Audiobooks discussion
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Where do you get your audio content and what device do you use to listen?
Knitpurlgurl wrote: "Unfortunately, most of the books I can get from my library are in WMA format and I have an Android Phone..."According to the back of the box my cheep & cheerful Sansa Clip+ came in it will play WMA files (WMA and secure WMA). I have not used it for WMA, and I don't use Overdrive so can't help any further but maybe someone else can fill in gaps....
Sansa Clip+ plays all WMA's just fine. Like a broken record I repeat that Overdrive books should be either re-tagged as "Audiobook" genre before transfer, or one should create an empty destination folder in the Audiobook section of the device, and use the Advanced feature to tell Overdrive to put the book's files there specifically.By the way, the Clip+ has just been succeeded by the Clip Zip.
John wrote: "By the way, the Clip+ has just been succeeded by the Clip Zip.UhOh! I am afraid to look and see what they might have done with the new Clip Zip to 'improve' it!!! Maybe they won't have done too much, fingers crossed... (off I go to look lol)
The main "enhancement" seems to be that it displays book covers.
I have quite the Audible addiction as well lol I have 2 monthly accounts and I occasionally purchase in addition to my credits when books are under $10. But I figure its fairly healthy addiction and keeps my happy, I don't spend money on much else other than bills. :)
yes, '1.1" full color screen with new graphical user interface and album art display' ...not so bad, they don't seem to have gone over the top with changes at all. Whew!And loads of colors LOL
This is my first year as an audio book listener, so far I have listened to audio books that I get from the library - and I am happy with that - my book budget is out of control with the hardback books and the ebooks that I already purchase. I would prefer not to spend money on audio books. But wouldn't you know it that there are 2 audio books, that I think I'm going to have to purchase since I cannot find them at 2 of the county libaries where I live. So my question is how cheap is Audible??? Or does anyone purchase audio books from Amazon - my plan is to spend as little as possible, I don't really want to have a library of audio books.
It really depends on how many audiobooks you want to buy. As you want a small number it would be better to avoid Audible as they sign you up to a monthly subscription. WeRead4You.com has been consistently cheaper that either Audible or iTunes, at least for the books I've checked. I would recommend them, personally.
Also worth noting that you can only get audiobook CDs from Amazon. So if you are desperate for CDs Amazon is the only option I know of.
I am in my first year as an audible member. I also have a Nook. I try to borrow audio and ebooks from my library and save my purchases for books I can't borrow or special books that I want to own or listen to.The first 3 months are only $7.95, and then the price increases to 14.95, I think.
They have wonderful sales, and I often don't use my credits but buy the sale books. A $4.95 sale just ended. I found 6 books that I wanted. Some were authors or series I wanted to try. For $4.95, why not!
Audible also had a sale of 1st books in a series a few months ago. The sales are great.
Currently, I have 4 credits in my account. I believe I can have 6 in my account. I will buy audiobooks that I haven't seen on sale, or use them to buy favorite authors when the books are newly released.
I regularly drive 6 and 8 hours each way to visit family. The time just flies when I have a book to listen to! I can do chores and knit at home.
I think my membership seems to be worth it for these reasons.
You can always try it and then discontinue the membership. Good luck!
@Fellows and @Carol - thank you both for your information, Fellows, I will check the web site you suggested. My preference would be to have the actual cd's - but not totally sure. I don't listen to audiobooks in the car - I only listen on my computer at work.
Is there a law against copying Audio Books and sharing copies?
Yes, that violates US copyright law.
Carol wrote: "I am in my first year as an audible member. I also have a Nook. I try to borrow audio and ebooks from my library and save my purchases for books I can't borrow or special books that I want to own..."I have a subscription at Audible for $10 a year and then I get a discount on books I buy. I probably "earn back" the $10 after about three books and I probably buy about 3 or 4 a year. It's cheaper than the monthly subscription and it works with my library possibilities.
Ellen wrote: "Carol wrote: "I am in my first year as an audible member. I also have a Nook. I try to borrow audio and ebooks from my library and save my purchases for books I can't borrow or special books that..."That's a great option, Ellen! Thanks for sharing. I may go to that if my credits build up. I assume you are still able to shop the sales? That would be a deal breaker for me because I get so many books for under $10.00.
I would like to know more about this plan also. From searching online I see this is called Audible Light, but can't find much info on it. When I go to change my account in Audible, I don't get that option. I was going to cancel my account but if I can get access to all the sales for $10/year I would probably keep it.
Perhaps you need to call a rep on the phone to have that one activated?
I have a Clip+ and just ripped the first book from CDs to it (as opposed to library Overdrive downloads).I had 14 CDs, and ripped each as a single track.
