Less well-known is Tom's love of manual typewriters of which he is an avid collector. Throughout his first collection of short stories typewriters appear in each and every tale.Talking us through his favourite books Tom's passion for history is evident, as is his awareness of the authors' achievement in painting such vivid pictures.
You can discover more recommendations from authors and narrators here and enjoy Tom's selections, told in his own words, below.
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At Home: A Short History of Private Life
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5,081
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Performance3,910
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Story3,894
Bill Bryson was struck one day by the thought that we devote more time to studying the battles and wars of history than to considering what history really consists of: centuries of people quietly going about their daily business. This inspired him to start a journey around his own house, an old rectory in Norfolk, considering how the ordinary things in life came to be.
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More Fact Pact Bryson
- By Stewart Webb on 06-06-10
Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short Story of Private Life
I read a lot of non-fiction. I love Bill Bryson because he can write about pretty much anything. You know what I learnt from Bill Bryson? A fork has four prongs because the other ones don’t work. This has been proven from the millennia. He also wrote about The Crystal Palace and how its construction altered architecture in the entire Western world because of the mortars, and the glass and the concrete that they used.
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A World Lit Only by Fire
- The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall125
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Performance102
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Story100
From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose and with the grace and authority of his extraordinary gift for narrative history, William Manchester leads us from a civilization tottering on the brink of collapse to the grandeur of its rebirth, the Renaissance.
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Gets better
- By markw on 02-04-07
William Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire
It’s essentially about The Dark Ages and how people lived then and it is fascinating. You learn so much, not just about period but also about Martin Luther and Magellan… you learn about all kinds of things that put it into purely human terms that has no nostalgia for the era. It’s about the human struggle to survive while also striving to feel a connection to something other than their hunger and their climate. He does it in a way in this book that is absolutely astounding, like a little bit of a time machine.
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Light a Penny Candle
- By: Maeve Binchy
- Narrated by: Kate Binchy
- Length: 19 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall418
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Performance341
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Story341
As a child, Elizabeth was sent from her war-torn, rather loveless home in London to stay with a big, boisterous family in a small town in Ireland. There she meets Aisling, and begins what becomes a long-lasting friendship. Over the next 20 years, Aisling and Elizabeth's paths will cross and...
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Light a penny Candle
- By Denise on 22-08-10
Maeve Binchy's Light A Penny Candle
This is a sign of a great book: you’re on vacation (and it’s a horrible vacation) and you are desperate to read something to pass the time and you come across a book called Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy, author of Circle of Friends. I knew Circle of Friends was a movie and I figured that if she’d written something that was turned into a movie this book might be pretty good. I fell in love with Light a Penny Candle, and everybody else on vacation ended up reading it too. We all went nuts for it.
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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
- By: Dave Eggers
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall47
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Performance33
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Story34
At the age of 22, David Eggers became both an orphan and a "single mother" when his parents died within five months of one another of unrelated cancers. David is appointed unofficial guardian of his eight-year-old brother, Christopher. The two live together in semi-squalor, decaying food and sports equipment scattered about, while Eggers worries obsessively about child-welfare authorities, molesting babysitters, and his own health.
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Embarrassing
- By Steve on 09-07-12
Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
This book is like the hipster granddaddy of all memoirs. I’ve read almost everything Dave has written. I asked him how far in advance he works on a book and he said about three years. I also asked what gets him going - is it curiosity? Something you want to learn? But he said ‘No, outrage’. He’s outraged by something and then begins to write a book about it. I love the volume of work he puts out: he just writes continuously, he’s always working on something.
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The Greater Journey
- Americans in Paris
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall9
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Performance7
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Story7
The #1 bestseller that tells the remarkable story of the generations of American artists, writers, and doctors who traveled to Paris, fell in love with the city and its people, and changed America through what they learned, told by America’s master historian, David McCullough. Not all pioneers...
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Very interesting
- By Anonymous on 29-03-23
David McCullough's The Greater Journey
David is a pal of mine. He’s able to write about what it’s like to live in Paris in 1876 so that I feel like I’m living in Paris in 1876.
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2001
- A Space Odyssey: Space Odyssey, Book 1
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3,150
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Performance2,674
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Story2,666
It has been 40 years since the publication of this classic science-fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man adventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.
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Excellent... but why no 2010 on Audible yet?
- By Martin P on 31-07-14
Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey
I would have loved to pick the brains of Arthur C. Clarke. I went through a period of time where I read everything that Arthur had ever written. I spoke to him on the phone a couple of times in regards to a few mini-series we’d put together but I would have liked to have sat down with him and ask what else we should be thinking of, what else should we come up with?
Tom Hanks introduces his first collection of short stories
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Uncommon Type
- Some Stories
- By: Tom Hanks
- Narrated by: Tom Hanks, Peter Gerety, Peter Scolari, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall632
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Performance564
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Story567
Read by two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks. A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor. A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war...
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Underwhelming stories
- By souljackerr on 17-11-17
Tom Hanks' Uncommon Type
Discover the vast range of characters in Tom Hanks' first collection of short stories. The 17 tales take in an eccentric billionaire, teenage surfer, successful athlete and a gentle Eastern European immigrant among many others through insightful and humorous stories, all linked by the inclusion of a typewriter.