CharlesMangione

joined 10 months ago
-1
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

I've recently started a job driving a shuttle van across the city for the general public. I've got a wide amount of leeway, but the audiobooks I've been listening to have been... not hitting right. I started with "The Name of the Wind" which was extremely well reviewed. I liked it a lot for the most part, and for the most part so did my passengers, but at one point it started talking about how much the main character would like to see one of the young woman characters naked and would pay for that privilege. In the context of the story it sort-of made sense, but out of context it was completely gross and I was beyond embarrassed. The next day I tried "Consider Phlebas" (again well reviewed) which was a completely different thing, but almost immediately it started in with a vivid description the mc being drowned in sewage- It did not hit right, despite the interesting developments that I would ordinarily probably enjoy for just myself.

I'm looking for suggestions of completely SFW audiobooks I could listen to (through audible, alas) with random passengers of all walks of life coming and going without context. I cannot stress strongly enough that they should be quite literally safe for work. I don't mind skirting a bit of controversy or challenging preconceptions or introducing new or unusual perspectives (In fact I kind of relish the idea of being somewhat progressive and/or boundary-pushing, though I'd like to start small after these initial embarrassments), but it cant be crude, or sexual, or violent.

Thanks for your attention, please chime in with your suggestions.

Edit: Oh jeez wow this got more traction than I expected. I appreciate everyone's suggestions! I'll be trawling through them in the coming weeks and maybe even post my experience with some of them, "shuttle van reviews" or some such. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

You're only allowed to be right about one thing at a time. That'll be six-and-a-quarter million dollars for your arrogance, and also how dare you?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

You have expressed an unauthorized opinion. Your account has been fined 6 downvotes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Mhm, characters, worldbuilding, etc... Yeah, hey George? How's Winds of Winter coming along there, bud?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

Yes. Someone has been trying real hard to make AI-gen Harrypotter Scifi happen. It's not going to happen.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (3 children)

An artificial intelligence designed to the task could, but

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

You are absolutely right to be skeptical. There are a great many downsides to this technology. Getting it grimy, pointing it out of the sky, cloud cover, etc. will nullify any cooling effect. And yes, the DIY preparation shown would be completely destroyed by a powerwasher, or even a moderate storm. That said, I read recently of a university of maryland research team made an improved coating, allowing the nanospheres to withstand significantly increased weathering while still remaining effective.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What's this? Did you rehost it so we dont give google the traffic?

106
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

A detailed explanation and demonstration of a paint that cools down to sub-ambient (3C in ideal conditions) temperatures with no energy input.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (5 children)

On the topic of The Matrix, I'm surprised by the number of people who think that Matrix 1 2 & 3 are the only Matrices. In my opinion, The Animatrix is better than both sequels combined, by a lot, and most people seem to have never heard of it. If you're a fan of The Matrix, watch The Animatrix!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The 1973 BBC Radio Dramatization of Asimov's Foundation. It's about eight hours long and the voice work is quite good. It's comfortable for me to listen to and come back to, very digestible. One complaint: I've yet to find a version that had properly equalized sound levels, so the comfortable listing volume for their speech throughout the work is suddenly jarringly loud when they switch to the machine-clacking "encyclopedia" segments that serve as segues between parts of the story. Other than that, I have no complaints: It's a fairly faithful adaptation of the original work, and does not suffer from the fatigue and dating many other works do (in my opinion, audio balancing notwithstanding).

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago

Fix back button from posts going back twice instead of once

OH IT WAS A BUG! I thought I was taking crazy pills!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

It started to affect someone's bottom line.

view more: next ›