Audiobooks...

Neodogg

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So, does anyone have a particular player they like more than others. Should I just get an Apple Nano7th gen?

Do you have to pay to download the good books? Or are there free DL?

Asking for a friend...
 

NeoSneth

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Many audiobooks are out there for "free". You can use any media player for these files.
I eventually moved to using an Audible subscription. It's easier in most cases, and gives me the flexibility to listen on any of my devices.
 

@M

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You might want to check out your local libraries as well, many of those have large selections of audio books that you can borrow for free.
 

aoiddr

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So, does anyone have a particular player they like more than others. Should I just get an Apple Nano7th gen?

Since I'm on my desktop most of the time, I'll use Winamp with a tempo/pitch/speed modifier plugin called Pacemaker so that I can pay back podcasts and audiobooks faster. Winamp also lets you jump back or forward 10 seconds at a time easily to catch something you missed.

If I'm away from my desk, then I have one of those SanDisk Clip players (ClipJam, I think). It has an audiobook folder and menu options built into it.


Do you have to pay to download the good books? Or are there free DL?

Audible has the biggest selection of paid audiobooks, but you only get 1 credit a month for their $15 membership. This is all well and good, but sometimes you wish they had an unlimited Netflix-style option available. For the cases where you just gotta have "free," you can use your local library via overdrive, as has been mentioned.

For torrents, I really wouldn't recommend going this route unless you absolutely must have more audiobooks than you can possibly listen to in a week (or month). You don't want to be using public bittorrent trackers from your house and all the good private trackers need you to keep good ratio (i.e. sharing 24/7)...so you'll need a seedbox somewhere, which is another ongoing subscription you'd be paying for.
 
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NeoSneth

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Yeah, I will add that Audible without the subscription is expensive. It's like MSRP hardcover book expensive.

I completely forgot about local libraries, but I do have friends that use this method.
 

gusmoney

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Aren't audiobooks for illiterates and the blind?
 

@M

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A lot of people like to listen to them while they're driving or doing other activities.
 

Ralfakick

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A lot of people like to listen to them while they're driving or doing other activities.

Exactly sometimes it is a nice change of pace from listening to the radio.

City folk like Gusmoney don't have to worry about long daily car commutes
 

NeoSneth

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Aren't audiobooks for illiterates and the blind?

It's no different than podcasts. I can listen while on the go, out shopping, or while I'm mowing the lawn.... if i had a lawn...
 

ForeverSublime

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I'm pretty sure audible has 2 credits for $22/month - you always have the option to buy 3 credits for $33 outright - and if you keep your Wish-list up to date, you get Steam-style emails when something on your list is on sale (usually around holidays $5-$9/book)

Audible's app is helpful for chapter selection, bookmarks with notes, etc. That's the true value to me over .mp3 files, and they're terrible at getting that message across. If anyone uses any other services with these features, I'm ears.
 

ChopstickSamurai

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It's no different than podcasts. I can listen while on the go, out shopping, or while I'm mowing the lawn.... if i had a lawn...

Audiobooks and podcasts are what gets me through a night at work. I think others have covered the subject pretty well. It's like most things, get them legit or through "other means".
 

Taiso

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I love audiobooks. I can essentially 'read' while I drive or while I'm cleaning up the house or doing any other menial task that doesn't divide my attention too much. I have read a ton of books building Gunplay over the last couple of years.

The only downsides to them are that you hae to read at someone else's pace and that, sometimes, the readers are poorly directed and don't use proper pronunciation of certain words, especially in fantasy and sci-fi settings.

I use Audible and Overdrive, myself. Audible is good for most things in terms of access and availability. Some of the prices are great. I bought Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings for less than a buck. And I bought Common Sense by Thomas Payne for, like, four bucks.

Overdrive is great because it links up to my library and I have access to their entire catalogue. That was how I recently read both 1984 and Watership Down, which are, in my opinion, two of the greatest fucking books of all time. Honestly, if you read books and you haven't read these, you should probably be High Sparrowed for it.

The downside to Overdrive is that you only have limited access to the books. After a set time period, you can't listen to the book. The reason for this is tied to licensing-the library would have to pay a fee for every digital copy of the book they loan out, so on some titles they're rather scarce on availability. But when I went on Audible, I could only find a German read of Watership Down.

I only do unabridged, and that's because the author's craft is important to me. This may sound a little opinionated but I'm too old to give a fuck.

Spoiler:
Also, I'm half joking. Half.


If you're going to read a book, read the whole goddamned book. Knowing the events of a story and experiencing it are two different things. If the author wanted you to simply 'know what happens', they wouldn't bother writing books. They'd just write shitty blogs telling you about their wonderful ideas.

Suffer through the parts you think are slow and try to understand why those passages are like this. It's exposure to culture, so fucking culture yourself.
 
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NeoSneth

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Now, The real question is,
How do you tell people you have "read" an audiobook?

Most people just say they "read" that book. I don't feel guilty saying "read" when all i did was listen, but i'm sure actual readers would protest.
 

cat

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I love audiobooks, the dramatised aliens spin off "out of the shadows" is well worth checking out and also "dark matter" by Michelle Paver if you're into old school ghost stories.
 

norton9478

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Consuming novels in audio-format is okay (depending on the performance).
But listening to books you have already read is amazing.


I go to bed nearly every night with an Ipad playing an audiobook.

Usually, it is one of the first 6 dark tower books, the stand or Lord of the Rings.
 
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aoiddr

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Consuming novels in audio-format is okay (depending on the performance).
But listening to books you have already read is amazing.


I go to bed nearly every night with an Ipad playing an audiobook.

Usually, it is one of the first 6 dark tower books, the stand or Lord of the Rings.

I'll have to grab those Stephen King audio books at some point. I'd definitely like to revisit The Stand, especially.

I listened to Ready Player One recently. Wil Wheaton really gets into it and makes for a very engaging time. Definitely worth a listen.
 

Massive Urethra Chode

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Now, The real question is,
How do you tell people you have "read" an audiobook?

Most people just say they "read" that book. I don't feel guilty saying "read" when all i did was listen, but i'm sure actual readers would protest.
You could just say... you listened to it...
 
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