/hob/ - Hobbies

>>63776
I personally have a library card at my local library and then get audiobooks via the Libby app. Not ideal as I don't get to keep them, but it gets the job done.

>>63776 You began this, but since I'm so sharing and caring, I'll share my scripts for dealing with audiobook, be it searching and downloading, or creating.

For files and plaintext from stdin, I use this script[1]. It's mostly commented. It expected voices [2,3] or the built-in kal16 in certain places (since the files are newer than what comes in my distribution's repository).

For searching audiobookbay I used [4] and for adding torrent therefrom [5].

Afterwards listen from whatever media player at whatever speed. Reading alongside from a pager or ebook reader, physical or digital, facilitates comprehension. I just like low voices.

I give y'all permission to use and or edit these. Save, shit expires in 30 days.

[1] https://termbin.com/ogo9
[2] https://www.festvox.org/flite/packed/flite-2.1/voices/cmu_us_fem.flitevox
[3] https://www.festvox.org/flite/packed/flite-2.1/voices/cmu_us_slt.flitevox
[4] https://termbin.com/4j5o
[5] https://termbin.com/s32d

Listened to a rather long one (3 parts) over the past 3 days.
Wizards First Rule (The Sword of Truth series) by Terry Goodkind
The naration of the version on youtube is pretty good, and it being up for years means it's unlikely to be randomly taken down. That said as a mini review of the book…I am conflict.
It's very derivative, to the point of near plagiarism at parts, has a lot of conveniences and the magic system is honestly pretty shit in it just does whatever it needs to for the plot to happen.
As for the good, I did mildly enjoy the writing style/prose and characterization. The plot beats, while predictable, were intresting, and the attention to detail made it easy to visualize exactly what was happening at any given time thus allowing me to lose myself in certain scenes.
All that said the book committed the cardinal sin of springing weird fetish shit out of nowhere for a solid 5th of the book once I was already too invested to leave.
Like ultra hardcore bdsm bullshit involving a "beautiful" succubi in a full tight leather outfit in the fantasy equivalent to a dominatrix cult spend pages and pages, chapters and chapters, sexually suggestively torturing the MC for like a month straight, breaking them in to falling in love with the torturer
Then because of him accidenting into magic bullshit he just nopes out of all that trauma and suffers literally no lasting effect of that torture besides a few bad dreams and dramatically increased pain tolerance. Whole part just made me feel dirty, as I wasn't expecting it and it doesn't tonally fit with the rest of the book.
Really, all the romance in the book felt weird and I didn't appreciate it, and I am not just saying that because I am a aromantic wizard. I can appreciate well written romance in fantasy stories, and even tolerate mediocre poorly developed love interest type plots if it raises the stakes, but in this book shit just made me uncomfortable. Not like physiological horror book uncomfortable, but more like I felt like the author has issues that they probably should see someone about rather than work through them in published book form.

Anyway, I don't think I will keep going in the series, as I heard this was the peak of the Sword of Truth books, and if this one is the peak then I remain unimpressed. I might consider going on if the books weren't obnoxiously long for no good reason.
Anyway, links if you want them.
part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tufLvmjU3ZU&list=LL&index=4&pp=gAQBiAQB
part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-DbCi039qs&list=LL&index=2&pp=gAQBiAQB
part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtLoR2CK-cQ&list=LL&index=1&pp=gAQBiAQB

>>51296
Anyone ever read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand? I found a copy of it in a box by the side of the road along with A Clockwork Orange.

>>66371
It's on my to read/listen to list, but no I haven't yet gotten around to it.

>>66371
I listened to Ayn's Anthem on cassette tape and We the Living on mp3. While I don't agree with her ideas, I'm so desperate for any kind of utopian escapism from our current society, that even the darkest dystopias relax me as something different.

i'll take the devil i dont know, over the 1 i do.

Tried getting through Man in High Castle but gave up because it's really really boring.

It also is unrealistic and has a dozen little things that are annoying or off about it.
I get that during the time it was written information wasn't as available and alternative history basically had zero standards, but even with that in mind it was bad alternative history.
How it won awards is beyond me.

