Books on Tape got me through many hours of entry-level workplace drudgery in the days before their name became an anachronism. I found Orwell a reliable diversion and also formed a permanent connection between the voice of Wolfram Kandinsky and the words of Hemingway. Oliver Sacks and Douglas Adams made recordings of their own work; Adams was especially entertaining. I accelerate podcasts (Econtalk has some great guests) but prefer consuming audiobooks at the intended speed. I find that comprehension and pleasure are compromised at high speed. It's like rushing through a good meal. When I listened to Jeremy Irons read Nabokov I sometimes backed up the recording to hear a passage again. Before dismissing the value of the narrator, consider listening to a pro.