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Audio Books - Do you listen to them? Is there a good selection of titles?
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There are quite a few publisheres using the Playaway format now, but the ones I have read recently (borrowed from the Darwin Public Libraries) are'Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs...She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse' by Paul Carter
'Flashback' by Jenny Siler
'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury
'The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs (Portuguese Irregular Verbs, #2)' by Alexander McCall Smith
'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Stories' by F. Scott Fitzgerald
'A Walk to Remember' by Nicholas Sparks
'The Virgin's Lover' by Phillipa Gregory
'How to lose friends and alienate people' by Toby Young
'Can you keep a secret?' by Sophie Kinsella
and am currently listening to
'The Secret Shopper's Revenge' by Kate Harrison
Here is Dee-Ann's comment from the previous thread with link added:Our public library has audiobooks in playaway format which is a bit like an MP3 player ... these are terrific. I listen to these books whilst doing dishes late at night, doing laundry, grocery shopping and sometimes on the bus. Sometimes the voices of the narrator is a bit weird and not what you pictured for the character and is even weirder when they are doing dialogue of characters of the opposite gender, but after a while I ignore this. The main danger is the strange looks I get on the bus or from my kids when I start laughing for no apparent reason.
The Plaway is actually a small unit, about the size of a deck of cards, and all you have to do is provide 1 AAA battery and headphones (which you use for the next one you borrow out). Our libraries in Darwin probably have about 100 titles on them now since they introduced them early this year, and they seem to be growing in popularity. For an idea of what they look like, here is and address of one of the publishers who use this format now ...
http://www.wfhowes.co.uk/playaway/
Dee-Ann asked me to repost my comment about audiobooks in here. so here it is.Oh the Playaway books are great. I tried out one for my mother who has vision problems. They are no bigger than a mobile phone, maybe smaller. On the central coast (nsw), the libraries are just starting to stock them. You only get borrowing time for 2 weeks here so were not suitable for my mother (her library in Sydney doesn't stock them yet) I was going to take them down to her, but too much petrol.
Anyhow you just need a battery and your own headphones (any mp3 player headphones work). I do a lot of long distance driving and have been considering trying them out. There seems to be a lot of decent new and classic titles, just depends which one's your library stock.
I think they are a fantastic idea.
oh btw if anyone is interested in info about free cd audio books for the visually impaired I've got some info that would be helpful having just organised it for my mother, will post the info later tonight..in a rush just now.
Actually here's the link now.in case I forget..
http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.a...
People need a letter from their doctor or eye specialist confirming they have vision problems but that is the only requirement. Am happy to answer any questions if I can.
continuing on about vision australia audio books. They have a machine called a DAISY reader and it plays CD books. This is designed pretty much for blind people who have trouble with small fiddly buttons and very young or old people not up with technology like mp3's etc. Personally I prefer the playaway mentioned above (because it is small and portable), but my mother who is 79 and can't deal with small things. The DAISY isn't portable it's more like a small CD player - the benefits over the normal CD player is it will hold your place etc. you don't have to listen to the whole book at once. It's for home use but that aside a great thing for vision impaired people. Fill in the application details on the website and they call you then send you info booklets how it all works, plus a catalogue you tick off your preferences. They also have some school/study type books avail too. When I ordered it for my mother there was a hold up with the machines so it took about 8 weeks but hopefully the problem they had with the maker is resolved now. With my mother they have sent her several CD books she ticked off in various genres. She's happy with them making the choices but I believe you can reserve particular books or get them in a certain order. There are no fees. I was expecting a deposit of some kind on the machine but no it's all free. They include postage paid envelopes for you to return the CD'S and there doesn't seem to be a time limit on how long you take. The CD's and DAISY player are sent to your address also free of charge. Main thing is the letter from your doctor. Oh and they have a huge list of titles some my mother blushed at. :)
Cheers.
hope that is enough info.
I love my Audio Books. They're excellent for those days when you just have to get jewelry orders finished on time. Johanna Parker (The Narrator for Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse) series is exactly what I imagine Sookie would sound like.
