Hi everyone. I'm Catriona and welcome back
to my Guide to Audiobooks series.
If you didn't see my last video where I share
with you some ways to get audiobooks
for free or for a reasonable price then
I will leave a link to that video in the
description below. But today I'm gonna be
sharing with you some of my favorite audiobooks.
And these are ones that I
would definitely recommend if you are
just starting out listening to audiobooks.
While the actual story does
play a huge part in the enjoyment of
listening to an audiobook and the ones
that I do mention today are stories that
I did enjoy, I tried to narrow down my
options by selecting those that I
thought had superior narration
performances, because the narration can
make or break an audiobook.
If you don't like a narrator's voice,
or the performance is really poor,
it can completely ruin the experience of
listening to that audiobook even if the
story itself is superb. That's why I
would highly recommend sampling the
audiobook first before you commit to
buy it, if you do purchase audiobooks or
have a subscription to services llike
Audible or Scribd. That way you're less
likely to waste your money on an audiobook
that you just can't stand listening to.
And without further ado
let's jump into some of my favorite audiobooks.
The first three that I'm gonna be
recommending are ones that I think
are pretty good starting points if you
haven't tried audiobooks before or if
you're having a little bit of trouble
getting into them, because this is where
I started really getting into audiobooks.
And that was by listening to
memoirs that are narrated by the
authors themselves. It's nice knowing
that what you're hearing is how the
story was supposed to be read.
The authors are speaking it the way that
they intended it to be read with all of
the really specific intonations and all of
the dialogue, for example.
Not the way that the narrator interprets it.
Two of the first memoirs that I listened to
were Bossypants by Tina Fey and
Yes Please by Amy Poehler. I think with these
two in particular it was definitely a
bonus that these were written by
comedians which made for a much more
humorous and just overall enjoyable
experience listening to the audiobooks.
I often found myself laughing at some of
the hilarious anecdotes that they shared,
and just overall it was much more
engaging having that humor.
I think one of the interesting things about
Yes Please by Amy Poehler, I think it was the
last chapter, the recording of it was actually
from a live reading that she did to an
audience, to a crowd, which was very different.
So you kind of actually got some
other people's reactions to her reading
that chapter as well.
Another memoir that I listened to a little later on is
Binge by Tyler Oakley, of course also narrated
by Tyler Oakley. Tyler has such a bright
and bubbly personality that you just
can't help love listening to his voice
and hearing about his life. We also see
some different sides of him as he talks
about some of the things that he's
struggled with in the past.
And in talking about these things he also
touches upon some of the life lessons
that he's learnt because of those difficulties.
I also really liked that Tyler,
and I can't remember if in Tina Fey
and Amy Poehler's memoirs they did
this they may have but I listened to those
ones earlier on so it's not quite as
fresh in my memory, but I liked that every
so often Tyler would kind of pause his
reading and interject with some
additional notes or thoughts, which made
for a much more unique experience
because that wasn't something that you
actually got from the physical book
because while he was narrating it he
would stop and tell you another funny anecdote.
One thing I do want to mention
about memoir audiobooks is how if you
don't actually also have a copy of the
physical book you probably might miss
out on some of the experience, especially
if those memoirs have photographs in them.
I didn't realize until later on
while listening that there were some
photographs within the physical books
and I didn't actually have a copy of them.
So if that's something that you
don't want to miss out on I probably
suggest finding a copy from your library
so you can have a flick through those if
they are referenced to in the actual
audiobook or you just want to have a look and see
at some of the hilarious photos
that are included. Now moving on to some
of my favorite fiction audiobooks.
The first one I'm going to be mentioning and
would highly highly recommend is
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
and this is narrated by a cast
of over 20 voice actors including Olivia Taylor Dudley,
Lincoln Hoppe, Jonathan McClain and more.
The sequel Gemina is also narrated
by a cast of voice actors but I
haven't actually listened to that one... yet.
One of the main reasons why I'm
recommending this one is
that a lot of times people can have trouble
differentiating between different
characters when they're speaking,
especially if it's switching between points
of view or if it's in third person and
you're following different characters
throughout the story, because it really
depends on the narrator how much they're
able to manipulate their voice to really
differentiate between different characters.
