"Go the Fuck to Sleep" audiobooks: Samuel L. Jackson and Werner Herzog editions

"All the kids from daycare are in dreamland. The froggie has made his last leap. Hell no you can't go to the bathroom, you know where you can go? The fuck to sleep."

—Samuel L. Jackson voices this audiobook version of "Go The Fuck to Sleep," the previously-Boinged book which was officially published today (after crazy pre-release piracy).

The Samuel L. Jackson audiobook is free for the time being. Listen to a sample here.

You can also buy a hard copy or a Kindle version of the book now, just out today.

Word is that Werner Herzog will do an audiobook version, to be released soon:

Published today, the picture book begs sleepless children to "go the fuck to sleep" in a series of quaint, expletive-ridden verses. It soared to the top of book charts last month after a pirated PDF went viral, and calls this week from a New Zealand lobby group to ban it are only likely to add to its appeal.
"The flowers doze low in the meadows / And high on the mountains so steep. / My life is a failure, I'm a shitty-ass parent. / Stop fucking with me, please, and sleep," writes author and award-winning novelist Adam Mansbach, who was moved to pen the book when his own daughter was suffering sleepless nights. "The cubs and the lions are snoring, / Wrapped in a big snuggly heap. / How come you can do all this other great shit / But you can't lie the fuck down and sleep?"
Mansbach said that "the best possible person in the world" was narrating the audiobook: Herzog. The film director's recording will be unveiled at an event to launch the book, illustrated by Ricardo Cortes for small American publisher Akashic Books, at the New York Public Library.

Unofficial videos of Werner Herzog impersonators reading aloud various other children's books follow. Oh my god I can't even wrap my head around how awesome the real thing would be.

[Werner Herzog reads Madeline]

[Werner Herzog Reads Curious George]

[Werner Herzog Reads Winnie The Pooh]

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: Audio • Book • Funny • parody

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

Phlip

BAN BAN BAN IT! BAN IT HERE (in the usa) TOO!

Tell Sarah Palin to make a campaign issue out of it!!!

WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN??!

(Disclaimer: I have an otherwise successful daughter who cusses like a sailor; she has a rambunctious puppy, and my wife runs a home childcare service.

(“Go the f*ck to sleep” INDEED!)
johnnyaction

For those not willing to make up a fake American address: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=D34VJ2I3
- yosemite
  
  Johnnyaction FTW, folks.
  
  AudibleManager Software? You can go the fuck to sleep.
- Anonymous
  
  HERO!!!
  
  Had the same problem with the “We won’t sell you this free file cause you is foreign”
  
  That’s seriously funny stuff.
- GrymRpr
  
  Thanks… I’d be damned If I was gonna install some bit of unknown software just for an Mp3.
- Michael
  
  Thank you, sir!
kovo

I just downloaded the audiobook from audible and all of the fucks are there in their Sam Jackson glory.
- emmdeeaych
  
  That is a good thing. I hadn’t realized it until I heard the sample, but SLJ was already the internal voice I was using to read the excepts to myself.
Anonymous

Wow, audible is just frigging terrible. Ten minutes trying to register and being like… um, no, you are not legit enough to have my amazon.com password, and then it wants me to install some crappy software? Never mind, I’ll just get it the regular way.
- Anonymous
  
  Weird that folks are having trouble. cause i was able to just download it, opened the file and it loaded into Audible. quick log in and it’s playing. Only complaint is all the chatter before the story.
Marky

Jesus, what a pain in the ass. First, download the Audible Manager and install. Then download the file, which won’t play without a username and password it never set up in the first place. All this for a FREE sound file? What’s wrong with an MP3 or WAV download?

As Cartman so tastefully puts it, “Suck my balls.”
- lysdexia
  
  For a real treat try their tech support chatbot. Like a brazillian waxing for your brain.
IronEdithKidd

Wait. Why is anyone trying to ban *this* book?

Here’s the link to that story. It boils down to “we don’t like this book and don’t think anyone should be allowed to buy it. Because we don’t like it.”
Lolotehe

Why does this want me to install iTunes on my Linux box? Why are we giving any kind of support to someone who would put out such a crippled and DRM-laden file?

How much would it cost to get a file I could use? I’d pay for it.
- Joshua Ochs
  
  We’re supporting it because it’s Samuel L. Jackson, and it’s *freaking awesome*. The DRM is regrettable (especially when most everyone else has dropped it, and on a free file to boot), but thems the breaks.
  - Lolotehe
    
    Sadly, there’s no Linux client that supports the aa format. I suppose that there’s something that could be ported through Wine, but is it really worth it?
gijoel

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY
fnc

Create a user account so I can get a bunch of spam and give their crappy download manager a bunch of my future CPU cycles just to listen to a free mp3?

Fuck that.
MS

I’m trying so hard not to laugh out loud at work…
Bartacus

Thankfully I keep a handful of old AOL addresses to sign up for these types of things. I don’t mind signing those up for Spam.

