Laurie R. King Virtual Book Club discussion
Archived Off-Topic
>
Questions about audio books
date
newest »
newest »
First, I'd encourage you to check out the GR audiobooks group, because you'll get a lot of info there about the various resources as well as technical help if you need it. http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/5...Audible is great and they have a HUGE library of mainly books, but also some radio plays from places like the BBC (which still does this kind of thing for broadcast) and LA Theater Works. There are a couple of different pricing structures including member and non-member, but if you "join" books bought with credits are about $12 apiece. They also offer tons of sales throughout the year.
This pricing structure makes them much more competitive than iTunes and some other outlets.
Audible is now an Amazon company, so it doesn't surprise me that they pre-load the Audible app on your Fire. It's a good app (at least for the iPhone) and for books lots of people prefer it to the built in iPod player on iPods or iPhones. You can use it for books that you get from other sources, too. I load all my books into iTunes on my computer and manage from there. When I transfer them to my phone, I can listen to any of them from the Audible app, not just those purchased from Audible.
There are also a number of places you can get free books including Librivox (there's a thread in the Audiobooks group about good narrators on Librivox -- important because there are some awful ones, too) and your local library.
Most libraries provide download-able books via Overdrive or OneClick (catalogs of audio and e-books), but if yours doesn't there are some libraries that allow you to pay for an out-of-area library card.
Hope that helps!
I went ahead and signed up for the free trial of the Audible service. The first book I got was William Manchester's The Last Lion (Volume 1), which is my favorite biography of all time. Let's see how this works out.
Steve,I do all my books on the cheap, free from the public library and I have begun downloading audio books. It's exciting since I won't be toting around a prehistoric cd player! The ipod and I aren't exactly friends yet, it's fiddly and easy to get off the track, but I am hopeful once I learn its ways, we'll be fast friends. I am still listening to the 2nd volume of LL so I can't wait to hear how you like the first, the reader I mean. My reader does a wonderful (often HILARIOUS!) Churchill! But that might not be to everyone's taste....
Jen
I'm about an hour into the first volume and enjoying it immensely. I listened to it as I walked at the mall. :)
I am so happy to hear that you are enjoying the audio version. I know it's not for everyone but I think it's such a wonderful way to enjoy a book. I think I have lost my love of actual reading but I am trying to revive it with "The Last of the Tin Can Sailors!"Jen
Thank you, Regan, to the GR audio group reference!Poor eyesight makes audio books my main source. How great to know there is a group! The great readers are my beloved pop stars! Jenny Sterlin and Allysa Bresnahan are high on the list.
Like Jen, I get the overwhelming majority of my audiobooks from Overdrive, through my local public library. (I LOVED the two recorded volumes of the Churchill biography.) In addition to the audiobook sources mentioned above, however, I have located a few more:http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenbe...
http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/home
http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audi...
http://audiofreemp3books.com/
http://archive.org/details/audio_book...
http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiob...
Lenore, thanks so much...I'll check these out...the Churchill was one of the first things I looked for because you and Steve have spoken so often about it.
I know we have a lot of audio book readers here so I've come to the experts. Are there any upsides or downsides to using Audible or any other audio book format. What do you use, and why?