The only bone I have to pick with audio books is the abridged versions. With MP3 so common now there is almost no reason in my view to ask consumers to pay more for less.
Finished 'The Secret Shopper's Revenge' by Kate Harrison and it was funny and a good one to listen when shopping, however the unit was malfunctioning a bit in that when it switched off it kept going back to somewhere in chapter 25 and it would take a bit of button pressing to find where I was.Now listening to 'We need to talk about Kevin' by Lionel Shriver narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. The female character is bothering me, not sure if it is the narrator, the subject or both.
I just found the most amazing website called Librivox! It is a non profit internet organisation that uses volunteers to record chapters of books in the Public Domain. Their goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. One of the most exciting and fun aspects of this project is that anyone can become a volunteer! Mmmm... I wonder what they think of Australian accents.:DD
That site looks great. It would be really good to hear some aussie accents. One day when I get time, I would love to record a chapter ... cant see it happening in the near or distant future however.
Mandy,I have used Librivox for some months and find the recordings are very good. My only negative is that many of the readers are American and they pronounce various British names incorrectly, which does detract a little.
I have listened to Sherlock Holmes,Kipling, Conrad, G.A. Henty and currently listening to my childhood via Just William (Richmal Crompton). The lady reader has a southern US state accent, which does alter the mental picture of William. :-o)
I walk each day for about 30 minutes or more and the story telling works very well.
Geoff wrote: "Mandy,I have used Librivox for some months and find the recordings are very good. My only negative is that many of the readers are American and they pronounce various British names incorrectly, wh..."
Thanks Geoff! It's good to hear from someone who's used this service and liked it. I was amazed when I found this website and I think it's really admirable of the people who set it up although I'm sure the accents must be funny sometimes.:) What device do you listen to the audio books on? Do you download them onto your computer then transfer them to an iPod or something?
Hi Mandy,I download to a file on my desk top and the on to an MP3 player. Some of the Sherlock Holmes stories are read by Poms, as well as Americans. Each chapter is a short story so there is a 'natural break' before the next chapter / story. The Conrad book 'Lord Jim' was read all the way through by the same person and American male and he was very good.
I think the Kipling stories were a mixture of American / British, again one reader for each story. You ear automatically tunes in to the reader.
You can also download poetry - I downloaded John Masefield 'Down to the lonely sea & sky etc as well as his 'Cargos' poem. You'll find plenty to trial and being free you can delete if you don't like the story and pick another :-o)
I refuse to pay more for an audio book than the real thing, so I've never purchased one. I've downloaded a few freebies to my iPhone, but the readers are so annoying that I'm only able to bear a few minutes at a time. I guess that's why they were free...~S.
I hate Audio Books. they make me sad.Maybe it's because once when I was younger, I was traveling with my family to Kalbarri (7 hours away) and my step-brothers wanted to listen to their audio-book of The Lord of the Rings. My god it was the worst thing I have ever experienced.. :(
Hence my dislike of both Audio books and LOTR
Hi, I've only listened to one Audiobook so far, and I haven't even finished it! It's Earth by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. Reason why I haven't finished it is because it's 3 hours long and I kept falling asleep listening to it using my iPod. Besides, with nothing to focus my eyes on, I keep losing track. I thought the experience would be similar to listening to radio plays (which I did when I was little back home it was a favorite past time) but apparently the length does make a difference. I guess I should try listening to a novel, I did check out Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" but was startled to find that it goes for 9 hours! I think I'd much rather read than listen, if that's the case...
It depends on your circumstances. I find them great for a car trip with the kids. A lot depends on who is reading the book.