NON-Thankfully, these dolts at Audible have a broken DRM authorization system:

You’re forced to give an email address and sign up a username and password.

4 steps later, after you download the file, the computer asks you to authorize using that username and password. In fact, as I learned by calling their 888 Balanese Tech Support number-

You actually need to put in the email address where it says to put in your username in the Authorize window.

Congratulations, Audible.com. You’ve tried to capitalize on a viral sensation only to send thousands of new users to your site and get a non-functional Audible.com user experience.

:/ Cory wuz right!
headfirstonly

+1 on Phasmal’s comments.

It takes real talent for a company to make the customer experience on something they’re giving away for free so bad that I’ll never ever go near them again, but Audible have managed it. Dismal.
Phasmal

Samuel L Jackson narrating a book like this? Cool, I wanna hear that… And it’s free â€“ Great!

… Except it’s not free, you have to register. Ok, I can live with that â€“ that’s a price worth paying.

… And I can’t even get it once I register, because apparently “Due to publishing rights restrictions, we are not authorized to sell this item in the country where you live.”

Publishing rights restrictions… on a free audio book.

Well, you’ve beaten me, I can’t even conceive of a point to that one.
MrBawn

No love for aa. I’d rather have the free speech format than the free beer format.
sebastian6

Samuel Jackson sure is neato! Wow, he uses the “F” word! I can’t stop giggling! How wonderful for our entertainment!
jezztek

Oh man, I can’t wait for the Werner Herzog version. His voice is just so disconcertingly soothing it even made rewatching his recent Simpsons episode twice worthwhile!
sebastian6

Herzog and Jackson are so darn cool! The juxtaposition of them reading a kids book is just such an astonishing idea, not at all pat or weirdly mundane.
- gobo
  
  It’s nice that you think so, Ironically Sarcastic Contrarian.
Anonymous

I just got my printed book today, and it is fucking brilliant. And I don’t even have kids.

Everyone, rush out and buy this. If you don’t laugh with recognition, there’s something wrong with you.
Greeneskye

Just found it on Itunes for $1.95, if anyone is interested. When I tried to create an account and download it from Audible, they automatically tried to force me into a $23/month membership.
Greeneskye

Just found it on Itunes for $1.95, if anyone is interested. When I tried to create an account and download it from Audible, they automatically tried to force me into a $23/month membership.
Ugly Canuck

Just once, I’d like to get through the day without having to point a gun at my head!

PS – I really liked Herr Herzog’s recent turn on ‘The Simpsons’. Read more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion%27s_Tale
HelderM

Those “Werner Herzog reads…” are great, but the true classic that really captures the existential spirit of Mr. Herzog is still “Werner Herzog reads Where’s Waldo?” (can’t believe that has been mentioned yet).
http://youtu.be/EvWh6PMi9Ek
Anonymous

Gandalf should totally do one.
SamSam

O.M.G. Werner Herzog reads Madeline was the best thing in the whole wide world.

Except perhaps for the others, which I haven’t listened to yet.
g0d5m15t4k3

Ahh the audio from Samuel L Jackson is priceless. Thank you BB.
microcars

don’t forget Herzog reads The Night Before Christmas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BtYI_OndA0
(probably fake but wonderful none the less)

now a family tradition at our home!
Damien

Oh great, it scraped my information, including home address and Aamzon.com account login details, and _then_ told me it won’t give me the advertised product because I’m not in the USA. Jerks.
This “rights management” thing has gone way to far.
BitTorrent doesn’t have such boneheaded restrictions, just saying…
- Ni
  
  I have been able to download it, but all I get is a stupid .aa file, and I don’t know what the fuck to do with it. No thank you, I don’t want to buy a copy of Windows just to listen to an audiobook, and even if there is a version of some proprietary player for my OS, I don’t want it.
  
  I guess I’ll just go for a torrent, then.
- Keir
  
  Same here, grrrr.
Anonymous

After install the Audible Manager my windows now fade in/out whenever I open/close them. What a piece of crap.
Chris Spurgeon

Oh man, it sounds like they bleep Samuel L. Jackson’s “fuck”s. Boo.
- Xeni Jardin
  
  I know!
  - Joshua Ochs
    
    Thankfully they only bleep it in the sample. Otherwise that would indeed be a travesty.
    - akbar56
      
      The full version is not bleeped. Oh this is perfect. Can’t wait for Herzog’s.
Anonymous

I got the file. Too bad Audible hates Linus users so much, otherwise I might actually be able to listen to it.
absimiliard

I’m having a very hard time caring about some German director of stuff I mostly either don’t like or don’t care about doing an audiobook of anything, even something as awesome as this book.

(Heck, I had to Google him to even figure out who he was, and I recognize none of his films or other works.)

That said, my opinion says more about my provincialism than it does about ser Herzog.

-abs does think the Samuel L. Jackson reading this is pure win though, like 100% WIN!
- gobo
  
  Most people, when hearing about a great director for the first time, would be curious to see his films or learn more about his work, rather than get petulant about their own ignorance.