My first Audible book

[aym]

I thought I'd share.

I'm a big e-book fan, but I needed to listen to an audio book so I bought one through iTunes Music Store (needed as in assignment - explaination is far too long).

I don't spend a ton of time in my car, so it's not really a great format for me, but I was really pleased. I actually found myself laying around my house forcing myself not to read/watch anything else because I wanted to finish and the book was so gripping. I loved the fact that I could transfer it from my car to my home, even between my laptop and my iPod, and still have my place saved. You can't do that with a CD book.

It was really easy to buy, but I have to say it was expensive. Not perhaps in comparison to the hardback, but $20 is $20. I got one that was available in both abridged and unabridged formats, and going against my grain I got the abridged. They were about the same price, but 6 hours vs 10. I enjoyed the book enough I'll borrow the hardback from my Dad and read the full version.

Not sure I'm recommending against or for, just suggesting that those of you who have never tried an e-book give it a shot. The artists who read them are usually actors and it's much easier to understand than having an untrained person just read to you. I'll definitely buy another, but I'll probably wait until I have a long car trip to make.

So...

Pros:
1) easy to buy with iTMS
2) easy to comprehend compared to, say, a friend reading aloud
3) bookmarking is incredible!
4) definitely a must have if you travel long periods at a time

Cons:
1) you're not going to save much money
2) harder to multitask compared to music
3) harder than paper to loan/sell to someone when you're done
4) most books are not really compatible (in terms of human memory, not technology) with listening for just a few minutes at a time

My 2 cents. Give it a shot for yourself.
Aym

[fergiej]

If you are interested in listening, you might try going directly to Audible.com and signing up for one of the frequent listener plans. I am a Premium listener., For $19.99 a month, I can get any 2 books from the library at no extra charge. This is a fantastic deal for me as I have a rather long commute each day and would "starve" if I had to listen to regular radio the entire trip. There is alos a basic listener plan. For $14.95/month, you get one book/month. I've been doing this since 1998 and LOVE Audible.com. Would go seriously broke if I had to pay retail for books.

The only difference in dealing with these files from Audible rather than fro iTunes directly is you would need to download the files from Audible using Audible Manager and then import the files into iTunes. I also rename the files themselves to be quite a bit shorter and descriptive and after I import, I rename the title tags to actually fit in the iPod screen when showing the playlist. If you have 2 books: Dune: The Butlerian Jihad and Dune: The Machine Crusade, there is no way to tell them apart in the playlist window.

Jerry

BTW, good tutorial.

[Neil33]

I don't know- $20 for a book-on-tape download seems excessive to me. Especially when I can rent them at the local library for free. My G/f absolutely LOVES listening to them, and I plan on transferring a few to my Ipod so she can experience the joy of the little white wonderbox herself.

But if I find that I'm spending too much time transferring then I might try Audible.

My .02

[bsoplinger]

The price audible charges is comparable or cheaper to what you'd pay to *buy* a book on tape. Saying why pay 7.99 for a book I can get at the library for free would be the same sort of comparison. I can go to recordedbooks.com and rent for about the same price as I can buy from iTunes/Audible. Instead I have an older Audible subscription and get 2 books a month for 15 bucks (its now 20). Definitely the way to go if you want long books, especially the unabridged ones.

Now, I'm not saying renting/borrowing is bad, I'm not. I'm just suggesting that one compare similar things. Going to the library and 'transferring' the audio book to your iPod is stealing, just like the mp3/Napster thing, plain and simple.

[arsolot]

Originally posted by bsoplinger
I can go to recordedbooks.com and rent for about the same price as I can buy from iTunes/Audible.

I've looked briefly at the recordedbooks.com site. One can purchase recorded books, but renting doesn't seem to be an option. How do you rent from recordedbooks.com?

[Neil33]

Now, I'm not saying renting/borrowing is bad, I'm not. I'm just suggesting that one compare similar things. Going to the library and 'transferring' the audio book to your iPod is stealing, just like the mp3/Napster thing, plain and simple.

I'm not talking about keeping the books on the Ipod, just transferring them to listen to and then deleting. If you can check out a book on tape for a month then I don't see anything wrong with listening to the material on a more convenient player, as long as the content doesn't stay past the due date. Books are not like music to me- they don't have a permanent place in my Ipod. If I liked a story enough to want to hear it again I'd spend the $20 on the REAL book.

My opinion, of course.

[bsoplinger]

Originally posted by arsolot
I've looked briefly at the recordedbooks.com site. One can purchase recorded books, but renting doesn't seem to be an option. How do you rent from recordedbooks.com?

Hmm, I've got cookies for their site in my Browser, but when I load IE (which doesn't have the cookies) I get a main page which has various choices like: Direct to Consumer, School Resources, Retail, etc. Just pick Direct to Consumer. That brings up a page which today (11/1) lists, among other books, Moonlight Becomes You Written By: Mary Higgins Clark and has 2 buttons, Purchase Price: $37.95 Rental Price: $16.50.

Are you not seeing this? Did you pick 'Retail?' Which seems the obvious choice to me but not the one you want.

[arsolot]

OK, this time I clicked on "Retail" to log on. As I don't have an account, I didn't try this before. I found out that I need to print out a .pdf to apply for an account. I assume once I've got an account, then the options will be available.

Thanks!

[robert]

I find that $20 a month for two books is a great price for the convenience and ease. I usually get cd's and tapes all mixed up and changing tapes and cd's in the car is worse than dialing a cell phone -- dangerous vs. listening to a book on my iPod.

And, Audible allows burning one cd set for each book -- a legitimate way to share with friends.

Also, I have the same reaction one other poster had. Every time I buy the abridged version, I regret not buying the unabridged version.

Last, the discipline of having to choose two books a month causes me to research well among various sites about what is good and I find that driving about town, jogging, waiting in doctors offices, etc gives me time to 'read' about three books a month. I was "off" books because of my computer time and I am delighted to be back to reading.

It does take a certain mind set and cognitive perception is different for everyone. So, you have to like listening and be able to retain. I was frankly surprised that I actually keep up with characters and stories much better when listening. I think that this is a personal preference and information processing for every person. The voice of the actor usually changes for differenet

[cdelaf32]

[I also rename the files themselves to be quite a bit shorter and descriptive and after I import, I rename the title tags to actually fit in the iPod screen when showing the playlist. If you have 2 books: Dune: The Butlerian Jihad and Dune: The Machine Crusade, there is no way to tell them apart in the playlist window.

Jerry

BTW, good tutorial. [/B]

How do i rename the tags. I am using Audible manager to transfer to my Ipod, but I cannot seem to figure out how to rename the title. Audible lists the Author first and if you have many books by same author or Part1 & Part2 hard to figure out whats what

[bsoplinger]

I'm guessing when folks are talking about renaming, they're talking about renaming in iTunes. I use iTunes and I've renamed the tags. Although I don't think they're ID3 tags because audible files aren't mp3's, but that doesn't seem to matter to iTunes. If you're putting your files onto the iPod with the audible manager app, there may not be a way to edit that info.