It seems like I may be dipping my toe back into "reading" through audiobooks. I realized that instead of listening to random YouTubers at work, I can listen to more intentional writing this way.

How do y'all feel about them? If you listen, what sorts of productions do you prefer? Are there any particular ones you think are spectacular, a cut above the rest? Do you listen to them in addition to reading the book as like a companion piece or instead of the book?

I've listened to some GraphicAudio books now and I like having a full cast for the characters, they've got some good voice actors. Though they're listed as unabridged, I worry they've still perhaps dropped paragraphs. But I think I'd end up zoning out more on single narrator books.

Part of why I never engaged before is because I have poor auditory processing, so I figured I just couldn't keep up. At least for simpler texts, I haven't had much problem, and it may be helping me improve in that respect. I hadn't tried before, but now I can watch YT vids at double speed without missing anything.

I started since my partner was interested so I set up audiobookshelf and some other services for grabbing files. It's been a great piece of software to use, there's other software that can manage and serve audiobooks, but none puts them first like abs does. Do recommend if you're interested in self-hosting audiobooks.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Ray Porter narrated audiobooks. Sometimes I’ll give listen simply BECAUSE it’s Ray Porter.

But at some point, every book starts to sound the same, and his tendencies and flavour as a voice actor start to color the story. You can almost predict what voice he’s going to use and when, and it starts to take away from the story a bit.

So I was wondering if you all had any recommendations for great audiobooks that came to mind simply because the narrator was amazing?

I think I feel the same way about RC Bray. There’s always a Skippy just waiting to make an appearance.

Marc Thompson (of Thrawn and Star Wars) is tremendous and memorable as well.