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Lester Shy posted:I'm a dumbass. I didn't realize that you had to maintain an active Audible subscription to use your credits. I signed up for the "4 months at half price" deal a while back, and I've racked up 5 credits that I need to spend before I cancel my subscription, which renews tomorrow. So I'm looking for recommendations. SF without a multi-book series, that's a hard one. I would say most things by Neal Stephenson. The Rise and fall of D.O.D.O was fun, and well narrated. Along a similar line, Artemis by Andy Weir. Though technically a series, I've owned the Dramatized version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for about 35 years in various forms, from cassette tapes to the current version on Audible. It has a tremendous relisten value. I've probably listened to it literally hundreds of times. XBenedict fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 16:46
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Lester Shy posted:I'm a dumbass. I didn't realize that you had to maintain an active Audible subscription to use your credits. I signed up for the "4 months at half price" deal a while back, and I've racked up 5 credits that I need to spend before I cancel my subscription, which renews tomorrow. So I'm looking for recommendations. The Martian by Andy Weir is a good choice. I'd also recommend William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. Just like the movie it's based on, it can stand on its own just fine. And as far as the whole credit thing, you used to be able to keep credits indefinitely, but they decided that was too convenient.
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Jun 16, 2020 17:30
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Lester Shy posted:I'm a dumbass. I didn't realize that you had to maintain an active Audible subscription to use your credits. I signed up for the "4 months at half price" deal a while back, and I've racked up 5 credits that I need to spend before I cancel my subscription, which renews tomorrow. So I'm looking for recommendations. The Automatic Detective - A. Lee Martinez (Sci-Fi) Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain - A. Lee Martinez (Sci-Fi) Second Hand Curses - Drew Hayes (Fantasy) Dr. Anarchy’s Rules for World Domination: (Or How I Became God-Emperor of Rhode Island) - Nelson Chereta (Sci-Fi) The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age - Stanislaw Lem (Sci-Fi) Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie (Fantasy) - Side story/standalone novel in his First Law series The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian - Robert E. Howard (High Adventure) - Organized in publication order The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York - Deborah Blum (non-fiction) Soon I will be Invincible: A Novel - Austin Grossman (Sci-Fi)
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Jun 16, 2020 18:53
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Lester Shy posted:I'm a dumbass. I didn't realize that you had to maintain an active Audible subscription to use your credits. I signed up for the "4 months at half price" deal a while back, and I've racked up 5 credits that I need to spend before I cancel my subscription, which renews tomorrow. So I'm looking for recommendations. Deptfordx posted:Also if there's nothing you want right now. You can preorder a book that's not out for 6 months, then after you've cancelled your membership cancel the preorder and get a credit back which you can still use later when there's something you actually do want. You can do this for multiple books. I've still got 2 credits left I haven't spent yet from the last time I did this.
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Jun 16, 2020 18:54
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Mister Facetious posted:The Automatic Detective - A. Lee Martinez (Sci-Fi) These are super fun. Adding Gil's All Fright Diner
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Jun 16, 2020 19:05
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Why are there no audiobooks of Romance of three Kingdoms? Why does the google web crawler find me long dead posts from other people, like me, screaming into the void asking this question, and maybe one reply saying either "nah I don't think so" or "if there is one it's probably on audible". Am I crazy? Am I thirty six years old and still not sure how to google? Please, please, prove me wrong, call me an idiot, anything, just help me either find an audio book for sale as a digital download or at least tell me with some certainty that there isn't one so I can quit looking.
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Jun 20, 2020 01:49
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Jack B Nimble posted:Why are there no audiobooks of Romance of three Kingdoms? Why does the google web crawler find me long dead posts from other people, like me, screaming into the void asking this question, and maybe one reply saying either "nah I don't think so" or "if there is one it's probably on audible". Audible has an absurdly abridged version here: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Three-Kingdoms-Audiobook/B00S8FD2HM It is about 40 minutes long. E: There is an abridged Chinese one on audible here: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Romance-of-the-Three-Kingdoms-Audiobook/B0764LXKMQ but people don't like that one either. E2:Someone is working on (but I don't know if they've completed) a podcast/youtube version http://www.3kingdomspodcast.com/subscribe-podcast/list-of-all-episodes/ https://www.youtube.com/user/3kingdomspodcast/featured E3: And finally, if you're desperate for audio you can grab the text from gutenberg http://www.self.gutenberg.org/eBooks/WPLBN0002827913-Romance-of-the-Three-Kingdoms-by-Guanzhong-Luo.aspx and either record it yourself or make the computer either read and record it or just read it https://www.softwarert.com/convert-text-to-speech-audio-windows-10/ (though I shudder to imagine the pronunciation- if you choose this it may be wise to experiment with finding and replacing names with phonetic equivalents). CrazySalamander fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Jun 20, 2020 |
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Jun 20, 2020 02:26
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Thank you so much for helping me see my options and restoring some of my sanity; it's about as bad as I feared. Might just be me but I don't really want to read a text version because I'll mispronounce every noun. I'll check in on the podcast, if it's not done maybe listening to what's there will help me finish the rest in text.
