audiobooks

  • That Encouraging Voice in Your Ear

    I’m a self help fan who hates reading self help books. When it comes to encouraging words, I want to hear them, preferably while I go about my household chores, tend my garden, or take a walk in the park. These encouraging little talks between me and my iPod are just the thing to add more… Continue reading

  • Contextually appropriate audiobook narrators

    Audiobooks are great. They are not cheating – they count as reading. They are also wonderful opportunities for more tangibly presenting the characters and tone of any particular work. Whether it’s an individual narrator, or a full cast with sounds effects and music, listening to a well done audiobook can really magnify your experience of… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo: Read Out Loud

    Join The Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts & Lectures for our 2nd annual Summer Book Bingo for adults! Follow us throughout the summer for reading suggestions based on each category. It is no surprise to anyone around the library that I love to read out loud. They even let me do it in public, twice a month! My wife and I used to read… Continue reading

  • 2016 Audie Award Nominees

    -posted by Library staff Award season isn’t over yet! Last month, the Audio Publisher’s Association announced the 2016 Audie Award Finalists and it is going to be difficult to choose winners from these amazing choices in 2015 audiobooks. The Audie is awarded to the best in the audiobook industry, in genre categories like “History /… Continue reading

  • James Joyce at the Library!

    ~posted by David W. There are some books that should be heard and not seen. Well, perhaps that’s a little extreme. Let me say instead that there are authors whom you haven’t really experienced until you have read them aloud, or had them read to you. Most poets fit that category, and certainly Shakespeare. And for both myself… Continue reading

  • Driving with my Favorite Celebrities: Audiobook Memoirs Read by the Author

    I’m obsessed. Listening to audiobook memoirs during my daily commute, my favorites are read by the authors themselves. It makes the ride more enjoyable, and there is something special about listening to a person read aloud their own memoir. It feels like they’re sitting right there, sharing their story with me and me alone. Here… Continue reading

  • Listen List 2014: Outstanding Audio Awards

    Every year we five librarians on the Listen List panel review hundreds of new audio books, nominate and choose the twelve titles that are the very best in narration, production and story. Announced on January 26th at the American Library Association Midwinter conference in Philadelphia, this year’s Listen List is posted on the ALA website, where you… Continue reading

  • Top Ten Audiobooks of 2013

    This has been a great year for audio fiction, with new readers and a wide variety of titles to sample. These are my favorites from 2013. Longbourn by Jo Baker Find out more about the Bennet household, from Pride and Prejudice, in this Downton Abbey-esque story of the servants downstairs.   Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: Five audiobooks guaranteed to make your commute better

    Friday by Robert Heinlein In which an creche-born would-be assassin discovers the joy of polygamy. There isn’t much in the way of plot here, and the misogyny is horribly dated, but there is still plenty of charm in this comic and irreverent romp. Friday is a fun character with brains and beauty in equal bounty who searches for a… Continue reading

  • Your Next 5 Books: Audiobook suggestions from a real, live librarian

    In this column we regularly highlight a Your Next 5 Books submission that we find interesting, funny, unique, or useful to other readers. Submit Your Next 5 Books entry now, or stop by and see us in person, and maybe you could see your (anonymous) reading habits on Shelf Talk! Continue reading

  • Personalized teen book lists!

    Going on a road trip? Looking for an audiobook that both you and your teen can enjoy? Our teen services librarians are standing by to help. Use our Next 5 Books service to request suggestions for audiobooks that everyone in the family will enjoy. And of course, we’re also happy to suggest beach reads for… Continue reading

  • Let me tell you a story

    In March of 2005, I sat down in front of a crowd in our auditorium and read them a story about a man planning to poison his wife. Six years later, our regular lunch hour program Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups is still going strong on the first and third Mondays of every month,… Continue reading

  • Audiobooks Obsession: Read by the Author

    As a fervent believer in the “So Many Books So Little Time” school of thought, I can add to my scarcely allotted and woefully inadequate reading time by listening to audiobooks. I can get more books “read” by using commuting time, exercise time, household chore time (except vacuuming does not work too well) and time wasted… Continue reading

  • Top 5 Free Tools for Learning a New Language

    Want to learn a new language for free? We have some suggestions for tools that will help you. Here are our top 5 free resources for learning a language. 1. Byki Online – The Seattle Public Library doesn’t offer Rosetta Stone, but we do offer two fantastic online learning services, including Byki Online! Continue reading

  • Lunchtime Errand: Download Audiobooks at the Library

    My audiobook world just expanded exponentially, thanks to designated “download” stations at the Central Library. During a recent lunch break, I downloaded two audiobooks directly to my iPod, bypassing several steps that I need to take when downloading from home. And before I go any further, let me just say this: I LOVE this service!… Continue reading

  • Thrilling Tales for 2010.

    Entering its sixth year, the library’s Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups continues to thrill and delight. Last year’s season was our most popular yet, and this year we’ve got a great slate of tales, many from yesteryear. Thrilling Tales takes place in the Microsoft Auditorium on level one of the Central library, on alternating Mondays from 12:05 –… Continue reading

  • Christmas Stories and Poems.

    Having a hard time getting in the holiday spirit? Gather round and listen to some heartwarming holiday tales and poems. My new favorite blog is USEDBUYER 2.0, a delightful collection of essays, doodles, reviews, clerihews, quotations, observations and all manner of wonderfulness from out of the mind of Brad Craft, used book buyer for the… Continue reading

  • Happy Hallowe’en: A Spooky Story for you.

    After years of sharing thrilling tales with a lunch hour crowd in the Central library, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to share a short and spooky tale for Hallowe’en, on NPR’s All Things Considered. Enjoy! For more such tales, join us at the library for Thrilling Tales: the story time for grownups. Continue reading