing from my teachers as well. Yet, I learned the foundation of my English from video games, the main one being GTA: Vice City. Video games have a lot of text in them and movies have subtitles, so it's not like I don't read. My writing skill came through writing comments and reviews. Plus, I can't really see myself learning writing skills through reading. Sure, I can pick up on a few nifty tricks here and there, but in all honesty, if I start thinking about the writing itself, it makes me think that the narrative itself isn't interesting, so your brain looks for other things to grab your interest, like cinematography in films or AI behaviour in video games. I could be wrong though.

Now I'm studying to become an English teacher, so I would confidently say that I didn't need books to develop my skills in English. But it's not like it won't help and you didn't present it as the sole reason someone might get better at English.

Don't let books become a thing of the past.

I doubt books will become a thing of the past either. People read now more than ever. The international community uses subtitles, games use text for building their lore, websites use mainly text and books are available on anything these days, so the accessibility has helped reading become more popular again. I'd say books are quite safe luckily.

5 years ago
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We shall see. On a personal level, reading helps me substantially in refining my writing style. Reviews are just the start. You'll be a great teacher if you'll propose unconventional ways of improving one's English skills. Afterall, video games brought their contribution in most gamers' cases. Thanks for your input!

5 years ago
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Yeah, lucky for me I'm in a country where you can experiment once in a while. Would love to use some educational video games or even normal games for older students. Same goes for movies. Though since I'm just an English teacher, I'll have little to do with literature and other such stuff. Though that will probably just open up more doors.

5 years ago
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Always loved reading, and never thought i´d like listening to Audiobooks, until that Humble Warhammer Audiobookbundle came along!

The WH40K ones stories vary in lenght from ultra-short novels up to 2-4 hour pieces.

Gotta say i thouroughly enjoyed listening to the Horus Heresy Book One during work in my USB-Radio equipped Volkswagen, and can´t wait to continue on another story the morrow =)

5 years ago
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The 2-4 hour part is making me interested even though I haven't cared much for the 40K universe and its properties. Do they require you to be knowledgeable on the 40K universe?

5 years ago
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No knowledge required as far as i know, i´m a newbie too in that franchise and have´nt had any trouble following context, except for times when they start throwing names around i´d never heard of before.

The 2-4 hrs one i mentioned is "Horus Heresy - Horus Rising", and it actually goes for almost 12 hours .... geez how could i underestimate it´s lenght by that much! How time flies when you enjoy something.

5 years ago
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Yeah, that time estimate just shows that the book's really good :D

I'll look into "Horus Heresy - Horus Rising" though! Thanks!

5 years ago
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May not be what you're looking for, but Sabriel (young adult fantasy but on the dark side. Involves necromancer's and magic), World War Z (zombies in modern times), or Game of Thrones might be interesting. I've been reading and rereading the GoT series every year since I was 12 lol

5 years ago
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The Game of Thrones books are probably out of my range. Even though I love the show, the length of the books is too much for me for now and I probably have to build up more interest since even shorter books have broken my interest.
Sabriel and World War Z are now on my readlist though, so thank you for the recommendations :D

5 years ago
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No problem :) I figured they might be a little more than what you were looking for. The other two are much shorter, but great stories

5 years ago
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Yup, even already got my hands on a copy of World War Z's audiobook from my friend, which has a whole heap of celebrities voicing different roles, so it'll definitely be a treat. Thanks again :D

5 years ago
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oh the noice thread.

i'll slowly read and enjoy all the comments here, tho, at first look, Lugum's tip/joke is one of the best, obviously cause we're on SG :D

a well done game, imo, is just like an audiobook, or even more than that. (Pillars and One day in London are first two i'm thinking about)

i like audiobooks, i do. but a book (e-book or not) is still my best choice. you have to read it, so is like an "inner voice audiobook", imagine what you're reading... so maybe a more complete experience.
thou, audiobooks are awesomely handy cause you can do other things while listening.
(we have -italy here- an awesome radio, that reads books -at night- for you. <3)

i love e-books. i adore them, since... ages. so i've been (and still) building a huge collection. my first book ever was an ancient snail farming how-to... :D

so, where's my tip?
here:

one little, weird and funny one for you: The Papalagi
(shouldn't be hard to find it, and i think could be a truly nice start)

5 years ago
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Added Pillars. Thanks for the recommendation. Could use a radio station that reads books to you. Would be great :D

5 years ago
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I've started the journey for a better self about 2 years ago. I really became interested in getting to know myself better and understand why I (and people in general) do things they do. So I'm kinda on the "self help" train a lot. I got a few interesting reads / audios there, just hit me up if interested and up for discussion.
Btw: Spotify has a lot of audiobooks, too. Though the interface is not really made for those (you can't bookmark stuff etc.) but they do have a good chunk to offer and I always grab an audiobook that is included in my subscription over a real book because of the money. I do prefer reading though, as I tend to loose attention quickly with audibooks (this much rewinding required lol).

