June is National Audiobook Month and as part of the celebration Kristen and I are listing our favorite audiobooks. Audiobooks are a great way to enjoy books when it’s not convenient to read them, like during commutes to and from work or when you’re working outdoors. The best audiobooks help provide an extra dimension to books, giving the characters and the plot more life than just letters on a page.

Here are some of my favorite audiobooks:

Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Narrated by Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, Neal Stephenson)
I had first listened to Anathem after hearing how great an audiobook it was from other science fiction fans. The narration does a great job in pulling you into the story, and the emotions felt by the characters come through amazingly. Another nice touch is the Gregorian chant songs that are played in between parts of the book, it adds to some of the story elements that tie religion to the scientific world. Read my full review of Anathem here.

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin (Narrated by Steve Martin)
I’ve always been a big fan of listening to autobiographies narrated by the authors; the best ones actually feel like you’re having a conversation with the author. Steve Martin achieves this in the audio version of Born Standing Up (see my review for more details). I especially liked that Martin breaks out the banjo and plays a few tunes throughout the book, it’s a side of him I hadn’t seen before and it was a nice touch.

Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers (Narrated by Ilyana Kadushin (Books 1-4), Matt Walters (Book 4))
A few years ago, you couldn’t have paid me enough to read a book about teenage vampires. Kristen was actually the one to get me to listen to the audio version of Twilight while on a long road trip. Ilyana Kadushin is excellent as Bella and really lets you become lost in Stephenie Meyer’s story. Just like Kristen, now when I read any of the Twilight novels, I hear Kadushins voice in my head. That’s the sign of a great audiobook.

More Information than You Require by John Hodgman (Narrated by Narrated by John Hodgman, Ricky Gervais, Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis, Dick Cavett, Sarah Vowell, Ira Glass, Rachel Maddow)
What separates Hodgman’s book from other audiobooks is that it’s not so much a recording of him reading his book, but has more of a feel of a comedy stand up routine with lots of invited guests. There are lots of fun moments where Hodgman goes “off script” and interacts with the other narrators, making it more of a special experience that you wouldn’t get from just reading the book. Of particular note is the accompaniment of Johnathan Coulton on a few musical numbers, including the jingle for Dick Van Patten’s Hobo Chilli for Dogs. The audiobook also contains a recording of him reading 700 molemen names and their occupations (Hodgman devotes a significant portion of the book to the molemen and their steeds), and 365 short podcast like recordings titled “Today In the Past” which act as a one-a-day type calendar, but just in audio format.

Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer (Narrated by Nathaniel Parker (Books 1-5)
To be honest, on the book quality alone, Artemis Fowl would not make this list. It’s a good book and all, but the real reason I love the audiobook is the narration. Parker brings a good Irish accent to the story that seems authentic and gives an added maturity to Artemis Fowl’s voice.

What are your favorite audiobooks? Where do you listen to your audiobooks?

To me, the sign of a good book is that you want to read it again after you finish it. The sign of a great book is not only that you want to read it again, but you can pick up that book at any time and any place in the story and start reading. Anathem is one a few books that fall in this category. Neal Stephenson’s story weighs in at just under 1000 pages (32 hours for the audiobook), yet does a wonderful job in creating good characters and an engaging story that tackles a wide variety of topics (from environmental to metaphysical to linguistics).

The story takes place on an Earth-like planet named Arbre and you can infer from the story and the timeline provided by the author in the introduction that it takes place in the future. The world population is essentially split into two groups; the avout, men and women who study math and sciences while living in compounds called maths or concents (similar to a convent, but in an ivy league college setting), and the saeculars, which don’t appear to care much about math or science and take technology for granted. The story focuses on Erasmus, an avout who lives in the Concent of St. Edhard. He enjoys his life in the math with his friends (a great collection of characters that represent the strong, the smart, the brave), when a world event arises which leads him to undertake wild adventures inside and outside the mathic world.

I really enjoyed reading Anathem, and continue to do so after multiple readings and listenings of the audiobook. While the storyline is great science fiction writing, there are also great action sequences and touching moments. I especially enjoyed how well the characters were written and developed, their actions and dialogues remained true to their roles in the story. To me it was important because it would have been an easy cop out to make some of the main characters smarter, cooler or more mature than one would have expected in real life. The science presented in the book is very well thought out and gives the reader enough evidence to believe the main plot point (or at least suspend their disbelief).

While I gave Anathem five stars, it’s important to note that there are some issues with the book. Stephenson’s books tend to be slow for the first fifth or so of the story, and Anathem is no different. Many people who have read it find it a struggle for 200 pages and then it picks up significantly. I also felt this way the first time I listened to the audiobook, but found that to not be as much an issue in subsequent readings, probably because I know that the plot picks up later on. I would also warn you that the Stephenson created language that is spoken and referred to throughout the book (anathem, concent, avout and saecular are part of it) can be a little distracting and confusing at first. The print version of the novel contains a glossary section, but the audiobook doesn’t provide you with these references, yet most of the terms can be discerned based on the context in which it is presented. Lastly, the book does delve into some hard core science and mathematics, some of which I had to go and look up on the web to make sure I was understanding it right. If you are not a big fan of science you may find yourself a little lost at times, but you can use wikipedia or anathem wiki to help guide you.

I would recommend Anathem to any science fiction fan who enjoys stories based more on the science than the fantasy side of the genre. People who enjoy alternative history narratives may also find it interesting, with the caveat about the heavy science content. It is age appropriate for adults and mature young adult readers, mainly because of the length of the book and the complexity of the story line. It is a great audiobook listen, especially if you have a commute. The audiobook is excellent and is narrated by Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris and Neal Stephenson himself.

There is also a trailer that helped tease the book in 2008. It does a good job of giving you a flavor of what the book is about and provides you excellent imagery for when you read the book.

These are some of my favorite quotes from Anathem, though I do warn you that the last one has a slight spoiler to the main storyline:

Nothing is more important than that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways. Fraa Orolo

Fine. After the picnic I’ll go north. Though I do not understand what that means. Erasmus
Then keep going north until you understand it, Fraa Jad said.

Feel like a stroll while we await massive retaliation? Fraa Lio

Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor. Erasmus to his half-sister Cord

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars | Publisher: William Morrow | Pages: 960 | Source: Purchased | Buy on Amazon