Rec me audiobooks and/or geeky stuff!

[oyceter]

I have pretty bad insomnia at times, often because I feel like my brain wants to keep going. I used to try listening to music, especially musicals or ballads, as the narrative thread keeps my brain occupied, but lately I have discovered the joy of audiobooks.

So... rec me stuff!

I am looking for things that are appropriate to fall asleep to. In other words, the audiobook equivalent of a nice, fluffy blanket. Nothing too violent or too depressing, and for this at least, nothing too political. I mean, I am totally up for things that are critiquing the patriarchy or whatnot, but if it makes me want to sit up in bed and pump my fist going, "Yeah!" it will not be helpful for the insomnia! Ditto things with too much fail. I can deal with a little, especially if warned, but again, if I am getting up and trying to strangle my iPod, it is not helpful for the insomnia.

In this case, audiobooks of things I have actually read and enjoyed is a bonus, since I (hopefully) fall asleep in the middle of chapters. I tried listening to Emma, but I kept losing track of the narrative even though I know generally what happens thanks to Clueless.

Apparently the quality of the reading also matters, since I didn't like the narrator of Daughters of Darkness or Mr. Cavendish, I Presume to finish.

So far, I have been greatly enjoying Good Omens.

Also, now that I am most of the way through Mythbusters Collection 3, rec me random geeky stuff! I feel like I have exhausted all of the geeks-in-(awkward-and-adorkable)-love stories on bb_shousetsu, but am kind of up for anything that scratches the adorkable, cute excited geeks, science geekiness, kludging geekiness, or whatnot itch. (I already read Lifehacker and There, I Fixed It.) I think mostly I am looking for stuff with geek personalities being adorkable, as opposed to just plain funny or educational, ergo the question re: fic.

Comments

[telophase]

You should be made aware of the Teaching Company, if you're not yet familiar with them. :) Awesome college-level courses taught by master professors available in audio and video. They look expensive at first, but (a) every course goes on a huge sale at least once during the year, at 70% off or so, and (b) if you go for downloadable audio, it costs less than the CDs. Create an account there and they'll send you email about their sales.

Highly recommended from there: Bob Brier's History of Ancient Egypt, and John McWhorter's Story of Human Language (McWhorter is a PoC, so bonus!), and pretty much anything over in Music by Robert Greenberg. But they're all a cut above your typical professor.


Podcasts:

The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe is often interesting (and sometimes not).

If you like reading books about the mechanics of writing, you might like the Writing Excuses podcast.

I advise checking KERA's Think podcast every week or so: it's a Dallas NPR staion production and Krys Boyd is one of the best interviewers I've ever heard (especially because she actually reads the books before interviewing the authors, unlike a lot of talk show hosts). It's 45-minute-long interview with someone interesting, an author of fiction or nonfiction, an artist, a scientist, someone who's giving a talk in town, etc. They only keep the past 10 podcasts online, but they frequently post shows from the archives, when Boyd is taking a break.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is fascinating. Warning: I did spend all of Show 32 thinking "Huh. I wonder what oyceter has to say about that?" but if you avoid that one -- it's been almost a year so I can't remember anything he said in it -- he should be fine.

I also like Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena.

My SEEKRIT WEAPON for falling asleep, when my brain is whirling and I can't stop long enough to fall asleep .... Mark Crislip's Persiflagers Infectious Disease Puscast. It's a review of the literature in infectious disease for the past two weeks, and if you can't fall asleep while listening to that ... well, maybe you'll learn something. :) Crislip also has a snarky podcast called QuackCast that rails against homeopathy and other alternate medicine (you might have noticed I have a strong skeptic streak!), which you may or may not like depending on your attitude towards the subject matter, but that's mostly kept out of the literature review. Although he does crack bad jokes periodically.

[oyceter]

Oooo, I hadn't realized McWhorter was POC! excellent!

All those things sound excellent and geeky, yay!