The Republic of Plato 3rd Edition by Allan Bloom (Translator),‎ Adam Kirsch (Introduction) (Basic Books)

Plato's Republic was in that second group. I honestly expected to hate it. But it's one of the fundamental classics. So on the list it goes to listen to while I commute. And I loved it. It may have been that it was a full cast audio but it honestly did feel like being with a group. Maybe a quarter of the way in I realized what it reminded me of: when you are at a very mellow party in college and people start discussing things that are really "deep, man." And there's that one person who is way too into it and dominates the conversation. So that tickled me most of the book. The other thing that was really engaging was how much of the ideas in this book can be seen in the modern world. In that way it made it feel like an anthropological study and it kept making me say, "neat," even when I disagreed with whatever point was being made. Overall I would recommend this audiobook version because it made it come alive.