I’m looking for easy-to-listen-to fiction audiobooks. Something I can tune in while doing other stuff without getting distracted.
I find some authors have styles that are a bit more sophisticated than others. The more thought-provoking, the more difficult I find to enjoy an audiobook while doing something else. I catch myself stopping whatever I’m doing to pay attention to the book, which is not what I want.
So for example I’ve found The Witcher books very easy to listen to, it wouldn’t matter if I missed a few seconds and I never found myself stopping to ponder about the text itself. The narrator was great too. Also bonus points as it was a long saga of books.
In contrast I would never want to listen to a Terry Pratchett book while doing something else. He’s probably my favourite English author but I find he’s too much of a genius, and my poor brain wouldn’t be able to digest it all if I’m not giving it my attention 100%.
I hope this makes sense?
How’s your experience with audiobooks?
Project Hail Mary is my #1 fav audiobook, hands down. Just don’t look up anything about it beforehand, because spoilers would really ruin it. All you need to know its about a scientist on a spaceship who has a very important mission.
This is a tremendous book. Also my favorite.
HOWEVER
I don’t know if it fits op’s requirements of being able to work to it without focusing on it. I certainly wouldn’t want to have my first experience with this story cheapened because I wasn’t paying attention.
So entertaining, so enthralling. I love that book with all my heart.
Fair enough. I missed that requirement. Personally, I wouldn’t be able to listen to most audiobooks while working, but I guess it depends on what kind of work. If it’s mindless work like washing dishes or driving, no problem.
Right, I wouldn’t see the point of listening to a book only to tune it all out
But I’m not judging anyone for doing it.
This is also my favorite. If you haven’t yet, check out the expeditionary force. First 2 or 3 are free on audible Plus. The first half of the first book is a bit slow but once the AI moves in it gets funny as hell.
I’ll check them out. I just started the bobiverse books, which are also similar and have the same narrator.
Bobiverse is great, I’ve listened to them multiple times. RayPorter is a god.
Jazz hands! Freaking excellent audio book.
Emergency Skin is also really good, but its a short-story.
Try the Expanse series. It’s long and very well done, but you can tune in and out and still get the story.
I set a goal for myself to get through as many of Stephen King’s books as I can before the end of the year. To date, I’ve gone through over half of the Dark Tower series, The Shining, Dr. Sleep, It, Later, Under The Dome, Bag of Bones, Desperation, If It Bleeds, and I’m working on The Stand right now. Most of them are quite long, 15 - 50ish hours.
If you’re not into horror, I still highly recommend The Dark Tower series. The recordings for the first 5 books are over 100 hours. They unfortunately had to change narrators in the 5th book, as the original sadly passed away. He did an amazing job at bringing the characters to life.
If It Bleeds is a short story collection, but it contains a sequel to King’s The Outsider, followed by Holly, which just came out last month.
I listened to the extended version of the stand.
It was 48 hours long and has a diatribe about people complaining about him being verbose.
Excellent storyteller, but he is long winded.
And it really didn’t make the ending any better… I didn’t feel rewarded after that slog. Personal victory maybe?
Yeah… Me neither.
I like audio books because they are slower than I read, which is more peaceful. I read words all day. I’m just done with that in my personal time, aside from the fact that I can listen to books when doing other things.
Reckoners Series - Written by Brandon Sanderson - read by MacLeod Andrews
In fact, I’d probably recommend any of his books/audiobooks. His stories are very gripping but also very easy to follow, in my opinion.
Maybe I should try it. I’ve read Mistborn only, I have mixed feelings about it but now that you mention it I think Sanderson would make a good easy listening type.
Lord of the Rings read by Andy Serkis
Any of Naomi Novik’s books, particularly the Deadly Education series
The first two Hyperion books. (I’ve only read the first one but will read the second soon)
Those will get you started if you haven’t read them already.
Second the Hyperion books, though they are a fair slog, but well worth it!!
I see a lot of recommendations for the deadly education series but I did not enjoy it at all. I finished the first book out of pure sunk cost, but I really did not like the book or the narration.
If you’re looking for less YA, you could try my favourite book series, The Magicians.
Is the magicians by Lev Grossman? If so, my library has that series on audiobook and I just placed a hold on the first one. Thanks for the recommendation!
That’s right! You’ve made an excellent decision. I sound like a PR person for Lev Grossman at this point but those books are absolutely fantastic.
Another one to check out that is slightly more adult oriented are the Bloodsworn books by John Gwynn. Sadly, his daughter passed away so he hasn’t yet spoken of the release date but of the third book yet, though the name was released recently so I believe it is being worked on. It’s too be titled ‘Fury of the Gods’. From what I can tell, that couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy so it’s truly heartbreaking, but his literature is fantastic.
I’ve listened to the series and agree that they were great. I had watched the TV series and they have different enough plots that they’re independently enjoyable as well.