Gail "cyborg" wrote: "It depends on your circumstances. I find them great for a car trip with the kids. A lot depends on who is reading the book."This just made me smile. Now that I have a kid on my own, I might consider audiobooks when hitting the road :)
How are things going Dhitri? The first 6 months can be really tough. I started reading to my kids when they were babies. It may have been for my own amusement, I like to think they enjoyed the rhythm of sounds before they really understood what was being read to them. :)
Hi Gail, Coping well so far, thanks to a docile baby and a wonderful husband! I hope I didn't bore you with my birth story :) I find ample time for reading in between the nightly and daytime feeds and I find reading e-books faster than I do printed books (funny, huh?). I might start reading to baby because she's more alert now and spends a little bit more time awake during the day, just to keep her entertained :)
I love your new profile pic by the way, you both look gorgeous. :) Any time you want to tell us how things are going the Chat about whatever you like: the weather, good stuff, bad stuff, family, politics or pets! is the place to come in and tell us how things are going, we would really love to hear about it. :)
Did you know there's a Goodreads group devoted to all things Audiobook? I saw they had some very informative threads, one on which audiobook player to buy and one on best audiobooks. Check it out!http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...
Ooh - I might just have found a winner over there! I've been looking for an MP3 player....
I'm a co-moderator of the GR audiobooks forum -- please feel free to join us!I'm psyched that Audible (here in the States) is actually starting to include some Aussie titles from the Bolinda imprint.
Cheryl -- the Sansa Fuze is a good, reasonably priced choice for audiobooks (vs. the iPod).
John wrote: "I'm a co-moderator of the GR audiobooks forum -- please feel free to join us!I'm psyched that Audible (here in the States) is actually starting to include some Aussie titles from the Bolinda impr..."
Hi John, Hope you don't mind the free publicity! Just couldn't resist all the good advice you were giving out.;D
No problem at all -- as English speakers we're really spoiled with so much audio and e-book availability!
I love audiobooks and have been an audible member for nearly 2 years. I am a 2-books per month member which costs $22.95US which over the past year or so has worked out at around $12-$13 AUS per book which is the best audio book pricing I've ever seen anywhere. For that you can download any 2 books you want that are available in Australia (and these days you don't actually see the books that aren't available to us which is better than the old way which used to get me all excited for things I couldn't have). I have no trouble finding books to listen to even though there are a few I would like to listen to that aren't available to Aussies.
I listen to audio books (on CD) in the car every day driving to and from work (I live in the country and drive at least 90 kms a day). My local library has an excellent selection. I mostly listen to murder mysteries so that I don't have to concentrate too closely on the language.
I absolutely love audio books and I always have 2 on the go at a time, one in the car and another on my IPod. I have heard all sorts of accents and some of the narrators are great and when I hear them I want to listen to the books they have narrated.Recently I read a Belinda Alexander book and the narrator was great with her accents, Russian and Australian.
I am listening to "The People's train" by Thomas Keneally for book club at the moment and the Australian narrator is using a very good Russian accent.
Recently I listed to "The Mayne Inheritance" and the narrator Diedre Ruebenstein is one of the best I have ever heard. I want to listen to the books she has narrated.
I get all my audio books from the Sunshine Coast Library, both CD's and MP3's and I just downloaded my first E Audio book from their site this week. It is the one I listen to next.
I too listen to my IPod while I am doing housework, etc., it makes the time go faster.
I down a lot of audio fiction each week. This comes predominately in the form of podcast fiction and via a number of volunteer-based communities such as LibriVox. Below is a list of podcasts featuring high quality fiction and non-fiction podcasts: 1) Terra Incognita Australian Speculative Fiction podcast (lots of great fiction from Australian and NZ writers)
2) Clarkesworld Magazine (mostly spec-fic)
3) Dunesteef Audio Magazine (spec-fic)
4) Castlepod (fantasy)
5) Escapepod (mish-mash of spec-fic)
6) Pseudopod (Horror)
7) The Moth podcast (true stories)
8) Wily Writers Speculative Audio Stories
9) Lightspeed Magazine
You can find a bunch of awesome history books that have been podcasted as well, such as Normans and 12 Byzantine Rulers, both written and read by Lars Brownworth.
If you are after full-length novels, the best place to find it IMHO is podiobooks. There are a few other places like PB, but they don't go through anywhere near the amount of screening as what Evo and the lads do at Podiobooks.
