It is sad that in the comments section of most of these books, you will see kids crying about being forced to listen to these stories for some exam or assignment or something. I don’t know if it’s the ignorance of youth, or a symptom of our dark times, but it’s sad because they are completely missing out on the pleasure of letting these books take them places.
I have included only short-ish books here, surprisingly, not everyone seems to enjoy wading through a 50 hour classic.
4000 years old, this is considered to be one of the earliest works of literature, some 1000 years before Homer, and some 2000 before Mahabharat and the Bible. The story itself is obviously quite weird and disconnected, but it’s a fascinating read from the point of view of human intellectual development. It would certainly have been very interesting to live in strong-walled Uruk.
“Only” some 250 years old, I originally read Candide because it’s considered to be a work of great satire, and I like to think I know a thing or two about that. But no, if this is satire, my works are a nursery rhyme. It’s an unexpectedly brutal take on irony, or maybe it’s we who have gone soft.
3. Ernest Hemingway – The Old Man and the Sea
The story itself is a well known masterpiece, but the specialty of this audiobook is the narration, it seems to connect directly with the emotion of the story. This is a direct rip from Audible though, so don’t know how long it’ll last on Youtube.
4. John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck is a master of portraying the life of the poor American, and this story is another proof of his abilities. Family guy did a parody of it in one of their episodes, if you need more.
5. Roald Dahl – The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
He is a very confusing writer, his books look like children stories at the start, but then, to paraphrase Ludacris, they get more Twists than Oliver. I’ve listened to Matilda, narrated by Kate Winslet no less, and George’s Marvelous Medicine. and now this. The world could use a happy ending like those books, the non-sexual kind.