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Jun 20, 2020 02:52
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So what's the deal with Audible? It seems like I have to do equations before I can figure out if spending a credit is worth it. Some books become $7.50 if you buy the Kindle version, making the listed price of $19 or $27 irrelevant. So a credit, on the platinum club, costs $22.95 / 2, blah blah blah... this one would be $9 to buy WITH the kindle version so it doesn't make sense to spend a $10.50 credit on it. If I cancel my membership, will I still have access to the books I've purchased already? Or do I need to get a new credit each month to keep access to all my old books?
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Jun 21, 2020 21:57
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escape artist posted:So what's the deal with Audible? It seems like I have to do equations before I can figure out if spending a credit is worth it. Some books become $7.50 if you buy the Kindle version, making the listed price of $19 or $27 irrelevant. So a credit, on the platinum club, costs $22.95 / 2, blah blah blah... this one would be $9 to buy WITH the kindle version so it doesn't make sense to spend a $10.50 credit on it. You'll keep any books you've bought already but you'll lose any credits you have stored up. So make sure you spend all your credits before you cancel. And yeah it can be kind of complicated to get the most bang for your buck. I generally only buy 15-20+ hour novels or courses with credits since those are usually $20-30. Anything cheaper I'll just buy outright if I want it.
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Jun 21, 2020 22:05
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Audible, like every other company is first and foremost meant to separate people from the most money they can at the lowest cost to them possible. This informs their whole decision making process. The "doing equations" you talk about is part of this, because if you screw up it means more money for them. If you watch the shopping cart while ordering multiple books, it doesn't automatically apply the credits to the most expensive items, forcing you to do this manually. In practice a certain percentage of people will screw up and use their credit on the deal of the day, usually netting audible an extra $10 or so. As far as cancellation, you keep your books but lose any spare credits. You used to keep the credits forever but they decided that was causing too many people to cancel when they let their credits pile up. You might lose audible content that is free access to members such as the workouts or meditations and not proper purchases. Free audible original stuff presumably counts in the purchase pile but I'm not 100% sure on that. This free audible original stuff is also part of audible's efforts to separate you from your money, because you fear missing out on a deal. If you attempt to cancel your membership, they often will give you the option to pause your membership for 3 months or go to an unofficial every other month program, but there's no guarantee. I've heard some people say you can talk to customer service directly to get a deal for 1 credit every 3 months in some cases, but more likely the every other month mentioned earlier.
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Jun 21, 2020 22:14
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escape artist posted:So what's the deal with Audible? It seems like I have to do equations before I can figure out if spending a credit is worth it. Some books become $7.50 if you buy the Kindle version, making the listed price of $19 or $27 irrelevant. So a credit, on the platinum club, costs $22.95 / 2, blah blah blah... this one would be $9 to buy WITH the kindle version so it doesn't make sense to spend a $10.50 credit on it. My strategy is to buy it outright if it's under the price of a credit, or wait for a site-wide sale if it's under six hours long.
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Jun 21, 2020 22:19
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I've been listening to David Sedaris' Theft by Finding. It's excerpts from his voluminous personal diaries from 1977 - 2002. He's had some...interesting...adventures.
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Jun 23, 2020 23:52
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Mister Kingdom posted:I've been listening to David Sedaris' Theft by Finding. It's excerpts from his voluminous personal diaries from 1977 - 2002. That book's great, especially if you've read/listened to all of his earlier stuff because you'll hear different parts or more details of stories he's told previously. And it all makes a lot more sense now because you realize he was stoned out of this mind most of the time. Like the entire time he was a mall Santa elf.
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Jun 24, 2020 16:02
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Krispy Wafer posted:That book's great, especially if you've read/listened to all of his earlier stuff because you'll hear different parts or more details of stories he's told previously. And it all makes a lot more sense now because you realize he was stoned out of this mind most of the time. Like the entire time he was a mall Santa elf. I have all of his audiobooks. I have this and Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk left to finish.