Dianne wrote: "I down a lot of audio fiction each week. This comes predominately in the form of podcast fiction and via a number of volunteer-based communities such as LibriVox. Below is a list of podcasts featur..."Great advice Dianne! I've never looked at Podiobooks before. It's brilliant!! I can't see myself ever moving away from this computer! lol
One of the great things about podiobooks, is that most of the authors make themselves available via social networking. The Aussie and NZ contingent is also growing as well. Here's hoping that as the infrastructure improves, more Australian authors decide to podcast their fiction.
I absolutely love audio books and I would recommend them to anyone. One of the best narrators that I have heard recently and she is Australian is Di Reubenstein - I heard her when I listened to "The Mayne Inheritance" which is a very interesting true story on the Mayne family of Brisbane (they donated the land that the Univerisity of Qld sits on), I thought her voice was great but I think there are a lot of good voices out there with all accents, Aussie, American, England and Irish.I listen to a CD in the car on the way too and from work and when I am at home doing craft and before I had my Ipod I used to listen to it while I worked by carrying about a portable CD player but the Ipod is a lot better to listen to when I am on the move.
My library has normal CD and MP3 CD's that I load onto my Ipod and now they have Bolinda E Audio - download staight to my computer then onto ITunes and then the Ipod. Another program they have is Overdrive which downloads onto the computer then staight onto the Ipod or can burn Cd's if you prefer. Much better than buying that's for sure and with Bolinda or the MP3 CD's once you have them on the computer you can keep them but with Overdrive they disappear off the computer after a week but they stay on the Ipod until I no longer need it.
Dianne wrote: "One of the great things about podiobooks, is that most of the authors make themselves available via social networking. The Aussie and NZ contingent is also growing as well. Here's hoping that as th..."Di Reubenstein has a good reputation for her reading.
I used to do the CD thing, but mp3 players are a lot more convenient for obvious reasons. Pretty soon I'm upgrading to an iPhone, allowing me to make use of the same device for so many purposes, including a few applications that I'd like to use. I don't know if I'll be able to stand readin ebooks on the tiny screen, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.
Personally, I find myself listening to some sudiobooks multiple times each year, hence I don't delete most of my audio fiction. If you have a specific genre you enjoy, I may be able to give some recommendations for podcast novels or short story podcasts. Just drop me line with your preferences along with some examples.
Zachary wrote: "I heard a brilliant piece of advice once, haven't yet tried it out but I can't see why it wouldn't work. If you're converting an audiobook to be played on an iPod or similar mp3 player, double or t..."
I have tried it and found it awful. Good narrators are actors and use timing, phrasing and tone to vary their voices to suit what's going on in the story and it's pretty much ruined by speeding it up. I guess if all you want to do is consume the words as fast as possible and you don't care about having a story told to you it's OK but in that case I'd just use the text to speech feature of an eReader and not bother buying audio books. In short, I wouldn't recommend it for fiction anwyay, perhaps OK for non-fiction as that's not so much about storytelling.
I have tried it and found it awful. Good narrators are actors and use timing, phrasing and tone to vary their voices to suit what's going on in the story and it's pretty much ruined by speeding it up. I guess if all you want to do is consume the words as fast as possible and you don't care about having a story told to you it's OK but in that case I'd just use the text to speech feature of an eReader and not bother buying audio books. In short, I wouldn't recommend it for fiction anwyay, perhaps OK for non-fiction as that's not so much about storytelling.
I've never listened to an audio book but several Aussie Readers have mentioned enjoying them in their posts. I didn't realise that antiquated copyright laws severely restricted the number of books converted into the audio format.
Todays Australian newspaper writes:
THREE cheers for Stevie Wonder, who declared a "state of emergency" caused by copyright laws that make it so difficult to put books into audio form. In a short speech delivered to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the blind singer made it clear the rules should not be to the detriment of writers. But when only 5 per cent of printed material is available to the visually impaired, it is scandalous to lock out the 300 million people who "live in the dark and want to read their way into light".
Read more about Stevie Wonder's address here: Stevie Wonder lobbies United Nations