Anthem by Ayn Rand

Each book I read/listen to by Rand convinces me more an more that she was indeed autistic.
That said I liked the last few chapters. Made sitting through the rest of the book up until that point almost worth it.

Also the narration on this particular version is great. Pro level reading despite him doing it for free.

>>66415
If I ever wrote a novel, I imagine it would be in her style, of just having characters as stand-ins for philosophical ideals, and their monologues being prose essays shoved into their mouths

>>66416
The funny thing is I really don't mind the monologs.
I mean I am sure they are much for fustrating when reading, but in audiobook form they are probably my favorate parts of her books.

It's just that Rand's writing of basically everything else is fan fic level, only with a better editor so less grammar mistakes and typos.
Basically she is a better esayist than a story teller, but she tries anyway with no respect for the craft.
She cares more about getting the point across than crafting a well made story and it shows in all of her fictional work that I have seen so far.

That said I still haven't gotten around to The Fountainhead, which many claim is her best fictional work.

>>66421
That reminds me even the great Plato, his early dialogues are heated debates of the historic Socrates with a lot of back and forth. By the time you get to the Laws and Timeous, it's just a long essay with the interlocuter saying I agree.

I tried to get through The Witching Hour (first book of the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy) by Anne Rice.

While I liked most of her vampire books I couldn't even make it past the 3rd chapter of The Witching Hour. It is frustratingly boring, meandering, and felt the need to give the birth to death life story of basically every plot relevant character even though it has very little to do with the current plot and just drags everything to a painfully dull crawl where nothing of consequence happens for hours.
Hated it.
Do not recommend. Boring to the extreme.

Shadow Magic, Book 1 of The Divine Key Trilogy

From the same writer of (so far) my favorite fantasy series, The Portal War Saga, James E Wisher.
I enjoyed it very much. Action, adventure, planing, scheming, failures and complications, hard won victories that feel earned.

I enjoyed it a great deal and will probably listen to part two of the trilogy tonight.
I just wish the magic system was as fleshed out as it was in Portal War Saga. It feels like it's happening in the same universe with a similar magic system but different planet with different culture and slightly different approach to magic.

What Maisie Knew by Henry James

The reading of this version is quite good. The book however…

The 3rd person narration has excellent prose and a delightfully extended vocabulary aiding in precise descriptive use of the English language. However that starkly contrast with the abominable state of the dialog. The contrast of which makes the dialog bordering on intolerable in it's vague repetitive simplistic irritating way of poorly getting things across. While naturalistic in approach it doesn't make for pleasant reading/listening. To put it plainly I quite dislike the dialog.

Overall, it's a very character driven book wholly focused on character relations with a lack of focus or direction when it comes to plot. I would say this book is basically old fashioned chick-lit or the precursor to it.
Overall the book isn't bad, but it's very much not for me. That said I was able to get through the whole thing, though at times my focused was strained. Mainly due to the dialog heavy portions being painfully vague and repetitive with all parties in the conversation stalling because they don't want to say what they mean and don't mean what they say, but not in a interesting or clever way.

I don't know what my next book will be but I need a palate cleanser.
Something plot driven with lots of action and masculine values.

An audiobook biography of Hotwheels and the history of Wizardchan is coming out soon!

https://www.audible.com/pd/Black-Pill-Audiobook/B0CLGW7P6C?

>>66630
a female from cnn who is obsessed with in cels, white supremacists and its links to chan culture. She looks like a disabled subhuman so your typical cnn journalist.

>>66629
I ain't paying money to listen to propaganda.
Audible can suck a dill pickle and choke on it.

Matilda by Mary Shelley

I was curious on what her other writings were besides Frankenstein and this was short so I gave it a shot.

It is a work of art, plain and simple. I can scarcely remember ever seeing/hearing prose expertly crafted to such a high level. I was enthralled and awed by how each line was elegantly crafted.
This reader (some libervox rando) reading and sound quality did proper justness to such a masterwork.
Simply beautiful. Never has the depths of sorrow and death ever been so appealing through labor of words.

