The Book Thread Book • Page 36

tried out Audible this weekend and didn't like it at all.

- tested out The Dark Tower (#7) since I'm finishing that up and while i'm sure the narrators vary quite a bit, and i don't consider myself a fast reader, the pace was excruciatingly slow here. felt like the narrator took about 3 times as long to get through a page than i did, so this wouldn't save me time.

- the weird breaks. why they don't just break up a book by each chapter makes no sense to me. i guess if you follow along from the start it's not an issue, but trying to find where i was in an already started book was almost impossible

- the "fast forward" of a whole 4 seconds at a terrible is atrocious

i definitely get that this may work for some people, but it is not for me at all. very much connect better with books while holding the book and turning pages instead of just listening where i will eventually zone out or not pay as close attention. cool to have the free 30-day / 2 book trial, but not something i'd be happy paying $15/month for

 

Every Audiobook I've listened to has always been by Chapter

 

weird. The Dark Tower was set up in sections, thinking each section was a section of the book / chapter, but the majority of them were all in random ass places inside chapters. took me forever to find where i was. and each section wasn't even the same length so i didn't know wtf was going on or why it was set up that way.

 

Older audiobooks are set up as they would’ve been on discs instead of chapters sometimes. You’d think they’d update it. I ran into it on a couple older Sanderson novels.

Also I listen to all my audible books at 1.5x speed and that’s the only way to do it. I even go to 2x on slower narrators.

And since Audible has developed their own studios, narration has gotten insanely better.

 

ah, didn't know you could increase the speed. that's cool. and super helpful.

not sure what i'll use my other free option on. something large that's been on my shelf forever most likely to get the most use out of the free trial. and maybe something newer so i don't have the same chapter issue.

 

It’s the 1x in the bottom corner. Hit it and it’ll give you options to speed it up.

You also can receive one for free from someone else if you want one of mine

 

When do people listen to Audiobooks? I can imagine listening to one during my walk to work but I have several podcasts that I'd prefer to listen to. If I listened to an audiobook at home I'd fear my mind would wander or I'd fall asleep. At least with a physical book I wake up when I drop the book on my face/lap, ha!

Audiobooks have just never appealed to me. I can see how they could be useful for some people but I am so happy actually reading that it's not something that I've ever tried nor can I see the advantages for me.

 

I listen while driving, going on walks at the park, at the gym, and while coloring. Listening to a book and coloring is so relaxing. Also while doing yard work and cleaning if I’m into the book enough.

I try to read 50-75 books a year. I couldn’t break 30 without audiobooks.

 

That's really cool - I need to try the colouring! Most of my reading takes place between 6.30-8am (as my wife is usually asleep) and then I walk to work (listening to a podcast or music on the walk). I tend to listen to podcasts when doing most of the above (walks, cleaning, gardening) & music (walking, driving).

There are obvious benefits to audiobooks for the right people, I just don't think that I'm that person (yet!). I have more than enough time to read physical books/ebooks but it makes sense for people to exploit the examples that you have detailed above if it works for them!

Thanks for sharing.

 

I'm able to listen to headphones at work so that's where I listen. Also in the car driving to and from work for sure.

 

What job do you do? I'd struggle to read/type and listen to words in my ears! I can cope with music in the background but can't focus on two bits of info at the same time unfortunately.

 

I'm a Sales Tax Accountant. There are definitely times where I find myself tuning it out and if I do I'll turn it off instead, but for the most part I'm able to pay attention to both unless I need to concentrate on something specific

 

I'm pretty excited that I'll get to listen to books while working when the store is closed coming up. I'm one of our shipment managers and I'll be there for up to three hours by myself handling shipment and opening paperwork, so that'll be plenty of "reading time"

 

Man I love audiobooks and I listened to most of the dark tower on Audiobook. I don't remember it being broken into weird breaks, but like you said I started from the beginning and wasn't trying to find my place. What do you mean the "fast forward of a whole 4 seconds at a terrible is atrocious?" Do you mean it only skips forward 4 seconds at a time when you hit fast forward? Cause the shortest interval in the settings is 10 seconds, and I have mine at 30 seconds.

Anyways I love audible. I listen to an audiobook everyday on my commute, when I'm cooking or cleaning, laying in bed trying to unwind and go to sleep, etc

 

i'm already traumatized for my wallet on the black friday sale on audible. last year i had 26 books in my cart (ended up only buying 9, but the selection was deluxe)

 

So has anything like this happened to any of you before?

just got a book that I ordered from Amazon, House of Windows by John Langan, and and about 1/3rd of the pages have no print on them, completely blank. Wondered if it was an artistic choice for about 2 seconds (since I've read some weird ass books that do weird ass things like that) but like even the first page of the first chapter was blank so it just starts mid sentence.

To make it even weirder it's marked "used-like new"

Anyway, Amazon refunded me super quick with the click of a button so whatever.

 

Never had anything to that extreme. I have had books where the font randomly changes for a few pages or sentences. Those I think were style choices by the author but they were never really touched upon or done with any clarity so it may have been a printing issue.

This reminds me of The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis which starts and ends mid-sentence. The book has a "warning" of sorts that this is how the book should be and no, it's not missing pages. I wonder if first copies included that or if it had to be added in later after initial press release due to complaints / confusion.

 

Back to audiobooks, I think I'd love to use them for the gym. Use a lot of podcasts but if the podcast ends during my routine then it kinds of kills my energy and focus to select a new one. Having an audiobook would totally continue the flow from start to end.

 

Wait. Is the membership $15 a month and then you need to buy the books on top of that? Or is it a membership and then a selection you get to choose from that changes every so often?

 

I decided to buy the digital version and just keep the blank one for fun (since they don't want it back for the refund)

 

(Probably because I'm finishing up a re-read of The Dark Tower) but your post makes me think of Calvin Tower and his collection of first editions and limited edition incorrect version of books.

 

Ha, that's also immediately where my mind went when I saw it/ when I see any sort of misprint in a book.

 

The 15 dollars a month gets you one book a month. On top of that your membership gets you a big discount towards basically every audiobook on audible. And every couple of months they do a big sale where they put a couple hundred audiobooks on sale for 5 bucks.

 

$15 a month gets you one credit a month and a 30% off discount on other books. They also have a deal of the day (usually $1.95-$3.95) and occasional sales.

Black Friday was like 500 books for $6.95 or less.

 

Probably should’ve clicked to the next page haha