DNF: Driving’s Not Fun

So I’m giving up on a second audiobook, Blackberry Winter. It’s not awful, like my previous audio DNF, just flat characters doing predictable things, with a dash of melodrama. Also there were some weird moments where I couldn’t quite picture what was happening. How can Abby be pointing, eating a forkful of pad thai, and opening a folder? Is she secretly an octopus? How can Ethan step away from Cassandra so that she can’t hear his phone conversation and yet still be so close she can be feeding him? For that matter, how can Claire see him through a doorway, when he can’t see her?

It’s underwhelming, but at the same time, it’s not really worse than plenty of the books I’ve contentedly read in other situations. It’s nowhere near as bad as some of the books I’ve been assigned to review. I’m not enjoying it, so it’s going back to the library tomorrow, and hopefully my next find will be a better fit.

I don’t know if I’m not very good at picking audiobooks, or if I just enjoy the act of reading so much that I’m already happy and I’m not so harsh on novels. I don’t particularly enjoy driving (Understatement. Actually, I deeply hate it. Driving is annoying, stupid, expensive, and environmentally wasteful, but I just haven’t been able to convince my entire company to move into my building), so I’m already not enjoying myself.

Anyway, suggestions for audiobooks would be greatly appreciated! Books I’ve enjoyed listening to include The InterestingsGame of Thrones, Hunger Games, Chasing Harry Winston, Citizen Girl, and Baker Towers.

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5 Responses to DNF: Driving’s Not Fun

  1. Robin says:

    I love audiobooks but then again I drive nearly 3 hours a day for my commute so it keeps me sane.

  2. Andrea says:

    Do you like Pratchett? The Tiffany audiobooks are spectacular; the Feegles in particular are well voiced. I would recommend any of the Pratchett books read by Stephen Briggs.

    Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz books (Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians is the first) are good, as is Jim C Hines Princess series (The Stepsister Scheme is the first). The Harry Potter audiobooks are OK; the first one or two are weaker than the rest IMO, but the narrator improves as the series progresses.

    And of course my favorite is Rob Ingles narrating the unabridged versions of the Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, but that’s only good if you like the books (can’t recall your opinion of them off the top of my head).

    I, uh, may listen to audiobooks a lot (iTunes says I have just over 46 GB of audiobooks … ) so if you don’t like these, let me know and I could probably recommend a few dozen more. 🙂

    • Meg Stivison says:

      My dad recommended Harry Potter too, I’m on the waitlist for it at library.

      I liked The Hobbit, but thought LOTR was too slow-moving and not my favorite fantasy adventure. (I know, it’s nerd blasphemy not to love it!)

      I had this idea that I was going to get all the bestsellers on audiobook from the library, but it turns out that OTHER people want to read them too! Ugh, waiting!

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