I think you will also find that the running theme through out, or at least my interpretation of it, is quite wizardly. I was dubious of this, it being label and listed in many descriptions as "erotic" but consistently all romance depicted does nothing but transmute happiness into the deepest and darkest of pains.
The author also understand the beauty and healing powers of solitude better then most.
Oh how this book fed my soul.

5 out of 5. Probably the best thing I have heard/read all year. I can think of no flaws and can give only praise.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Abridged version.

Supposedly it's considered "Modern Gothic Literature".
Honestly felt very YA to me. It's not that it's bad, but the word choice and bluntness felt like it was made for ether children or dumb people.
While it has some intresting ideas and I liked the tone of the story, it overall didn't impress me and I will likely not remember or think of this story a year or two from now.

Because it's a abridged version it's only a hour, so it's well worth the time investment. And the reading is decent too.
So I give it a soft recommend.
3 out of 5.

Demon DIY
Not sure how long it's going to stay up at the current link but figured I embed it anyway.

Anyway, it's a cheesy campy low class book that was quite enjoyable and put a big goofy smile on my face.
It's trashy but in a fun way that doesn't really aim to be more then what it is.

Some of Cioran's books are now on Audible, although strangely not Heights of Despair

AI TTS has a bright future. If they can do celeb voices so good, just doing a generic narrator should be even easier.

>>67288
I was hopeful when some stuff started coming out with AI voice but the reality of it has set in.
99.9% of it is lazy low quality junk that the uploaded didn't bother to do even basic audio editing of.

Pretty clear VA and other such people still will have job security for the foreseeable future.
Sort of like how AI art is hyped to the moon but without skillful editing 99.9% of it is garbage.

Could be a game changer for the skillful few willing to put the work in to polish the stuff generated, thus saving time and money allowing solo and small team to metaphorically punch way above their weight. But ai mainly attracts the incompetent, the lazy, and the scammers/hustlers who just want a quick buck without providing any value to anyone.

I now don't even bother to deal with ai generated content. It sucks. Partly because the tech ain't ready for prime time yet and partially because most who use it suck.

What a fucking let down.

>>67295
https://www.businessinsider.com/publish-books-amazon-kindle-reviews-2019-2

I listened ton an entire AI read audiobook by this Ukraine company without realizing it was fake, they even made a fake Linkedin for a narrator. on another book it was more obvious and i did more digging.

idk if AI readers can sometimes pass "the turing test" on me, we're getting there.

Eaters of the Dead
Was alright. I think this is the abridged version though.

Doc Savage and the Fortress of Solitude.

Don't quite make them like they used to. Full cast for the audio which was a treat, though there were a couple of dead air gaps from the upload.

If you are in the mood for a straight forward action adventure story then this will scratch that itch. That said it does way too much tell not show for the main bad guy so it made confrontations involving him feel pretty hollow imo.

A Monster Calls

Pretty sad book. Not a bad book though.

I've listened to lots of podcasts and audiobooks. Complete waste of time. You just don't retain that information very well when you're multitasking, and if you aren't then why not just read to begin with and use all of your brain?

>>67727
>he multitasks while he "listens" to audiobooks
>meaning he really doesn't listen because he isn't paying attention
>he doesn't even take notes
>he thinks it's a complete waste of time
>he isn't learning his 4th language and then using audiobooks for input learning

lol

>>67727
>You just don't retain that information very well
Pure projection.
I still remember audiobooks I listened too nearly a decade ago.

If it's good stuff then I will remember it regardless of format. If it's mediocre then it will fade from my mind rather quickly.
Don't blame the format, ether blame yourself for not paying attention or blame the content for not being memorable.

>>67729
I admit, my memory retention is terrible. But despite having bits and pieces of the audiobooks I've heard over the years while driving, I wouldn't say I have strong mastery of any particular one. There is lots of evidence suggesting multitasking is very bad for information encoding

>>67730
Then don't multi task.
That doesn't mean you should shit on audiobooks as a format because you personally have a problem of shitty retention and instability to pay attention. That is a problem with you and your behavor. Not a problem with audiobooks.