But when I download a book from Overdrive, it puts it in a central folder, then allows all parts to play with no further fiddling:
So I see this screen:
Audiobooks --> Book --> Book - Part 1, Book - Part 2, etc.
But with the one that I ripped, I'm not able to get the parts organized into a single folder. Thus, it plays one part, then I have to go back to the menu and select the next part:
Audiobooks --> CD Book Part 1, CD Book Part 2, etc.
Is there a fix for this?
I rip books from CD as a single track as you did. You need to put the 14 files into a single folder (I put either the author or title, or an abbreviation), and then drag and drop that entire folder into the Audiobook (not Music!) section of your player. You have to put them in the folder before transferring them. One mistake I learned the hard way: do not create the folder on your device and then try to transfer a batch of tracks from your hard drive into the folder (which is exactly what I find necessary with Overdrive books) -- when I did that it insisted on arranging, and playing, them in order transferred (which wasn't in sequence at all); transfer folders only.How have you been tagging the ripped files? Mine go something like:
Album: Gone with the Wind
Artist: Margaret Mitchell
Track: GWTW - Part 01
Genre: Audiobook (NOT fiction, history, etc.)
Hope that helps!
Ah, making the folder before transferring sounds like the missing link I needed. I made a folder on the device and moved them, but then they don't stay grouped.I'll try assembling a folder when I'm next in front of the proper computer.
Carol wrote: I assume you are still able to shop the sales? That would be a deal breaker for me because I get so many books for under $10.00. ...Yes, I can still shop the sales. I'm not sure I get any further discount. When you look for books on the site, it will show the price, the member price and the credits price. I pay the member price, if there is one. I think in the recent sale of $5 a book, there was just one price.
Kelly wrote: "I would like to know more about this plan also. From searching online I see this is called Audible Light, but can't find much info on it. When I go to change my account in Audible, I don't get t..."I just looked at my account and I'm listed as having a "basic membership." I assume that option is still offered but I signed up for it a few years ago and have never switched.
Thanks for the info Ellen. I will contact Audible to see if I can switch to that, hopefully they haven't gotten rid of it!
I love Audible.com! It is so fun & easy!
John wrote: "I have an Audible account, although most of what I want is available through Overdrive (I've gone through almost everything I could want over the past few years from NetLibrary). I do rip books-on-..."John wrote: "I have an Audible account, although most of what I want is available through Overdrive (I've gone through almost everything I could want over the past few years from NetLibrary). I do rip books-on-..."
Hi John,
I am looking to get a new audio book device. I have a Samsung Q2 which is only compatible with WMA files and does not have bookmarking. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to lose my place all the time. So - I want mp3 and bookmarking. Would you recommend the clip? Thanks, Roxanne - i thought the zens looked pretty good.
Yes by all means the Clip Zip - it plays almost everything you can throw at it. Books must either be tagged Audiobook, or dropped into the Audiobook folder, for bookmarking to work.
Thanks John. I'll check it out.Roxanne
John - is there a difference between the Sansa Clip and a Sansa Clip Zip?
I had thought the clip+ was discontinued in favor of the Zip, but if you can find a clip+ that'd be fine -- the main difference as I understand it is that the zip displays album (book) covers.
Okay - but also I think you can get 8gb in the black zip. Thanks a lot. I'm going to get one. I am listening to a lot of books right now as I am doing handwork.Roxanne
I have a 4Gb clip+ and it holds a lot of content, without resorting to using a micro SD card to hold even more.
I have an 8Gb clip with another 16Gb micro sd card so I can get 20+ decent sized books on so don't need to load and reload all the time.Actually I gave 2 so hardly ever have to load. Am I greedy or what!!!!!
can still get the clip on amazon easily in UK at any rate.
I've been addicted to audiobooks for about six years, so much so that I quit my print publishing job to start an audiobook publishing company (Post Hypnotic Press - check us out, mostly non-fiction, as that is my passion, but some fiction coming along). Anyway, I purchased most of my books from audible, but there are lots of new venues coming along. For instance, you can purchase books directly from my site (or through regular channels like audible). Another Canadian company that produces mainly fiction offers books through audible or directly from their site (Iambik - started by the fellow who started Libervox). There's Learn Out Loud and Simply Audiobooks and EMusic, etc. For those with various smart devices, there's Ambling Books which offers an app that allows you to purchase and download directly to your smart device. There's another app, Jagamaga, which offers free audiobooks. I think they're planning to add paid to this app eventually, but for now he's taken the best of Libervox recordings and cleaned them up and mastered them.As for devices, I prefer my IPod Touch to anything else, but I have used an IPad, too. No real difference there. I love my IPod, although I do wish I'd bought the 16GB instead of the 8GB. Not enough room for all the books I want to carry around. Apple has an IPod Classic (not like the new little tiny IPods, which don't appeal to me, but the same size as the original Classic) with 160GB on it. Now that's a chunk of memory! Wish I had that but I can't justify buying a new IPod when the one I have is working just fine.