So having a cast of voice actors
with a different person narrating
every character or at least narrating
like maximum 2 if there's a lot of minor
characters, then this is probably an
audiobook that you'd want to give a try,
because it's pretty unlikely that
you're gonna get confused about who
is speaking at that moment.
Illuminae also has different voice effects, sound
effects, and music as well so it actually
sounds like you're listening to a movie,
you just don't have the visuals.
In addition to that it's quite fast-paced,
there's a lot of action which makes for a
really easy time listening to as an
audiobook because when you are listening
to audiobooks that do have quite a lot
of lulls in terms of the pacing it can
be really easy for your thoughts to
begin to wander, which is not what you
want. Again if you are starting out
listening to audiobooks this is one that
I would recommend because it's much
harder to get distracted when the
story is really gripping. I often get
asked by people if I would recommend
reading or listening to the audiobook
for Illuminae. Which one I would
recommend doing more so than the other.
And honestly if you have the means to do
both I would recommend reading it and
listening to it because the physical
book and the audiobook really are
different experiences and they both
bring something new to the reading
experience. The main thing that you lose
in listening to the audiobook is the
really cool images and the way that it
manipulates text on the page in the
physical book, so when you're listening
to it you don't get any sense of how the
actual page is set up and that is
something that I think is really
incredible about these books that I
think works super well so you do lose
that in listening to the audiobook but
like I mentioned before the audiobook
sounds like you're listening to a movie
so I feel like you can get really drawn
into the story in that way and having
all of those really cool sound effects and
also the music as well, that is lost when
reading the physical book.
Next I want to recommend
The Diviners, and Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray,
narrated by January LaVoy.
This book does have one narrator and there
are quite a few characters that we
follow throughout these books but even
still I didn't actually find myself
getting confused between who was
speaking at certain points because the
narrator, January LaVoy, is incredibly
talented. She uses different accents
really well and she's able to manipulate
her voice in really slight ways that
actually make quite a lot of difference
in the way that that voice sounds.
The different voices that she puts on for
different characters was just done so
incredibly well and it didn't sound gimmicky.
It didn't sound like she was forcing
a voice that just sounded really fake.
It was honestly just done really
seamlessly and I actually felt like I
was in the 1920s setting of this book
while listening to the audiobook.
The final book that I'm going to be
recommending today is The Martian by Andy Weir.
I think my enjoyment of this was
really down to the combination of the
narrator and the actual characterization
of the main character Mark Watney that
was just a perfect match for this book.
Mark Watney is a really funny character
and like I mentioned earlier having
humor in audiobooks is a great way to
keep me engaged while listening.
And especially in the case of The Martian
I found that during those periods when the
characters are going into the details
about the mathematics and the science
which does not go well with me, we do not
understand each other, goes in one ear and
out the other, even during those moments
I was actually intrigued. The narration was
able to keep me hooked even when there
were descriptions of things that don't
really interest me at all. So I think
that in itself speaks pretty highly for
how well this was narrated.
So those are just a few of the audio books that
I would recommend giving a try.
In addition to those that I mentioned in this video
I will also leave a few more listed in
the description of this video that I
really enjoyed and would recommend too.
There's so many audiobooks that I
have read and really enjoyed but these
are ones that I find to be really good
starting points whether that be because
they had different voice actors, they
were really engaging and you don't get
distracted as much but if you are a
little more familiar with audiobooks
and just wants some extra recommendations
then definitely check out those that I've
listed below. I would also love to hear
about any more audiobooks that you have
listened to and would definitely
recommend to other people whether they
are good starting points or just overall
audiobooks that you really really
enjoyed and want other people to listen to.
Feel free to leave those down in the
comments if you'd like. I guess that's
about all that I have for this video so
thank you so much for watching.
Don't forget to check out the other videos in
this Guide to Audiobooks series.
I will have a link to the playlist in the
description as well and next week I will
be back with another video talking about
some tips and tricks for listening to audiobooks.
But until next time I will
talk to you guys in the comments. Bye!