>>67731
lol. Don't make a thread if you don't want to hear my thoughts on the subject. Books are better, you retain much more and are using more of your brain in the process of encoding

>>67732
scrolls are better actually, the linearity of scrolls structurally retains the oral transmission that preceded their writing. books grant an illusion of greater density by way of reference to previous pages, chapters, and sections, but information encoded across these boundaries is lost

>>67732
So you are basically admitting to just being a shit stir who has no actual interest in the subject and just here to troll.

Good to know, you can fuck off now.

>>67733
Wouldn't by that logic mean that listening to the information in the form of oral recitation be the optimal method?
Which is why college puts a premium on lectures as the bedrock to their pedagogical method.

>>67740
the optimal method is probably reading the books aloud yourself

>>67741
You assert that but there isn't real world evidence of that, which is why learning institutions aren't structured around such a practice.

Instead from the lowest to the highest it's build around lectures or in other words listening to a instructor.

>>67742
I'm not >>67741 but I don't think he may answer to such idiocy. trolling enough about the cuckery of sheeple compulsory "education"
>learning institutions taken seriously as reference
This is the type of mental failure when you people disregard conspirationist as "theorists" instead of giving them a serious look.

>>67744
>bad faith and non-arguments
What was even the point of this post other then to make yourself look bad?

The Squire
From one of my favorite fantasy novelist James E Wisher.

This one was pretty good. Especially as a stand alone.

Lord of High Reaches by James Haddock.

Second book I have listened to from James. Liked the narator's range of voices even if some of the accent choices were a bit odd.
Was decent but I liked Mage Thrown Prophecy more.

Listening to Werewolf books on a Hunter’s Moon. Few things match such a feel.

Wolf Blood - by Matt Tyler

Has a wonderful gothic horror feel throughout. I wonder if they will keep it up with other books in the series. I will listen to book 2 later tonight unless I get distracted with something.

>>68181
Book two really is trying my nerves. Somehow the AI voice has gotten significantly worse or the editing of it has gotten lazy. Ether way it's now a drag to listen through.
The story meanders. The themes trite and preditable. The borderline retarded social comentary and virtue signaling is lazy and clumbsy, and I dislike all of the new charcters. Also India sucks as the new setting but it seems that the bulk of the last 3 books of the series are taking place in it. It doesn't have the same gothic horror vibes at all. Instead the whole thing feels more genearic modern fantasy trying to follow trends in mainstream publishing. Which is to say, follow the DEI agenda rather than craft a decent story or stick to the more interesting setting.
Worst yet, basically all of the charicture progress of the people from the last book has been frozen because too much time was spent fleshing out 2 of the new characters. Mind you not all of the new characters, just two of them. Both being kinda shit and I am a bit disappointed nether died. I mean one was wounded but this being now a basic bitch fantasy book, that means basically nothing.
Worst yet, I can already pretty much predict where the story is going and I don't like it.

So disappointing.

Something I didn't think possible happened.
I had written off litrpg entirely as a genera because every single book and webnovel I had been exposed to was extremely bad.
But on this day I actually found one that I enjoyed and was actually halfway decent.
Probably because it isn't remotely styles after anime tropes and doesn't use fanfiction tier writing.
Basically it's a war vet trying to retire to a farm but being unable to stay out of trouble. To go into more detail I think would spoil it.
I haven't been so surprised by a book I thought would be shit actually being decent since Demon DIY.

Battle Mage Farmer #1 - Domestication

Since I found a litrpg book that didn't suck I decided to give a web novel litrpg a chance since I written off that whole genera too.

In looking through plot descriptions that conseptually could be intresting I found one that seemed to be a good fit for my taste.
One with a monster/inhuman protagonist. One that followed villain characters. One where the MC doesn't have romance story lines dragging the plot down.

