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Original poster

Help me find a non depressing audiobook please.

65 replies

Iwontlethtesungodownonme · 14/09/2024 07:29

I have started to really enjoy listening to audiobooks on my walk to work but I’m struggling to find new ones. The narrator is a really big issue for me. If I don’t like the voice I can’t buy the book.
I love listening to Stephen Fry reading the Harry Potter’s as an example.

I have recently gone back to the Shardlake series and have enjoyed them all over again and at the moment am sort of enjoying The Wrong Sister but these books are quite relentlessly miserable. Nothing good ever happens to the main characters. I am quite low at the moment and need something a little less depressing I think.

Any ideas?

OP posts:
ThursdayLastWeek · 14/09/2024 09:03

The Chronicles of St Mary’s and associated books from the same universe. Zara Ramm is brilliant.

One of my favourite narrators in David Thorpe - he’s prolific luckily!
He narrates a lot of historical stuff (Susanna Gregory) and fantasy stuff (Adrian Tchaikovsky).

A book I enjoyed recently is The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

Notgoodatpoetrybutgreatatlit · 14/09/2024 08:56

Diary of a Nobody By George and Weedon Grossmith, read by Martin Jarvis. Written in 1890 something. It is so funny and so relevant , the main character experiences so many annoying everyday incidents just as we all do. The problems he has with tradespeople are so so typical.
Whilst listening to it on the tube I kept laughing out loud which is obviously a massive breach of social etiquette but I couldn't help it. I loved it so much I even talked to primary kids about it who were visiting our secondary school for taster day.
I doubt it made much sense to them.

ShortFatHouseElf · 14/09/2024 08:55

It might sound slightly daft, but anytime I feel I need a bit of a push to get through something, I listen to “The Martian” by Andy Weir. And “Hail Mary” mentioned above is fantastic too.

If you like Stephen Fry, you may also enjoy his Mythos series available on audible. Also has narrated some Jeeves.

Moonshiners · 14/09/2024 08:53

I loved Robert Webb's autobiographical "how not to be a boy"

Isthiscorrect · 14/09/2024 08:51

Always listen to the sample if you can. Sadly some books are now voiced by AI which is absolutely dreadful. I'm surprised authors allow it.

ThreeB · 14/09/2024 08:48

Anything narrated by January LaVoy - I've just finished The Change by Kirsten Miller and thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely uplifting but not necessarily in the way you expect.

Lelivre · 14/09/2024 08:42

I listen to a lot of non fiction but looking at my Audible just now, I did enjoy I Captured the Castle and Where the Crawdads Sing. My daughter listens to Poirot and Sherlock. I didn't mind Lessons in Chemistry. Like you I often struggle with the narrator. I hope you feel better soon.

CurlewKate · 14/09/2024 08:42

I love listening to classic literature on audiobooks. I can listen to them over and over again so they are good value for money!

Timothy West reading Trollope is wonderful. Juliet Stevenson reading Austen. Jeremy Irons reading Brideshead Revisited (not sure that counts as non depressing, though!)

I also like Dorothy L Sayers ( the old ones read by Iain Carmichael) Philip Pullman and Richard Osman.

Lelivre · 14/09/2024 08:27

Remarkably Bright Creatures.

Abracadabra12 · 14/09/2024 08:23

All of Bill Bryson's earlier books are brilliant in audiobook form if you want something funny - maybe try Notes from A Small Island or A Walk in the Woods?

NowyouhaveDunnett · 14/09/2024 08:22

Project Hail Mary is a fabulous audiobook

TwigTheWonderKid · 14/09/2024 08:08

This is nice and gently uplifting.

devildeepbluesea · 14/09/2024 08:01

I’m not one for autobiographies but I’ve just finished Adrian Edmondson - Berserker. There are moments of sadness, as you would expect but it is funny and heartwarming and very engaging too.

Aparecium · 14/09/2024 08:00

I have really enjoyed the BBC Radio adaptations of books by Jane Austen. I don't have the concentration span at the moment to actually read classical literature, but listening to it when not much else occupies my attention is a different matter.

ShrubRose · 14/09/2024 07:46

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.
I read it in print, but if it's available in audio it might be a good choice, depending on the narrator.

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