One of my blogging goals this year is to feature more guest posts, and to invite my friends and family to have a voice on my blog. In that spirit I’m very happy to present a guest recommendations post from my lovely Mom, Ruth.
My mom is a voracious audiobook consumer. She loves knitting, and sewing and designing quilts, dolls, and doll clothing, which she writes about on her blog, Tricks and Manners. All of her time creating and making is done to the peaceful narration of a good audiobook. She loves classic novels, and leads a “Classics Revisited” book group at the public library where she works as a librarian. There are often many different versions and narrators for classics, but my Mom always knows the best narrator – she faithfully “auditions” them before committing to a narrator. She’s kindly provided her favorite audiobooks, broken into wonderful categories. I’ve included her favorite narrator, and you can be sure it’s a good one. However, she’d recommend her favorite but also tell you that you should audition narrators yourself, and make sure you find the one that you like the very best.
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For The Simple Pleasure of Being Read To:
Persuasion / Jane Austen read by Juliet Stevenson
Great Expectations / Charles Dickens read by Simon Vance
For Reclaiming Otherwise Wasted Time: (eg, traffic jams, grocery shopping, etc.)
Don Quixote / Cervantes read by Roy McMillan
The Odyssey / Homer read by Anthony Heald
For listening while knitting, sewing, cleaning, etc:
My Life in Middlemarch / Rebecca Meade read by Kate Reading
Moby-Dick / Herman Melville read by Anthony Heald
For getting through books that are difficult to read in print:
Remembrance of Things Past / Marcel Proust read by John Rowe
The “Master and Commander” series / Patrick O’Brian read by Patrick Tull
For Exceptionally Good Narration and Wonderful Characterization: Theater for Your Ears
Gulliver’s Travels / Jonathan Swift read by David Hyde Pierce
The Once and Future King / T. H. White read by Neville Jason
For Restful Listening When Sick or Weary:
Brideshead Revisited / Evelyn Waugh read by Jeremy Irons
A Room with a View / E. M. Forster read by Frederick Davidson
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Main header background image is adapted from BB_Grungy_Watercolor_3 by Jay Hilgert on Flickr.
Great list to have, thanks! Your mom and I look about the same age and I’m also a librarian who listens to a lot of audiobooks. I will have to try Simon Vance’s Great Expectations soon. I loved Ralph Cosham’s reading of David Copperfield, and I usually try to find a new audio edition of A Christmas Carol to try every year around the holidays. I’ll bookmark this post for future reference when I’m looking for a classic book on audio. Juliet Stevenson is a recent favorite for me, as I’ve only just discovered her, and Simon Vance and Jeremy Irons, but the other narrators are new to me.
Thank you Laurie! That’s so cool to hear. I’ll have to look for Ralph Cosham’s David Copperfield – I’ve been wanting to find an audio edition of DC to re-read it with. Juliet Stevenson is so lovely, one of the very best! I also love Simon Vance & Jeremy Irons – so, so good! :)
This is fantastic! Your mom and I read very different things, but some of these narrators sound wonderful. I will keep this list. Funny, but just this morning as I started a new audiobook I thought I wanted to tweet about narrators and had forgotten. This was a great reminder. Many thank to your mom for a great guest post, this is great stuff. Anthony Heald doing Moby Dick is very tempting!
Thank you Lauren! I think a good narrator can get you through almost any book! I listened to Anthony Heald reading Moby Dick too, and it’s the only thing that got me through that long, wonderful, difficult book. I’m sure that his reading of it made me love it more than I would have reading it on my own.
I love this recommendation categories! Thank you to your mom :)
Thank you! (From me and my Mom!) :D