You drive past your house because the end is near.

Or stay on the treadmil cause the book is almost done. Or in a bathtub till the water is cold because.. The book is almost done!

I have to admit, I have driven past my house or sat in the driveway just to hear the end of a book!

(gulp) Even-or especially-when I have heard the end before and I loved it!

=)

Or walk in to work late because the book's end was more important....

CL: Lush Life by Richard Price

I sit in the driveway.

And I want to know how Crystal714 is listening to audio books in the bathtub. I've been tempted but I'm afraid to drop my device into the tub.

Firecat:

I have a set of portable, battery operated speakers for listening to audiobooks when headphones would be awkward. The player and speakers are positioned elsewhere in the room, or on a shelf, away from the water, if I want to listen in the bathtub.

I agree with Stef, maybe we need a visual on that ;-)

Anyone else routinely find that you've stopped listening about a minute or two short of a chapter section/break, had you continued?

I hold my device in my hand outside of the tub. It looks awkward, maybe even feels awkward. Better for the device to hit the floor rather than the water. I wear head phones.

Or spend much more time cleaning the house or cooking dinner than you would otherwise.

I have a great little device called "I'm a Speaker" by TDK. Got it at best Buy years ago. It's a portable speaker in a CD case that you can plug any portable audio device into. Very handy when I'm putting on my makeup in the morning. I just checked Amazon and it's out of stock, but they have it at shoppingsquare.com for $19.95.

The phone rings, you answer and ... it is George Guidall still telling you the story.

When people look at you strangely in the grocery store because you are laughing or crying, but no one is with you.

I'm a big fan of little speaker attachments, too. Sometimes I get tired of something in or on my ears. You'll find them in the iPod or MP2 section. I have a couple of them.

When you have absolutely NO memories of driving from point A to B.

Wow - I've done that and it freaks me out! I also hate it when I cry because it makes it really hard to drive.

When you sit still in traffic and just loving it.

When during the daily exercise walk you forget to turn around.

When you secretly hope that your significant other won't offer to come with you while you take the dog for a walk.

How about when you have to buy ANOTHER 500GB hard drive because your ripped-from-the-library and Audible member audiobook collection has filled the first one? And you have more audiobooks than you can possibly listen to in the next six months waiting there for you but you still obsessively get them and rip them from the library on the off chance that zombies attack and you cannot get any new ones?

I'd say it speaks volumes when you know audiobook narrators so well that you can refer to them by their first names and all your friends have strong personal opinions about them? :)

or when the first item on your Christmas list is blank CDRs since you go through so many, burning books to listen to in the car (I don't have an iTrip yet)?

Coming home after shopping and wondering why you do not have any of the items on the list you brought with you.

When you get stuck behind the mile long train slowing into the station, but don't care.

When you are the only one waiting at the green light.

you know readers the way film buffs know actors.

you have (potentially) one book in the car, one book at work, and one book at home.

and then there's the sound system in the car....
rather than install a unit that runs an mp3 player directly from the dashboard unit, i have a radio/single cd unit with an auxilary option. then i had them run a jack that i can plug into my ipod OR a portable tape player. at my liberry, many books are still tape-only.

When you realize that you are supposed to be able to listen and do stuff at the same time.

When your spouse knows if you're wearing earphones, that it might be a minute before he/she can talk - they know to wait for the "hands up, 1 minute" sign. And they're good with that.

When you switch from one to two earplugs.

When you take your player out on a sail trip and hum… there suppose to be land visible somewhere.

When you realize that you spent the entire morning washing your car.

...when you realize that you are actually looking forward to picking up the house clutter.

(currently listening to Tony Horwitz book A Voyage Long and Strange, read by John Mayer)

When the stewardess has to tell you its time to get off.

When you are plugged in watching Jon Stewart and are not laughing.

When your reading material is based on your favorite narrators.

When you'd rather drive a long distance alone than with a friend b/c you know you won't be able to listen to your book if he/she's with you.

What are the characteristics of your favorite narrators?

When you save the last disk of a really good book for a couple of days because you just don't want it to end!

When you ditch your friends at lunch & sit in a sweltering hot car just so you can listen to one more chapter.

When the state of the charge of your player is second... first on your mind!

When you are telling the officer that just pulled you over to hang on.

When you are contemplating running over your lawn a second time with your mower.

When you're working under the premise that an hour has 77 minutes!

When you arrive in time to catch the shuttle to your office, but you decide to walk so you have more time to listen to your book.

When you add 10 minutes to your workout on the exercise bike just so you can finish the chapter!

when you know readers the way other people know cinematic actors.

When you get a second ipod nano just for your books.

suzi - i have always been curious about this. how do you listen to bboks on ipod _ download each disc to your computer and then drop in your nano? do you just do one book at a time & let them go afterwards? thanks. do most of my listening in car or at work but have always wondered if folks did this.

I always used my ipod to download books from Audible.com. It is cheaper than buying the books from the store: Audible charges $22.95 per month and you get to download 2 books + you 30% off on books that you purchase.

The book is housed on your PC or on the website so you don't have to fumble with CD's and you get to listen over and over and over ....

:)

Jude: Here is one way to do it with some extras.
Creating Audiobooks for the iPod

I actually just use a shuffle for my audible books, and it works just as well. (By the way, has anyone noticed that shuffles can now be bought with a TON of accessories for under $60).

I primarily use audible for my ipod books. The only trouble I have is that occasionally my ipod will do something funky and I'll have to try to fast forward a few hours worth of stuff unless I can get back to my laptop and do it with itunes.

However, for books I get from the library on CD, I rarely bother to put them on my ipod. For one thing, if you do, you have to remember to delete it back off again once you return the CD - anything else is basically stealing. I have, on occasion loaded parts of stories on my ipod when I wanted to take them with me somewhere that I wouldn't have access to a CD player, but usually it's just easier to play library audio books in my car.

Jude: I get Books on CD from the library (free) download them to my itunes, then my ipod. This works best for me because I can listen in the car, when walking, or at the gym. I just delete them when I'm done so I don't clutter up my itunes library. I usually have several books on my nano at any given time. My other nano is strictly for my music.