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David is an occasional blogger, software engineer, Nintendo fanboy, liberal, news magazine addict, voracious TiVo user, and bibliophile. He was born in St. Louis, grew up in southern Indiana, and returned to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He hasn't managed to escape yet. He's a fan of free wine tastings, too many tv shows to name, and eating out. David makes his living developing web applications used internally by his employer. He doesn't blog about work because he's heard too many stories about that causing workplace troubles. There's more on the about page. |
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7 January 2006 - 12:21 pm
I like to listen to audio books when I go on long drives. Music tends to make me sleepy, but talk radio is a decent enough substitute. But I prefer audio books. There's too much work involved in finding a talk radio show that doesn't drive me crazy. But this leaves me with the constant struggle of how to go about picking audio books. Should I get the book-on-tape version of a book I really want to read, the audio version of a book I've already read, or follow some other plan? Audio books don't have great re-reading potential, and if I don't finish a book on my drive I have trouble finding the time to finish it. It's much easier to find the time to read a few pages of a book than it is to listen to a few minutes of an audio book.
So I tend to delve toward what I would normally consider easy reads. Nonfiction like Freakonomics works well because the sections of the book are independent. Childrens books work well too, because of their shorter length.
But the real problem with audio books is their expense. They cost as much or more than hardcover books, but have more limited utility. Audible has a monthly membership program that gives you a couple of books for $20/month, but I don't really go through two audio books a month. It still seems like a better deal than buying a la carte, but I'm not really happy with it. Especially with audible's current redesign in "beta." But I guess I'll stick with it until I find something better.
Posted by on 7 January 2006 at 12:20 PM
Comments
why don't you go to the library?
Posted by Yang on 7 January 2006 - 7:22 PM
A good point, but I've never been able to find anything I wanted to listen to at the library. My impression of the selection at the Mid-County branch of the St. Louis Public Library -- my usual library -- is that it is geared toward an older audience.
Posted by david on 8 January 2006 - 9:32 AM
Have you tried the Cracker Barrel? They have that audio trading thing, where you can pick up in one city and drop off at any other location. I've never tried, and their selection may be limited too... but, I thought I'd throw it out there.
Jon
Posted by Jon on 8 January 2006 - 9:14 PM
I hadn't heard about the Cracker Barrel thing, but I'll look into it. The only real problem is that I don't think there's a Cracker Barrel very close to me in St. Louis, so I'd have to trust that I'd find something I liked whenever I came across one outside the city.
Posted by david on 8 January 2006 - 9:37 PM
You know you can always request books/movies/audiobooks from the other branches in your library through interlibrary loan and they will send your requested book to your own branch for you to pick up. You can even do it online! That's how I always get my books; all of the branches in the Boston area are small (except for the big one downtown), but they're all in the same library network.
Posted by Amy on 11 January 2006 - 5:54 AM
Also Booksfree seems more like Netflix, if you need another alternative than Audible. If you have an MP3-compatible CD player in your car, it's actually cheaper.
And I haven't heard much about it, but Telltale Weekly apparently funds free audiobooks; would be worth checking out.
Posted by Amy on 12 January 2006 - 9:06 AM