Do you heart audio books?

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I'm moving house soon and will have to rediscover my love of commuting two hours a day on a crowded train. Seeing as I have an iPod now, I thought I might get me some of them audio books the kids are all into these days. But they're very expensive. And if I sign up to the monthly plan on audible.com, that's $14.95 a month, also very expensive. Unless it turns out to be completely brilliant.

Have any of you used this (or similar) services? Is there one you'd recommend? I know you're wondering why I don't just read a book, but the truth is that I like staring out of the window on the train, and it would be nice to be sort of reading while I do that.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 29 July 2004 08:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Another good point: Sexy actor's voice to listen to.

Bad points: Often abridged and durned expensive when conmpare to the library.

I know a friend in LA where they are quite popular borrowed from a rental place - don't know if they do this on your side of the world

― sandy mc (sandy mc), Thursday, 29 July 2004 08:47 (twenty-one years ago)

The library has audio books, and I heard Crackerbarrel has a program where you buy an audio book and you can echange it for another at any crackerbarrel (for those who are constantly on the road I suppose). Not sure exactly how that works, but I know my library has hundreds of books on tape.

― Beth, Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

You can find some free audio books on AudioBookForFree.Com

― Fred (Fred), Thursday, 29 July 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

*cough*slsk*cough*

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 29 July 2004 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

*cough*bittorrent*cough*

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 29 July 2004 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh no, Chris, don't ask me to use THE TORRENT. Not that I have anything against it, I'm just completely incompetent.
So, you can get audio books that way? Hmmm. Interesting.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 30 July 2004 09:20 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not that daunting, really. And yes, you can.

What I've been absurdly hearting lately are lectures from the Teaching Company. Which are kinda like audiobooks, but different.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 31 July 2004 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I love audiobooks. I am currently listening to "Remember Me" by Trezza Azzopardi. Keeps the time driving to work and back from being wasted and minimizes road rage.

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Sunday, 1 August 2004 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

We get audiobooks from the library and then record them onto minidisc for illegal travelling pleasure mm.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 2 August 2004 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

My sister cuts puzzles for a living and listens to audiobooks all day. She gets 7-8 audio books out from the library at a time. Seems to work for her...

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Monday, 2 August 2004 11:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Monkey, you could read out your own work in progress, and listen to it back, in the car! - as part of the editing process!

(You really are moving! quite a long way, innit?)

― the bellefox, Monday, 2 August 2004 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I could, or I could JUST WRITE THE BLOODY THING! I need a bit of mental prune juice.

When I was in college, I briefly worked as an amanuensis for a legally blind student. Among my many writerly duties, I read a couple of psychology text books onto tape for him. Maybe I should volunteer to do that again.

Yes, I am moving a long way away. But near the sea! It will be grate.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

It's thrue - the Irish Sea *is* grate, as our photos of Skerries demonstrate.

― the finefox, Tuesday, 3 August 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate them.

Tried Nueromancer by William Gibson and his voice was so irritating I couldn't get thru a tape

the trouble with Audiobooks is if you doze off how can you find where you left off?
At least with pages I can skim to something familiar and pick up from there

― Max, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 00:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Yesterday I whiled away the traffic jam in Edgeworthstown (named for Maria Edgeworth's family) listening to Amsterdam read by Alan Bates. He is the perfect person to read this book, with it being about the sixties' generation getting older. So I'm firmly on the audiobook trail now. Library, yes, good suggestion. Although I'm inclined to think that libraries here go for quantity rather than quality, and tend to be full of abridged Agatha Christies rather than anything I'd actually be interested in.

It's hard to believe that you can have a traffic jam in a one-street village at 3pm on a Tuesday in August and without a tractor in sight, but it seems you can.

I shall get books about the sea and listen to them while I sit on the beach wrapped in a tartan blanket and sip tea from a flask. Children will mock me, but I won't hear them, so I won't care.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 07:49 (twenty-one years ago)

If you get them from HMV you can tape them onto your iPod and pretend they were shit and exchange them, but only once.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 6 August 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Also HMV have the Martin Luther King albums in the comedy section, so it's worth it just for that. Mind you, he always was the Richard Pryor of the civil rights movement.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 6 August 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

PJ- you made me laugh out loud AND share your sally with the husband.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Saturday, 7 August 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

I have a sort of radio play version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - different actors for different characters, sound effects etc. I imagine only certain books are good for that, but it's great.

― Lukas (lukas), Friday, 27 August 2004 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I just listened to a radio play of Brave New World and I despised it. I'm not sure if that's how the dialogue goes in the actual book (which, i know, i should read) but it just beat me over the head with theme the whole time. Only unabridged from now on.

― chrisco (chrisco), Friday, 27 August 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Was that the BBC one? I downloaded a copy of that, but I haven't listened to it yet.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 27 August 2004 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, seems to be. It's not a complete waste of two hours, but if you don't like how the first scene is acted out, you probably won't like any of it.

― chrisco (chrisco), Saturday, 28 August 2004 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Also they pronounced 'epsilon' differently than I do, and it irked me every time they said it.

― chrisco (chrisco), Saturday, 28 August 2004 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I listen to them on my way to work. I just finished the Screwtape Letters read by John Cleese--fabulous!

― Inspector Hound, Saturday, 28 August 2004 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Try Mark Twain's "Diary of Adam and Eve".. read by Mandy Patinkin and Barbara Buckley. It won the 2000 Audie Award. "Swonderful!

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Saturday, 28 August 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

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