5 years ago*
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Wow, didn't even think Spotify would have audiobooks. Would they be under the Podcast section?

5 years ago
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Yea I was unaware for quite some time, too. I found a lot of titles I wanted to read on there so I decided not to read them, but listen to them. ;) Audiobooksofficial @ Spotify is a good place to start. In german you also have "unabridged" as a title, that is often used with audio books.

5 years ago
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Listened to a few audio book over the last two years - the speaker(s) make such a difference. Some speakers feel like genius in their section. Just a slight variance in their voice for a different character (out of many) and you immediately recognize it.

Like Landhammer said above there are studios like https://www.graphicaudio.net/ which produce more expensive products with different actors, music and some SFX.
Still an audio book but more radio drama like, to use the official term?


Sometimes there are audio books on humble bundle as well.

"short" for book readers is a relative term😅 - I would consider 600 pages short.
But for you recommendations short means roughly 40-80 pages


Okay recommendations

Short Fiction by Brandon Sanderson
(roughly order by length) -

don't think the very short ones have audio books but they are really really short and not bad.
If you are interested in them you can write me - as I think they are a bit harder to aquire.

Name Length Theme
Firstborn / Defending Elysium veryshort Space (Sci) Fi
Dreamer very short Fiction, Criminal Hunt, Body takeover, interesting twist +
Perfect State short Sci Fi, matrix theme, not bad but the one I would least recommend (but still do!)
Shadows for Silence short Fantasy - Psst it's about criminals and a deadly environment +
Sixth of Dusk short+ Fantasy, Jungle, Main character can see his future (possible deaths) +
Snap Shot short-medium Detectives in 'artificial past ' ++
Legion 3x roughly stand alone medium books funny and interesting investigation like stories about a man with very realistic illusion - it's not he who is mad - the hallucinations are++
The Emperor's Soul Medium Fantasy - By manipulating the 'past' of objects they can be reshaped. Imprisoned one of the best Forgers shall change a human. ++

The + ones are especially recommended.

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Who's the author for Dreamer? Tried to find it, but the title's short and general enough that it gets lost among other books.

Thanks for the other recommendations though. Managed to snag a few of them for my readlist :D

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Thanks for linking it! Looking forward to reading this :D

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No problem. Brandon Sanderson is an amazing author and I'd recommend his longer stuff too if you enjoy these.

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Glad you found something, and as I see already has been answered.

He's an author where you can't do something wrong.
There is also the Arcanum Unbound, a big collection of short stories - some are extras for other books but I think Shadows, Sixth and Emperor's are included as well.

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What about Snapshot, thought that one would fit your taste the most.

When you want to try a not short book his new one Skyward is a real gem, a straightforward Planetary Fiction i prefer to use the term Science Fiction only in cases where the science stuff is more common / a central aspect like in Star Trek with a young female lead with a sharp tongue. She wants to become a pilot to overcome the heritage her father left her Chapter 2 Spoiler by fleeing the formation&deserting in one of the important fights which tipped the scales towards humanity a little bit .

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Snapshot looks fucking awesome! Added that to my readlist! Gonna check it out soon. The length is also making me excited :D

Added Skyward to my readlist, though the length scares me off a bit. But that doesn't mean I won't read it for sure. Means I'll have something to look forward to when I'm ready for more hefty books :D

Thanks a lot! You've given me 2 more books to read!

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For me, how much I enjoy an audio book can depend on the narrator. So one thing you might do is look and see what other audio books that narrator has done.

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How short is "short"? ^_^'

I should put up a disclaimer that I haven't actually read (listened to?) any Audiobooks myself. Though I could recommend a few simply on the fact that their creator is a great writer and comedian.
So, yeah, maybe check out Will Save the Galaxy for Food, Mogworld, Differently Morphous and Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw. They're all around 10-14 hours long with comedic undertones. (At the links there's a short summary for each and an audio sample.)

