I’m driving to Florida in the morning to be with my dying mother. The sad situation doesn’t really come into it at all, just context (it’s not business and it’s not vacation). I prefer reading to audiobooks but I’m driving…for 13.5hrs.
My favorite genre is science fiction. I have read the first two books in the 3body problem and was oddly satisfied with the way the second book ended, so idk about the last one in that series. I have read all of the dune books and prequels and all of Tolkien. I have read a few classics (Steinbeck, Mark Twain), and some Vonnegut…but that’s pretty much it.
My very favorite book is Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury but it doesn’t really fit a genre.
Please let me know your favorite science fiction books or things that you think I’ve missed out on not reading yet.
I’m hoping to wake up in the morning to a list of things to look over and decide what book to help me on my trip.
Thanks in advance if anyone does offer suggestions
by basahahn1
16 Comments
Have you done the Murder Bot diaries? You could get through a few and I think they might help distract from the point of the trip
Project Hail Mary. Excellent narration.
Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline (sci-fi)
Or
Tomorrow, tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (fiction)
Both fun reads
— I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
Novel by Jason Pargin (doesn’t fit with your preferences, but this got me back into reading and also the first audiobook I was able to actually listen)
— Project Hail by Andy Weir, Narrated by Ray Porter
I’m currently listening to *The Fire’s Stone* by Tanya Huff. I know it’s fantasy, not science fiction, but it’s eleven hours if you listen on the default speed.
Maybe some humor.
Non-fiction **What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions** by Randall Munroe narrated by Wil Wheaton.
It consists of a series of questions on pop-sci and pop-culture, each answered in one or two paragraphs. The answers are hilarious in a dry-humored way.
An example question is: What would happen if you hit a baseball pitched at 90% of the speed of light?
The narration for the Murderbot series is good as well as the Andy Weir books.
you said favorite genre, that means i can step outside that. and it might even mean you’ve plumbed the depths of enjoyment availible to science fiction. therefore historical fantasy is ripe for a mention.
My wife and I loved the temeriare series Naomi Novic
i think the first book (his majesty’s dragon) was about 14 hrs simon vance voice actor does a pretty good job
set in the napolionic wars except Europe began breeding and domesticating dragons after the fall of rome.
main character is frigate captain who captures a ship and an egg during a navel action. and transfers service so that the hatchling dragon wont run off after hatching at sea. these books inspired our imagination and have been listened to several times.
i also recomend the authers most recent trilogy scholomance.
Stephen Kings 11/22/63
Anything and everything by [Becky Chambers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becky_Chambers):
The Wayfarer Series
To Be Taught, If Fortunate (novella)
Monk & Robot Series
The Ministry of Time was an entertaining audiobook
Demon Copperhead- Kingsolver
The Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Start with The Warrior’s Apprentice.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons (one of my favorite audios ever)
Exhalation by Ted Chiang (Short Stories)
Jurassic Park (great read even if you’ve seen the movie)
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchel (more “fantastical” fiction than science fiction)
I’ve listened to hundreds of audiobooks and the trilogy for His Dark Materials is hands down my favorite. It has a full cast.
Sci-fi Thrillers: Dark Matter, Recursion
Traditional sci-fi: Wool, 1984 read by Andrew Garfield, Enders Game, Project Hail Mary, The Martian, Dune, Jurassic Park
Kings Best Books: 11-22-63 (It’s magical), IT, Misery
Thrillers: The Silent Patient, Angels & Demons, Red Dragon
Best Nonfiction: A short history of nearly everything
Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower is 12 hours.
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman, 11 hours. Read by Nicola Walker (5 star narration)
James McBride’s Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is 12 hours. I loved it
Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives, 11 hours
I listened to Say Nothing (Patrick Radden Keefe) in under 13 hours at 1.2x.
I’m having a difficult time making good recommendations. Grief is a thread running through many of my reads this year, especially the ones I’ve rated highly.