I have a 160Gig Classic iPod and I wouldn't give up my 4Gig Clip+ for it! There's something for all us audiobook lovers out there :)
Julie wrote: "Congrats on your 1001st book John"Thank you! I must state that I read very fast, and some of them are either books I read long ago, and was prompted at add after seeing others' reviews, as well as my share of TBR entries.
Library - books on CD for the commute to work. Makes the drive time fly by!
John wrote: "I rip books from CD as a single track as you did. You need to put the 14 files into a single folder (I put either the author or title, or an abbreviation), and then drag and drop that entire folder..."So this still didn't work. Maybe I need to make all the album tags the same?
I tagged them as
Album: Book (Disk 01), Book (Disk 02), etc.
Even putting all the individual files in one folder and moving the folder to audiobooks still leaves me with having to switch between folders for each file.
You need to have the Album called something like 'My Book' and the each CD-length track called 'My Book - Part 01', 'My Book - Part 02" etc.
I always change the track names into alphabetical or else 11 follows 1 and so on.
That's why I use a "01" etc.
I recently joined Audible.com. I stocked up on great ones for $4.95 each.I was shocked to find out I could share with my disabled sister without a second account. Amazing to be able to share and read these together. Smiling really big here. I have always read and then shipped to her so this will save me a lot of shipping costs.
Also a Sansa Clip+ user. I usually get audiobooks from Librivox with Kindle versions from Gutenberg (to help me out when I doze off in mid-chapter.) My little review blog is here:http://librivoxlist.blogspot.com/
I've noticed my public library has a surprisingly good offering of audiobooks and I'll be tapping that pretty soon. I buy Kindle ebooks but have some reservations about buying and storing much larger audiobook files for works I'll probably only listen to once.
John wrote: "Sansa Clip+ plays all WMA's just fine. Like a broken record I repeat that Overdrive books should be either re-tagged as "Audiobook" genre before transfer, or one should create an empty destination ..."I used to use my Sansa (8gb) for overdrive audiobooks from my library. yes you had to direct it where to save it when you transferred it, but it's okay. I bought it specifically because it could do audiobooks. If you transer it without directing it into audiobooks, you don't get to utilize the special audiobook features like bookmarks and fast forward. It was great though.
Currently I use a Microsoft Zune, which is also very good. I don't subscribe to the zune music service, as I primarily use it for books (but I do have a good deal of music on it). when transferring from overdrive, it automatically labels it as an audiobook so there is nothing special to do.
One of the best things about the ones from the library is that once they are on your device, they are there for as long as you want-until you delete them. I listen to some of my favorites over and over. I love it.
Af wrote: "Also a Sansa Clip+ user. I usually get audiobooks from Librivox with Kindle versions from Gutenberg (to help me out when I doze off in mid-chapter.) My little review blog is here:http://librivo..."
Thanks for the librivox reviews! I have recently had a renewed interest in the classics, and have been wishing for some kind of librivox review site. I have been listening to the librivox reading of Jane Eyre on youtube, it also has the text included. It's fantastic!
I have a Clip plus which I have dropped a couple of times and cracked the front, caught it getting out of the car and broke the clip off... yet it still works. I am wondering if I should get a Clip Zip or get another Plus if this one stops working. To those who have both how do you feel about the Zip? Is it worth getting? Do you like the "improvements" (screen, navigation, font of menus)? I personally like the display and buttons on the plus so I am on the fence. I also get all of my audiobooks from the library (Overdrive or imported with CD) so I wanted some input on that and if it still works well. I currently have a 4GB plus in blue.
If both models were available, I'd get another Clip+ myself.
John wrote: "If both models were available, I'd get another Clip+ myself."Thank you for your honest opinion. I have heard some people say they don't like the display on the Zip. I don't need book covers or a fancy screen. I just want to be read to! :)
I have 2 clip + (16GB storage)devices they are small and light with a decent screen. I use them with Sony Ericsson phone ear buds which I wear round the back of my neck, that way they don't get caught up and yanked from the ear. That hurts.I think the clip+ gets more mentions than any other device on this site.
Audiobooks
Books mentioned in this topic
11/22/63 (other topics)The Notebook / The Wedding (other topics)
The Passage (other topics)
Faceless Killers (other topics)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (other topics)
For the borrowed audio books through my library - OverDrive, I use an iPod. Maybe you could find a used/cheap iPod or other device to transfer these borrowed books to? I too would otherwise spend too much at Audible without the capability of library download.