Audio Books

[Dee]

don't know if anyone has seen this, but there is a summer audiobook program that pairs a classic with a new release, each week for 8 weeks during the summer - http://www.audiobooksync.com/free-syn...

the first pairing is currently available (be warned that the Grapes of Wrath is actually a play and not the entire book)

[Carina]

Thanks for remind me Dee!!!

[Dee]

daughter of smoke and bone is awesome! i'm looking forward to skullduggery pleasant - i've heard really good things about it

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

I think Regina is also another one who said that DoSaB is excellent on audio.

I just saw someone comment on the mobileread forums that the sync books have no international restrictions (at least the current one does not appear to).

[Dee]

There is a link on the page that has the international restrictions

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

Oh, so there are?

[Dee]

Yeah most of the classics are available the new releases are a big more restricted

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

As a reminder, this week's free audiobook offerings are and

http://www.audiobooksync.com/free-syn...

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

This week's free audiobook downloads over at Sync include the fabulous Daughter of Smoke and Bone, as well as A Tale of Two Cities.

http://www.audiobooksync.com/free-syn...

[Hillary]

So, for the fans of the Fever series that love Phil and Natalie...if you don't know already, they signed to do the next 3, so ICED is them. I am torn as to what to do, I may have to get the audio and the HC! Cause yeah... Phil's Ryo and Christian? YUM

[Emily]

Those of you who use Audible, how do you like it? Do you feel like you get your money's worth? I'm thinking of giving my husband a membership for his birthday--he's had horrible luck with the condition of audio CDs from the library--a problem I don't have for some reason.

[Jenny]

Audible is awesome.

[D.G.]

Audible is great. They have amazing sales all the time so you can get audios at a great price (I just got the first 3 books in the Kate Daniels series for $6.95 each.) They also have amazing customer service and they even let you return books!

But of course, it depends on how much you both listen - you can share an account so you will be able to get books for both of you. If you listen to a book here and there, it may not be cost effective - membership is $14.95 for one credit a month. But if you listen more than that, you may be able to get lots of audios at really good prices. They ALWAYS have a sale going on.

[Regina]

I concur. My main problem with audible, is I overbuy in sales and then have too many books to listen to. Right now I have 2 credits and $10 in my account and no idea what to buy.

[Emily]

Thanks, guys! I do want to make sure I've got this right: So the price per month gets you one book, essentially, and you can buy others for additional costs?

[Jenny]

I also like that you can download the audiobooks from an app, so there's no side loading necessary to get them onto your phone or device and you can do it on the go, and it will work on 3G/4G so you don't need to be on a wifi.

Also if you have a Kindle, they offer discounts on the Audible book if you've bought the Kindle book. For example, I just bought Under the Never Sky on sale for $2.99 on Kindle. Now it says "Because you own this Kindle book, you can add the professional narration of Under the Never Sky for the reduced price of $8.99." (regular price is $17.94) So I can right now get both the ebook and audiobook for less than $12. Then if you're reading the book at home, it can sync and pick up where you left off once you get in the car. Cool, imo.

Edit: Yeah, you pay a monthly fee and get 1 or 2 or however many credits (depending upon the plan you sign up for) per month. And then you can purchase additional books. If you're a member, then you also receive a discount on any of the extra books that you want to buy.

[Hillary]

I've got the platinum monthly plan. I get 2 credit a month for $22.95. I LOVE my audible account. The customer service as stated above is easy to deal with. They have KILLER sales and yes you end up with a surplus of stuff but...hey...that lets you hoard credits for times like I have this month when there are 2 new books that I MUST GET in audio...Iced and Fourth Grave (charley Davidson). :D

The new whispersync with kindle is pretty nifty. I haven't tried it yet because nothing has interested me yet, but I wouldn't complain when it is one of those books that you cannot stop even for life to occur. :D

[D.G.]

Emily wrote: "Thanks, guys! I do want to make sure I've got this right: So the price per month gets you one book, essentially, and you can buy others for additional costs?"

You have to sign up for the membership, which includes 1 or two credits a month depending on the plan - you can also sign up for yearly memberships that give you all the credits upfront and give you a cheaper per credit price.

You also get 30% off of regular prices for any audiobook. For instance, I have a book on my wish list that is $9.89 with the discount so instead of using a credit for that (which costs $14.95), I'll just buy it upfront when I want to listen to it.

On top of that, Audible has a like a million sales. Right now they have several going on - the Shocktober where some vampires, zombies and werewolf books are just $6.95 each. They also have another sale where you can get credits for a 30% discount. During the weekend, they also had an additional 20% off member prices.

[Rektok]

I haven't yet gotten audible but I will say if you like classics, you can always use the iPhone audiobook app. It's all free and works awesome. I am obsessed. Listening to Dracula now. I actually just posted about it on my Facebook LOL because I like it so much. See 3 posts down:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rektok-...

[Emily]

Thank you so much, everyone, for the info on audible! I will be getting a gift subsription for my husband, though I will probably wait for Christmas at this point.

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

It was already linked in the ebook topic, but I thought I'd add it here as well, just in case someone skipped the topic due to not using eboooks.

This years free sync audiobooks are about to start up again. They always pair an older book with a newer book, and offer a few popular books, so it's a great deal. Free is good!

There are 2 new books every week. Here is the schedule link.
http://www.audiobooksync.com/free-syn...

This year's offerings at a glance :

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

Cross=posting from the ebook topic this year's free audio books from Sync.

There's a few known/popular books on here as usual, which is nice.

http://www.audiobooksync.com/free-syn...

[Emily]

Thanks for posting! I usually get an email from them but have not yet. It's a pretty good list.

[Chantal]

The Full Cast Audio of Graceling (Kristin Cashore) is FANTASTIC! The voice actors are amazing, especially the little girl voicing Bitterblue. I highly recommend it!

[Heidi]

I concur Chantal

[Jennifer]

Thanks for posting! I haven't heard of this before and am excited to try it out.

[Coleen]

I got this awesome app called overdrive media console. I can link it up to my local library and borrow ebooks and audiobooks. I really enjoyed listening to "pride and prejudice" on audiobook because when I tried reading it, it was kind of confusing for me to figure out who was talking. I am now re-reading the fifty shades trilogy on audiobook. I really like the narrator.

[Dee]

i used overdrive for library books quite often