What I found was a web novel series called Devourer.
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/299966/devourer/

Someone used AI to turn it into a rather lazy audiobook, but it's mostly tolerable (though could have used some editing and fine tuning. It's clear they didn't listen to the output of some chapters before posting)

My thoughts on the book.
It's shit…But its so unrelentingly edgy in a way I personally find highly amusing.
Like the prose are not good, there are awkward exposition dumps everywhere, the dialog is basic but functional, there are basic continuity errors that should have been caught with a proof read, like people's hair and eye color description changing for a paragraph, and it's clear that the author occationally (though not always) uses chatgpt to bulk out his work.
It really is dreadfully bad from a story craft and writing point of view.
All that said I end up with a goofy smile on my face when listing due to the raw power fantasy aspect of the MC being a ultra powerful monster ripping most thing's in it's path apart with the main goal of becoming stronger, all because of some poorly thought out remarks made during reincarnation.

Athough I will say the author seems to mention people pissing themselves a lot, quite a bit of rape, and the author seems oddly bias towards lesbianism when it comes to relationship involving the side character. AKA the author has some fetishes/kinks and isn't even trying to hide them.
Thankfully these aspects are never focused on. Instead the carnage the MC gets up to and tons of clunky world building is the focus, which is what I am interested in.

No longer human

Heard it was good. Turns out it was extremely boring. I hated it.
No plot, just constant navel gazing mental monolog of a boring introverted semi-normalfag who feels bad about not being a full normalfag.

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman
Author also did a great job narrating the audiobook.

Excellent gritty horror book featuring vampires.

I'm reading The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis Narrated by: Joshua Saxon

Epic poetry is a format that really benefits from the audio format. And the narrator is really good like a homeric bard. I don't read much fiction or poetry so it's nice to just enjoy the language like a song, and not focus on the plot. And I like that it is a 20th century epic poem, focusing on modern themes.

What I don't like is it sometimes comes across like Mary Sue fanfiction. Using an existing character and making him a whole new person.

He's like this Nietzschan Conan the Barbarian. While Homer's was a cunning trickster. Like I don't see this Faustian Odysseus playing tricks like this-

> Tyndareus was afraid to select a husband for his daughter, or send any of the suitors away, for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel. Odysseus was one of the suitors, but had brought no gifts because he believed he had little chance to win the contest. He thus promised to solve the problem, if Tyndareus in turn would support him in his courting of Penelope, the daughter of Icarius. Tyndareus readily agreed, and Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband against whoever should quarrel with him. After the suitors had sworn not to retaliate, Menelaus was chosen to be Helen's husband because he was the "greatest in possessions" and had offered the most gifts.

> When Helen of Troy is abducted, Menelaus calls upon the other suitors to honour their oaths and help him to retrieve her, an attempt that leads to the Trojan War. Odysseus tries to avoid it by feigning lunacy, as an oracle had prophesied a long-delayed return home for him if he went. He hooks a donkey and an ox to his plow (as they have different stride lengths, hindering the efficiency of the plow) and (some modern sources add) starts sowing his fields with salt. Palamedes, at the behest of Menelaus's brother Agamemnon, seeks to disprove Odysseus's madness and places Telemachus, Odysseus's infant son, in front of the plow. Odysseus veers the plow away from his son, thus exposing his stratagem.[36] Odysseus holds a grudge against Palamedes during the war for dragging him away from his home.

Odysseus uses game theory to pick the less desired 2nd best succubus, instead of the one everyone is competing for. While this New Odysseus seizes Helen for himself after the war is over.

I suppose he is Odysseus in the same way that Nietzsche's Zarathustra is the historical Zoroaster. An almost opposite character invented to correct where western civ went wrong.

Homer's Odyssey was translated by Nikos Kazantzakis into modern Greek, so I assume he was very familiar with the original, and made these choices deliberately.

heres an old review-

https://time.com/archive/6802171/books-homer-continued/

>>68480
>Someone used AI to turn it into a rather lazy audiobook

>lazy audiobook

NOOOOOOOO!!!

You should use AI to create funny audiobooks, not lazy audiobooks! You should "employ" NecoArc, Hatsune Miku or some other funny name of anime world to be the voice used to voice a book



Context: AI voice has its flaws. However, NecoArc already has a funny voice that goes well with those AI voice issues.