Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

What audiobooks are you listening to?

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Tue August 9th, 2016, 4:49 pm

I just finished the last of Susan Wise Bauer's 'horizontal history' series where she goes around the world recording what was happening, in broad terms, so far as there is any record of it.
The reader is a gentleman with a wry sense of humor and a lovely oxford accent. But there is so much information in these three audiobooks --the history of the ancient world, the history of the medieval world, and the history of the renaissance world -- that I'm going to listen to them again. Together, that's 70 hours of listening, which should be great for a looong trip.
(I confess that it's been great to fall asleep to, now that I have sleap earphones. That comforting oxford drone... :mrgreen:

User avatar
Ludmilla
Bibliophile
Posts: 1346
Joined: September 2008
Location: Georgia USA

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by Ludmilla » Tue September 13th, 2016, 7:29 pm

In an effort to get my NF reading mojo back, I've listened to a couple of NF books:

The World without Us by Alan Weisman, which got a lot of buzz when it first came out, and Four Against the Arctic by David Roberts, which is a survival tale about six 18thC Russian sailors who were stranded for six years on an island in the Svalbard archipelago. I kind of wish I had the print for the latter so I could cross-reference some of the places and names in the book. Both were quite interesting to listen to.

User avatar
Ludmilla
Bibliophile
Posts: 1346
Joined: September 2008
Location: Georgia USA

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by Ludmilla » Wed September 28th, 2016, 12:13 pm

Listening to another exploration book: In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides and narrated by Arthur Morey.

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Wed September 28th, 2016, 4:05 pm

I'm keeping my head out of new fiction at the moment, because I'm trying to finish an edit of my own novel and I get distracted. So I'm listening to history courses instead. I just discovered that there is an app for 'the great courses' from the teaching company, and I have quite an extensive library with them. So I'm re-listening to a series on the Middle Ages by Kenneth Daileader.

SGM
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 700
Joined: March 2010

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by SGM » Thu September 29th, 2016, 11:38 am

Second Patrick Rothfuss (UK narration). I'm about two-thirds of the way through. There has been criticism that, as with the GRR Martin novels, it shows the lack of editorial control and therefore suffers from 'bloat', but it's not too bad. There was a fairly long over-blown section that seems to have gone nowhere but I am now past that and, hopefully, back on track. Of course, there has been a long wait for the final novel. This runs to some 40 hours which is useful because I am spending a lot of time on handicraft projects at the moment and I have not been able to train myself to read a Kindle-version effectively whilst completing these projects although I am getting better and might achieve it in a couple of months.

I have made some very bad choices with the Great Courses series and as therefore very unlikely to risk them again.
Currently reading - Emergence of a Nation State by Alan Smith

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Thu September 29th, 2016, 8:03 pm

SGM wrote: I have made some very bad choices with the Great Courses series and as therefore very unlikely to risk them again.
Can I ask which courses they were? It's always good to be warned.

SGM
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 700
Joined: March 2010

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by SGM » Fri September 30th, 2016, 6:08 pm

MLE (Emily Cotton) wrote:
SGM wrote: I have made some very bad choices with the Great Courses series and as therefore very unlikely to risk them again.
Can I ask which courses they were? It's always good to be warned.
The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations - Andrew C Fix. Extremely wide-ranging and covering some areas/periods I am not particularly knowledgeable about so although the style was very irritating and I was suspicious of the content, it wasn't until I got to the parts I have reasonable knowledge of that I knew he was not just making little errors but completely misrepresenting / getting the vast majority wrong (and this was not just a difference of interpretation). Anachronisms abound. It was so inaccurate it was almost funny. He completely missed the point on so many occasions.

A History of England From the Tudors to the Stuarts - Robert Bucholz. Although in defence of this, it does state it is English history for the non-English so I might be being a little unfair.

However, I have had some decent stuff - War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500-2000 by Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius. I haven't gone very far through this but the early stages are interesting. I won't be able to judge its accuracy until I get to a later point when I am in familiar territory. However, I do find the analagies a little homespun but not as bad as the Fix one above.

I have had some really good stuff through iTunes U, particularly Keith Wrightson. But you don't have to get these through iTunes, they are available all over the internet.
Currently reading - Emergence of a Nation State by Alan Smith

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Fri September 30th, 2016, 9:47 pm

I bought that Andrew Fix course, and you're right, ti was horrible. His most egregious error was confusing the death of Henry I's heir (William Adelin, by the sinking of the white ship, 1120) with the death of Henry VIII's heir Arthur in 1502. Absolutely jaw-dropping incompetent! I ceased listening from that point out.

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Fri September 30th, 2016, 9:50 pm

But I can recommend Kenneth Daileader. He does talk as though he has a cold, and has an annoying tendency to put long 'aaah' sounds in the pauses, but the material is excellent and well-presented. I have 3of his courses: Early, High, and Late Middle Ages

SGM
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 700
Joined: March 2010

Re: What audiobooks are you listening to?

Post by SGM » Sat October 1st, 2016, 7:35 am

MLE (Emily Cotton) wrote:I bought that Andrew Fix course, and you're right, ti was horrible. His most egregious error was confusing the death of Henry I's heir (William Adelin, by the sinking of the white ship, 1120) with the death of Henry VIII's heir Arthur in 1502. Absolutely jaw-dropping incompetent! I ceased listening from that point out.
I'm afraid I had bigger issues than just simple factual errors. James VI and I and his relationshiop with Parliament was just WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. He also refers to Francis Bacon as the Prime Minister which just proves that he doesn't understand his context at all and so much else. I am not sure how he got away with it. He also completely misunderstands Oliver Cromwell's role throughout the Civil War and during the Commonwealth and Protectorate. I would be speechless with fury I were one of his students.

Interestingly, however, he does say that the Medici started collecting art because they were bankrupted by Edward III defaulting on his loans. I don't know how true that is but it does make a good story.
Currently reading - Emergence of a Nation State by Alan Smith

Post Reply

Return to “Audiobooks”