Can you recommend a good audio book for my drive up north?

October 2, 2015 7:18 AM

I've got a long drive later today. I'd like to listen to a good audio book. Something light (I don't want to start weeping in the car), but clever and well-read. Ideally, I'd like to listen to a sort of musical comedy without music (to steal a phrase from Wodehouse).
posted by Area Man to Writing & Language (15 answers total)

With the caveat that I have never listened to it, Crome Yellow is light and clever and funny and I think it would suit the mood you're looking for nicely.
posted by phunniemee at 7:23 AM on October 2, 2015

Tom Wolfe's novel "Back to Blood" (great narrator)
posted by Jon44 at 7:24 AM on October 2, 2015

There's an audiobook of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency read by the author which is really fun and funny and light. I very much recommend it.
posted by gauche at 7:45 AM on October 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

Why not Wodehouse, then? I particularly like Martin Jarvis's recordings.

For Dirk Gently, the BBC radio plays for that and Long Dark Teatime of the soul are quite delightful; ditto the ones for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (both the original two fits, and the ones made about 10 years ago which finished up the book series).
posted by damayanti at 7:49 AM on October 2, 2015

The Martian is surprisingly fun and well-produced.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:21 AM on October 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'd suggest most anything by David Sedaris.
posted by 4ster at 9:16 AM on October 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

Tina Fey reading Bossypants.
posted by girlpublisher at 9:45 AM on October 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think most of the Discworld books are narrated. Terry Pratchett was brilliant, and funny and wrote great books. Id say Guards! Guards, Small Gods, or Equal Rites are great starting points, and a quick google indicates they all have audiobooks.
posted by Jacen at 10:56 AM on October 2, 2015

Three Men in a Boat! I enjoyed the audiobook as read by Hugh Laurie.
posted by yasaman at 11:04 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm loving the narration in Anansi Boys right now.
posted by DingoMutt at 12:09 PM on October 2, 2015

We just happened to pre-listen to Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals narrated by Hugh Bonneville (aka Lord Grantham) and it was very entertaining. Good voice for a lengthy car drive I'd guess, too.
posted by Namlit at 1:36 PM on October 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

There's an audio book of The Phantom Tollbooth.
posted by brujita at 2:49 PM on October 2, 2015

Funny Girl by Nick Horby
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Girl Walks into a Bar... by Rachel Dratch
2AM At the Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
posted by nuclear_soup at 7:06 PM on October 2, 2015

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest.
posted by bertran at 9:11 PM on October 2, 2015

Agree that The Martian is a great audiobook. My fiance listened to it and he liked it so much that he played the beginning of it for me on a car ride, so I ended up reading it myself. It's a great book on paper but it definitely comes alive because the reader is great.

Also any of David Sedaris's books are even funnier as audiobooks because he is a great reader. His sister Amy does the female parts.
posted by radioamy at 8:29 PM on October 3, 2015