Audible Original

Gave it a shot under the premise of 1) famous readers, 2) humor, 3) short stories, as I thought all of those things might go well with listening in the car. I listened to the first and the second and was just so turned off by it that not even Sir Patrick Stewart could keep my attention for the second story.

The sound background is awful and allowed to dominate the story telling. The music is artificially dramatic, like in the worst-tv-movies, and the loudness of it interrupts the storyteller. In fact, in some instances, the story teller literally pauses to allow for some dumb swell of synthetic music.

The two stories I listened to were pretty close to terrible, one loosely based on the Frog Prince(ess) and one on Mr. Acid Reflux or something. They aren't streamlined and have unclear messaging (female solidarity? rage? unconventional lives?). These aren't funny; they are sad. The Princess mulls on settling for an insufficient love to escape her life; the man in the second story has severe estrangement from his own life. These aren't cynical--these are real and sad.

Alas, Offerman can't save it either. His 'introductions' are rambling and meant to be humorous, but fall quite flat (I think in the second one, he is pretending something-or-other). Thankfully, it was free. I'll be wiping this from my phone immediately.

True story: I stopped and switched to Whispers Underground for the seven thousandth time, just to get the bad taste out of my ears.… (more)

Bedtime Stories for Cynics is a fun listen.

I didn’t know there were two and listened to the second one first (More Bedtime Stories for Cynics) and I actually really enjoyed that one (gave it 5 stars) but I think it was mainly because that was my first Audible Original and I didn’t have anything else to compare it to.

In my honest opinion, Nick Offerman’s intros for each story are way more fun and interesting than the actual stories themselves. (But maybe I’m just biased because I love him as an actor.)

Some of the stories are actually really funny and makes me think, but some of them are just a hit and miss. I don’t think it has to do with the voice actors, though; if anything, I believe they make the stories more fun to listen to than if I had just read the short story myself.

However, if you’re just looking for a quick, fun audiobook that doesn’t make you think as much, or you just want something random to listen to, you should definitely try Bedtime Stories for Cynics.… (more)