I Heart Audiobooks
I think it was the word “required” that sparked my rebelous nature to forgo my school’s “require reading list.” Learning from my childhood friend, Cliff, I managed to make it to graduation with most of the books in my knowlegde base digested in Note form.
I had no bad reading experience that held back my scholarly ways, I liked the novels I read–all two of them: 1984 and Alas, Babylon. I know now that it was the medium that was slowing me down. I could never jusitfy sitting down and opening a book, there was simply too much for my ADD brain to do. I’m sure I’ve written more words than I’ve read in my life.
Getting to the point, and the tech side of the post, I’m all audiobooks now. I actually “sacrificed” by taking the longer cummute during a recent move to a home close to my wife’s work. On any given weekday I get a minimum of two reading/listening hours. The lifehack here is this: ditch the radio and get audiobooks. All the good talk has moved to podcasting and the music staions have less range than the average “Now, That’s What I Call Music” CD.
Audio Crack Dealers:
I get most my books from Audible.com. Once you become a member they are the cheapest way to get downloads onto your iPod barring bittorrent. The audiobook section on iTunes is the same as Audible’s sans discounts. The only disadvantage to Audible is that you cannot easily share your new favorite books without lending out your MP3 player. The audiobooks are DRMed–meaning no copying. It is a bad practice and the only reason I’m not giving them a full recommendation. Seriously, Audible, even the music industry has caught on by now.
On the other hand, a free resource is the library. If you still use a CD player, I recommend it. You don’t have as good of a selection, but the price is right. Another free source is illegal downloads. For the record, this is stealing. However, when there isn’t a viable option to download an audiobook the legal route, I won’t fault you for finding another method. Lets say I wanted Steven Fry’s reading of the Harry Potter series and live in the US where, due to licencing and publisher voodoo, I am stuck with another reader…but I digress. I’ll save copyright management and piracy for another post.
If you don’t like paper yet enjoy stories and learning, listen to audiobooks.
Categorized as Entertainment/Audio