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Jun 25, 2020 02:13
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Mister Kingdom posted:I have all of his audiobooks. I have this and Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk left to finish. Aw man, I was excited because I hadn't heard that one before and turns out it's one of his 3 hour, $25 titles and nope. He does have 2 new books coming out within the next year or so though.
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Jun 25, 2020 14:05
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Krispy Wafer posted:Aw man, I was excited because I hadn't heard that one before and turns out it's one of his 3 hour, $25 titles and nope. He does have 2 new books coming out within the next year or so though. That's why I wait and get them on ebay. I snagged that one for $9 including shipping.
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Jun 26, 2020 23:42
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I bought the audiobook of William Gaddis' JR narrated by Nick Sullivan because I thought it would be impossible to do well and I wanted to hear an interesting failure, but instead it's one of the best drat audiobooks I've ever heard. I don't know how the gently caress he was able to keep up with it. In case you don't know Gaddis' style, it's almost all dialogue in which the speakers aren't identified and you're just kind of a floating ear moving from conversation to conversation just barely holding on to about fifty different plot threads... It should be a complete clusterfuck for a single narrator to do, but Sullivan pulls it off.
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Jul 4, 2020 03:42
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XBenedict posted:.Though technically a series, I've owned the Dramatized version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for about 35 years in various forms, from cassette tapes to the current version on Audible. It has a tremendous relisten value. I've probably listened to it literally hundreds of times. Yeah, me too. I have probably listened to it more than any other single audio recording. It never ever gets old. Just the production values alone are worth a relisten.
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Jul 4, 2020 03:44
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The definitive version of HHGTTG for me is the LP (later cassette) release of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It's cut down to about an hour but it's completely re-recorded with the original cast and it just sounds so much more polished and even the delivery of some of the jokes is better than the original radio versions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SguL_w2Oerw I must have listened to this a hundred times on cassette as a teen. I always loved how every version of HHGTTG just kind of builds on and reinterprets the previous versions without taking them as gospel, it just kept being rewritten with every version from radio to book to tv to radio version of the books, etc.
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Jul 16, 2020 04:10
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Rachel Aaron's Shadowrun-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off Detroit Free Zone trilogy wrapped up a month or three ago. The third entry is considerably longer, and wraps everything up to a pretty definite conclusion. Not bad.
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Jul 21, 2020 05:54
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She has also confirmed more books to be set in universe. To be fair I do expect there to be some retconning- whether intentional or not because all of her series I've read have had this happen. Don't get me wrong she's one of my favorite authors, but her high speed writing philosophy, much like other authors known for high speed (I'm looking at you Drew Hayes, and yes you're one of my favorites too) gets her into trouble at least once per series.
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Jul 21, 2020 06:55
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Flea’s autobiography is a really good audiobook. I’m not a big Chillis fan but he comes across as a really nice dude, honest and thoughtful. It’s one of the best autobiographies I’ve read/listened to and it’s great hearing something read by the author.
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Jul 21, 2020 09:04
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Idaholy Roller posted:Flea’s autobiography is a really good audiobook. I’m not a big Chillis fan but he comes across as a really nice dude, honest and thoughtful. It’s one of the best autobiographies I’ve read/listened to and it’s great hearing something read by the author. Awesome, this is a great find! Some audiobooks biographies I really enjoyed: Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi I never had an interest in tennis, and apparently Agassi hated the game too. He had a pretty messed up childhood and even when he went on to become a pro player his life was a rollercoaster of so many ups and downs. Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan This is read by Finnegan himself. Finnegan grew up during the early days of surfing. He goes on all sorts of crazy adventures to find the best places to surf. I think it is the perfect thing to listen to these days where beaches are closed... American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin Oppenheimer is one of the most important physicists of the 20th century. He headed the manhattan project and went on to fight against nuclear proliferation afterwards. It's amazing how many major events/people he was connected to. This biography is extremely well researched too. While the content is fantastic, I do have to warn you that the recording has some issues. There are clearly sentences or fragments that were re-recorded and those re-recordings sound like they were done on a potato. But in spite of that I think it is still worth a listen. Roundabout fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jul 23, 2020 |
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Jul 23, 2020 02:37
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I want to try and get a hold of grover gardner to get him to hear the bad port of Robert Caro's Master of the Senate. Do you think they would fix it if he knew how bad it is?
