Tuesday, January 4, 2011

52 free audiobooks to read in 2011

It's the beginning of the year; time to make New Year's resolutions! I've seen many fellow book bloggers tackling some impressive lists of books, like the dubious 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (from a book by Peter Baxter) and the somewhat better 1000 Books Everyone Must Read from the Guardian newspaper.

 So on a lark (and with nothing better to publish this week), I've come up with a list of my own: 52 Free Audiobooks and Short Stories You May or May Not Want to Read in 2011. I tried to keep all selections under 10 hours and include plenty of diversity in terms of authors, narrators, source websites, and age of the books. I've broken it into sections of five books from the same genre plus a dozen assorted short stories. I don't seriously expect anyone to complete this list, but if you do, let me know and I'll feature you in a post.



Literary fiction
1. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
2. Ethan Frome by Edith Warton
3. O! Pioneers by Willa Cather
4. The Death of Ivan Illyich by Leo Tolstoy
5. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

 Mysteries
6. Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers
7. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
8. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
9. The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton
10. The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

Adventure
11. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
12.The Curse of Capastrano by Johnston McCulley
13.The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
14.Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
15.Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Science Fiction
16. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
17. Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper
18. Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell
19. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
20.A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Horror
21. At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft
22. Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
23. Turn of the Screw by Henry James
24. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
25. Red Shadows by Robert E. Howard

Humor
26. Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
27. Jeeves in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse
28. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
29. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
30. Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith

Children and Young Adult
31. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
32. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
33. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
34. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
35. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Other books
36. Call of the Wild by Jack London
37. Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood
38. Twelve Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth
39. Free by Chris Anderson
40. The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Short stories
41. "The Lottery" - Shirley Jackson
42. "A Rose for Emily" - William Faulkner
43. "The Gospel According to Mark" - Jorge Louis Borges
44. "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell
45. "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov
46. "Bullet in the Brain" - Tobias Wolff
47. "A Sound of Thunder" - Ray Bradbury 
48. "The Monkey's Paw" - W.W. Jacob
49. "The Overcoat / The Cloak" by Nikolai Gogol
50. "The Rocking-Horse Winner" by D. H. Lawrence

5 comments:

hopeinbrazil said...

Looks like a great list. I hope to follow some of your recommendations. Blessings for the New Year!

Super Librarian said...

Thanks for the list!

moreops said...

Agreed, great list. I have heard several of these, thanks to your recommendations. Will listen to many more now.

Thanks again!

Sayeth said...

Thanks, guys! Glad you like it.

abmaa andreas buechel mayloveheal androgyneas said...

hello

the story is a fantastic utopian scifi style one, you might give it a try.

http://www.archive.org/details/IntroductionToAudiobookOfTheNovelascendeMaimaPermaAndMaryThe
http://www.archive.org/details/ChapterOneOfAscendeAudiobook
http://www.archive.org/details/ChapterTwoOfAudiobookAscendeMaimaPermaAndMaryTheLifeship



with best wishes

andreas buechel
http://mayloveheal.wordpress.com