The Andy Serkis narration felt like watching the movies again, but with hours of bonus content, which is also the original content
It did me too! And I’m not ashamed to say I liked his Gandalf better! But his dwarves were a little too typical for me. Poor Gimley
LOTR would be pretty good easy listening, it has a very slow pace and it’s a long trilogy… Which is why I never finished the books. Unfortunately I’ve watched the movies so I’ve spoiled most of the story, but I’ll keep in mind the other recommendations. Thanks!
There is enough difference and stuff cut out of the movies to make it worth it to me. I watched the movies first and the books just heightened my enjoyment of both.
To be fair my wife and I met at the third movie in the theater so I may be biased.
This one is more niche but it’s among my favourite audiobooks for both great writing and a stellar vocal performance.
I highly recommend the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett and performed by Toby Longsworth. Or if you want to dip your toes then try the first one Xenos.
It’s set in the Warhammer 40K universe but you don’t need to know much lore to get into it. The trilogy is a pretty good primer into 40K.
I just finished the third book last week and really enjoyed them. The narration was superb also.
Off to be the wizard. By Scott Meyer. It is hilarious and fantastic. Very similar in style to the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Absolutely amazing series. As an IT nerd and fantasy enjoyer this book has everything while it’s also very funny.
I can agree with this as well. Cool series. Plus the book (digital version) is animated!
Discworld is my go-to these days. Goes well with cross stitching
In contrast I would never want to listen to a Terry Pratchett book while doing something else
Ah well. Sarah J. Maas was also a fun experience. It’s so bad it’s good. I went with A court of thorns and roses but I hear her other series follow a similar vein. It’s hard to miss the important details. Look for the Graphic Audio releases.
Pratchett has the highest rate of “that whole paragraph was great so I’m going to read it again now” and “that’s such a clever remark I’m now taking 5 minutes to think about it” out of any other authors I’ve ever read.
And you can do cross stiching whilst listening to it? I’m jealous. Thanks for the other recommendation, I’ll look into it :)
What other authors have high clever-remark ratings, in your experience? Because I find myself near the end of the Discworld series and want to continue with something similarly engaging. Basically, the opposite of what you requested :)
Ah, I feel for you, but unfortunately I don’t know of anyone else as engaging in a similar way. He really is an outlier.
Have you ever read anything by Joe Abercrombie? I’ve enjoyed the Last Argument of Kings trilogy, it’s not humorous, it’s not as thought provoking, but it’s definitely engaging enough I couldn’t divide my attention to work while listening.
Pretty much all major books are published as audiobooks as well. Even ones that have computer code written in them, which is not something that you’d ever expect to have read out loud.
It used to be that books would be “narrated for the blind” where not a lot of attention would be put into the audio. Nowadays, there tends to be a lot more effort put into them. I suppose that’s because they don’t need to be packaged as 12 to 20 cassette tapes or CDs any longer.
There’s the added element that a narrator can ruin or improve things. The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a wonderful book, but the narrator displays an unprofessionally slim knowledge of physics.
Then there’s World War Z. I’m not sure that there’s a better way to tell that story than the audio book. It’s the exact interview style that the author intended.
Orson Scott Card really likes audio books, so the Ender’s Game series is really good.
I can recommend “The Realm of the Elderlings” audiobooks. James Langton has a British accent and it’s just wonderful to listen to. He does voices for other characters fairly well too. Great book series too.
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
This book did this for me. It was funny and totally casual.
The ice wind dale Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore is a great series set in the forgotten realms of dungeons and dragons. There’s even a free podcast audiobook of it on Spotify!
I really enjoyed Stephen Fry’s Greek mythology audiobooks. He wrote three, basically a modern editorial of the mythology cleaned up a little bit and presented as a more linear sequence of events. He did the golden and silver ages, followed by the Trojan war.
I also really enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, narrated by himself. They are all easy to follow, and entertaining. Neil Gaiman’s book isn’t particularly to ribald as far as mythology goes, and my kids loved listening to it in the car.
Edit: also from the young adult section, Abhorsen and Sabriel are on audible narrated by Tim Curry, who makes them a hoot. Don’t recommend the other two as much. The books weren’t as good and they aren’t narrated by Tim Curry.
I recently listened to Daisy Jones and the Six and the audiobook was incredible. The book was written as a series of interviews, which worked great as an audiobook. There were definitely times I got a bit distracted but it didn’t impede my understanding too much. It does take a bit to absorb all the characters, so you’d probably want to listen uninterrupted for the first ~hour.
Killers of a Certain Age is another good one. Written about mature women assassins. It’s a fun thriller and an easy listen.
Final rec is any of Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge series as read by John Lee. They’re long as hell, but straightforwardly told. There’s something I just love about how John read them, too.
Please… for all that is good… listen to world war z, and the dark tower series.
