While I've heard some strong audiobook recordings by actors (Anthony Zerbe reading Frederick Forsyth's The Negotiator comes to mind), actors have also provided the absolute worst readings I've heard.

Chris Noth read The Andromeda Strain in a monotone so relentless that it made me want to fall asleep--not a good thing when you're driving! And Ben Kingsley's recording of David Copperfield was so mumbly as to be largely inaudible.

The result is that although I rarely check out or buy audiobooks, when I do I'm likely to pass by those read by an actor.

I think stage actors do well with Audiobooks. Not TV or film.

Tony Goldwyn reading "The Devil in the White City" by Eric Larson (abridged) was thrilling.

Bob Balaban reading Thunderstruck by Eric Larson was not.

Sam Waterson reading The Bridge of San Luis Ray was wonderful.

I am not always a fan of the big accents. In "The Zookeeper's Wife" a true story of a Polish couple's resistance against the Nazi's (they were zookeepers for the Warsaw Zoo), the naarator would speak in a distinctive Polish accent when she was talking as the main character, but I found it annoying and distracting.

I think non-fiction books are nice when read by the author. Justice Stephen Bryer did a great job reading his book. And Paul Krugman. And sometimes abridged editions read better than the whole book. Because it can get very lengthy and tedious when listening on cassette. In fact, I think authors would probably write much better books if someone read the writing back to them aloud.

I was listening to Stephen Ambrose's "Nothing like it in the world" and barely made it through the lengthy acknowledgements. Unfortunately, the extreme verbosity and repitition was througout the book and was insufferable. This book should probably have been edited in print as well, but definitely in audio.

One actor whose reading has grown on me: Elliot Gould's reading of Chandler's canon. I don't think his performances are particularly great, but considering Chandler's narrative style I think Gould manages to pull it off. He definitely showed improvement over the years as well.

I'm not a great fan of Altman's "Long Goodbye", but as a fan of Chandler I felt obliged to give these readings a fair shake. Gould doesn't match the radio performances of the late great Ed Bishop, but his delivery serves the material well.

I am able to listen to audio books while at work so I go through quite a few every week (thank goodness for MP3 players and a fabulous online local library -- and rechargeable batteries).

From my experience, I agree with the opinion about Chris Noth's readings and have also found the work of other television and/or film actors' to be overwhelmingly bad. Blair Brown and Elliot Gould being exceptions for me.

In my selections, books read by the author are also the kiss of death. I have to blame Stephen King for that one. If the synopsis sounds great but I fail to notice that the author is the reader until after I download it, I usually erase the book before I even listen to it. Of course, there must be some exceptions, but I have only been impressed by Neil Gaiman reading his novel, Stardust. He is a fabulous storyteller. ("Fabulous" is not enough, but using incredible, amazing, exceptional, made-my-entire-week seems excessive.)

If all my first choices are already loaned out, I will look for any book read by Scott Brick. He has never disappointed.

One more great thing about audiobooks: the interviews with the authors at the end of the book are usually very interesting. A Kurt Vonnegut interview being one of my favorites. Because Kurt Vonnegut is a forced read in high school, I avoided his novels and would have missed his work and some other great classics if not for the availability and ease of audiobooks.

Being low-vision I've listened to audiobooks from back in the days when it was dusty old men reading Nancy Drew on an old record player. It's amazing how much audiobooks have changed and how spoiled I've gotten. In many ways some of those old readers who did nothing but read did much less damage than some of the new readers who try to hard.

I very much enjoyed "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" on paper but have never been able to make it through Jenny Sterlin's incredibly forced audio rendition. I was able to make through Sally Darling's readings of Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall trilogy but there was a bit of teeth-grinding because she reads so pompously.

I generally agree with other posters who have mentioned problems with authors reading their own works. I couldn't make it through the audiobook of "The Kite Runner" read by Khaled Hosseini but I was delighted when a new version came out read by Atossa Leoni.

For the most part, reading shouldn't be that hard. I'd strongly prefer that a reader simply READ a book cleanly than try to pump in lots of voices and accents unless they can do it as smoothly as Jim Dale and I've not heard anyone yet who can.

The producers have to take both credit and blame here as well. I utterly hate the addition of music and the weird pops, whistles, and clatters that are so often introduced as chapter changes, segment peices, and, in some cases, random noise. I wouldn't mind so much if these dischordant offerings were only BETWEEN the chapters but most of the time, they continue on over top of the reader for some time as he begins the chapter as well. For the most part, music, sound effects, and other accoustics distract from the reading as opposed to enhancing it unless handled with a very light hand.

There are some exceptional readers though. I'll listen to anything read by Scott Briggs (though Brick is good too) and I fell head-over-heels for Richard Matthews after listening to him read "The Count Of Monte Cristo". Frank Muller is also good.

I have to admit I was really taken with Stephen King's reading of Bag of Bones, although it took a little getting used to his voice. He has a voice made for writing, not radio. He did a great job with the voices and the tone of the piece, and I think the fact that he knew how the story should sound was a real plus. Your Mileage, of course, May Vary. Arliss Howard's reading of Elmore Leonard's The Hot Kid was quite compelling, so I'd rank him as an actor who can also read.