5 years ago*
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Short for me would be up to 200 pages, but I'm fine with up to around 350 pages? Over that it'd get a bit too long to start off. In time, I'd like to increase that to even further if the shorter stories pique my interest further.

Mogworld's actually one of the two I tried reading. I abandoned it around half way through. It started to get a bit filler-y for me and the comedy didn't really hit me. Will probably try listening to it again though. Yahtzee's great though, so I'll give his other books a shot as well. Thanks for reminding he has other stuff too :D

5 years ago
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I think if you found something that you enjoyed, length wouldn't be an issue. With that n mind I'd highly recommend the audiobook version of Andy Weir's The Martian (even if you've seen the film it's well worth it because of the differences and the quality) and All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, which is the source material for the scifi film Edge of Tomorrow.

Otherwise why not just listen to some gaming podcasts? (Retronauts, Watch Out for Fireballs, Digital Logik)

5 years ago
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I do listen to gaming podcasts. The Co-Optional Podcast, a little of the Jimquisition (though that gets a bit preachy often) and a few other smaller ones. The issue is that while I enjoy them, they never really contribute much to my life. They're endless discussion on games and while they're fun to listen to, I couldn't tell the difference between most episodes because they were just a bunch of talking with nothing to take away from them. With narratives or other such experiences, I tend to be able to take something away from them as a lesson or as something to just remember. That doesn't really happen with the normal podcast format.

The Martian's on my readlist now though. Thanks for the recommendation :D

5 years ago
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I probably enjoy reading a bit more than audiobooks (just because i read so quickly). However, I've been getting into audiobooks at times where reading is impractical. In no particular order some of my recent favs:

-The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman (short, light fantasy)
-The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman (amazing multi cast narration of the book)
-The Stand - Stephen King (very long, but a crazy good story)
-The Girl with all the Gifts - M R Carey (haven't finished it yet, but excellent narration)

5 years ago
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The Stand seems a bit too much for me currently, but I added The Graveyard Book and The Golden Compass to my readlist. The Girl with all the Gifts was recommended before so that's why I couldn't add it again ;)

5 years ago
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The Stand took me over a year to finish :/
Had to mention it because it because the story is great once you get into it. Should also mention the Golden Compass has two sequels that are equally good.

5 years ago
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Forced reading kills reading. Was forced to read a book in school that I had previously enjoyed outside of school and suddenly reading the book was an awful experience.

My recommendation would be (paper, not audio) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's one other friends who were book skeptics definitely enjoyed.

5 years ago
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I agree that forcing people to read just kills the idea of reading for many. I know that you have to read to expand your horizons, but at least have less restrictions. Have an overall topic with a bunch of recommendations, allow reading for extra credit, give kids access to other forms for books, like e-books and audiobooks. Plus, reading stuff often felt like reading for the sake of a test. "Gotta remember this detail since it might be in the test" rather than "I should remember this since it might play a part in the plot later"

5 years ago
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I was lucky that some of the books I had to read in school were actually engaging and I ended up finishing the reading faster than the class asked for.
Which 2 books did you try?

5 years ago
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The first one I tried was "Mogworld" by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. The humor felt a bit flat to me and the midsection of the book kind of meandered a lot for me, so I just stopped.
The second one I actually just can't find anymore... It was a New York bestseller about a deadly disease spreading around and how the people tried to stop it. It was a one-word title as well. "Infection" or "Infestation" or "Plague" or something else disease-related. That book was interesting, but it focused more on the minor details about the investigator's and scientists' lives rather than the actual plot. When someone said something, they couldn't just say it, they had to say it with some descriptors attached to it that just led to other tangents. Felt a bit tedious to go through it.

5 years ago
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Seems to me that maybe you want a more straightforward and exciting book instead of the more detailed and linguistically elaborate books? Do you think maybe you want to try some young adults book? Those don't tend to drown on and on...

Also, have you tried (or consider trying) really popular books like Harry Potter or the Narnia series? I mean, they're popular for a reason right?

5 years ago
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Harry Potter went on my list almost automatically, yeah. Also now added Narnia, which I'll most likely like.

I might even get into books that get into the nitty-gritty a lot, but those definitely didn't cut it in the end. You've probably pushed me in the right direction though when looking for books on my own.

5 years ago
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Well, good luck with those books :3 And let us know if you end up liking those books or not~ I'm sure with the ton of suggestions here you'll have a reading list work 5 years at least!

5 years ago
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Closed 5 years ago by zeruel132.