The weekend of October 19, I have to go to one of my Live Action Roleplaying events... and I have to drive by myself since the people who usually ride with me aren't going to that event (and I'm staff, so I have to go).

It's a 4.5 hour drive... and I've found that the best way for me to stay awake and not die of boredom is to listen to audio books while I drive.

Only... I don't have any. Well, I have one, but it's on cassette tape, and my car only has a CD player.

So... does anyone have any CD audios they'd be willing to trade for? I definitely prefer unabridged. I like fantasy, mystery, and YA (though generally YA fantasy/mystery surprisingly enough :lol:). I love George Guidall and CJ Critt as narrators. I'd LOVE to get my hands on any of the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee books (Tony Hillerman) narrated by Guidall that I haven't read yet. (Though I'd have to look up a title to tell you if I'd read/listened to it or not).

I loved listening to David Sedaris and some of Bill Bryson's stuff, so I guess humor is good too. :D

I'm also open to suggestions as far as books/authors/narrators goes.

I'm willing to offer almost anything on my AVL/TBR shelves in exchange (the almost being the few books that I inevitably didn't manage to change the status on).

And barring any available audios to trade... does anyone have any recommendations for audios I can hope to find in the library? ;)

Unfortunately, everything I've acquired lately has been on cassette because my car's cassette player actually works better than the CD player.

But I've heard that the Janet Evanovich books make great audios -- they're sufficiently popular that you might find them at the library and some are new enough that they'd probably be on CD rather than cassette.

I'm sure others will pop up with more useful info...

The audio's for both The Diamond Age and Snow Crash by William Gibson are very good. As is the Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell audio.

I've found that the audio's read by Tim Curry are almost always worth listening to. He gets so into his narrorating.

We pick up most of our audio's through the library here either in cd format or mp3 media.

I think you'll enjoy with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.

I'm listening to 'Tis and can give you the burn if you want it. I should be done pretty quick. I love Frank McCourt - but if you haven't read Angela's Ashes, that might not work ;)

I have an issue with Janet Evanovich's audios. CJ Critt stopped narrating them. :lol:

Seriously, I first fell in love with the Stephanie Plum novels by listening to the audios narrated by CJ Critt. And now Laurie King (maybe? I'm not entirely sure of the name) has completely taken over the audios - it used to be CJ Critt did the Library versions and the other lady did the others - and I can't listen to them anymore.

The other person is good, and I'm pretty sure I would have liked her had I never heard CJ Critt, but the voices she does aren't how they sound in my head now, so it doesn't work for me. :D

Did Tim Curry do the Series of Unfortunate Events books? I listened to the first three (I think) of those, and then I gave up because I got annoyed with the "a word which here means" and so on. Though I've been told that is toned down in later books, and I've meant to go back and either read or listen to 4-13.

I dunno the Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell is the best thing to listen to on a long car trip. Those first 200 pages were kinda boring... :lol:

I'll have to look into things Curry has narrated and the Gibson books, though.

You're probably right. :lol: They both look very interesting.

I think I'm going to have to pay down my fine at the library so I can check things out again. (I owe them $10.60 :blush:)

Or if you'd like Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Pal by Christopher Moore I could help you with that :)

I haven't read Angela's Ashes, though that does look interesting.

I would love Lamb. I've read the book, but sometimes that's better when I'm driving, 'cause I don't have to pay as close attention. The goal here is to have something to keep me alert... not distract me to the point that I drive off the road! :lol:

PMing you :)

Have you tried the other series Evanovich did, though? The Full series...Full Blast, Full House, etc. It's narrated by the other lady you mentioned (Laurie something) and I LOVED it because of her. Maybe if the characters aren't familiar to you it won't sour her as a reader. I'm pretty sure the one I listened to first was Full Tilt (the cover is pink and has a car on it)--I thought it was fantastic. She had to voice a Betty Boop-like sister-in-law as well as her retired wrestler husband, plus the Marilyn Monroe voiced car. I think it's more of a romantic mystery/suspense, though, not a straight mystery.

Edited to Add: I just remembered her name is Lorelei King.