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Jul 23, 2020 18:00
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CrazySalamander posted:If you enjoyed this discussion, a fun book to read is How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North. It's available in audio as well and makes for some nice summer listening. I posted this in the small questions thread in response to a time travel discussion and figured I'd recommend it here as well. It's one of the few books read by the author that I've actually purchased after listening to the sample.
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Jul 29, 2020 02:04
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$6.95 sale on Audible. Modest selection, but it does include the first two novels in the not-Shadowrun trilogy Minimum Wage Magic
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Aug 16, 2020 23:02
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Currently almost done with Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr and am enjoying it immensely. It’s a story of the first crow to acquire a name and his adventures with humans throughout history. It’s narrated by the author and I dig his voice and cadence. I swear it sounds like a crow is telling the story. I don’t know how I’d know if that were a thing, but I feel it anyway. It’s great.
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Aug 17, 2020 01:52
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Mister Facetious posted:$6.95 sale on Audible. Modest selection, but it does include the first two novels in the not-Shadowrun trilogy Minimum Wage Magic
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Aug 17, 2020 02:37
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So Audible's now gone the Prime route with a new 'Free With Membership' catalog. There are a handful of full series of books I've been meaning to fully read (The Parker novels, Maisie Dobbs, Agatha Raisin, Lew Archer) so I bit the bullet and upgraded from my Silver membership. Note that this comes automatically with the $14.95 a month plan, but can also be its own separate plan with no credits for $7.95. I'm going to try it out for a month and see how much use I get out of it.
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Sep 2, 2020 16:20
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There are a lot of good books in this weird free book Audible thing. It’s a very eclectic mix but a lot of stuff that’s been on my wish list forever is suddenly free. You can add it to your library, but apparently it disappears if you cancel your subscription. Not sure how that work.
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Sep 3, 2020 00:56
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I just went hard in the non-fiction section, added about 10 to the library
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Oct 23, 2020 15:09
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2x (or more) is your friend. A lot of nonfiction is read slowly and there are often chapters in nonfiction that are mostly about how amazing the author is for finding this information.
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Oct 23, 2020 15:56
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If you aren't listening to Obama read A Promised Land, then you are missing out.
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Dec 5, 2020 23:38
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Roundabout posted:If you aren't listening to Obama read A Promised Land, then you are missing out. Was that the one where some goon remixed Dreams for my Father into an entirely new book?
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Dec 6, 2020 02:52
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I haven't listened to a lot of audio books, but I'm here to recommend any of the William books by Richmal Crompton, read by Martin Jarvis. They are fantastic, I didn't know it was possible for one guy to do 20 distinct upper class english accents and have them all sound like idiots. Here's a seasonal sample from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm9L0o2jzRo yaffle fucked around with this message at 10:12 on Dec 6, 2020 |
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Dec 6, 2020 10:09
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yaffle posted:I haven't listened to a lot of audio books, but I'm here to recommend any of the William books by Richmal Crompton, read by Martin Jarvis. They are fantastic, I didn't know it was possible for one guy to do 20 distinct upper class english accents and have them all sound like idiots. Ok but did you get into these because of Good Omens?
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Dec 6, 2020 18:47
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Mister Facetious posted:Was that the one where some goon remixed Dreams for my Father into an entirely new book? Haha, I somehow missed that one. How did it turn out? A Promised Land came out recently. It is the first volume of Obama's memoir, which covers his early political career up to the later part of his first term as president. Unfortunately, it does not include anything about SA's choom gang thread in D&D. On the flip side, he does some great impressions.
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Dec 6, 2020 19:35
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My bad, it was "Son of Strelka, Son of God". Archives needed. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3422981&perpage=40&noseen=1 quote:Hey y'all. Long time no see. For the past four years, I've been working slowly but obsessively on a very odd project. Bit by bit I’ve dissected Obama’s self-read autobiography into thousands of very short phrases, usually one to ten words or so, and have used these snippets to tell a completely different story from the original. I’ve then set the story to music. The story is called Son Of Strelka, Son Of God. Broadly speaking, it tells the story of an ugly dog-faced demigod who recreates the world after it is destroyed. It's about thirty minutes long, and lies in some weird grey area between audiobook and electronic music. YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw-jIvFxpgIDIlxOnvHr9rN_2TUv87Ju_ Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Dec 6, 2020 |
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Dec 6, 2020 20:45
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I just finished Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith. It’s a self-described philosophy book but goes into quite a bit about the evolution and behavior of cephalopods with emphasis on their minds. I liked it and the narration was good.
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Dec 7, 2020 21:41
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