Audiobooks, the future Hardback? Ebook + Audiobook Bundles?

[SeaBookGuy]

For the first time I can remember, I gave up on the audio version of a book (which I'd paid for from Audible), and switched to the print (library e-book) - a non-fiction book that was too dense to continue listening, but
I wanted to skim through to the end. I couldn't imagine going back and forth between the print and audio versions of a book.

[magicmonster]

MikeFromHC - try http://www.graphicaudio.net/default....t/default.aspx

They are Dramatizations quite like original old time radio show!

This link has 6 60 minute mp3 sample: http://www.graphicaudio.net/t-green.aspx

[Steven Lake]

Wow, I checked out that site, and they really do have some good stuff. However, that's not the style I was thinking of. Listen to the graphic audiobooks done for the Left Behind series. Now *THAT* is my idea of a proper graphic audiobook. If you're going to go graphic, you may as well go all the way.

[murraypaul]

http://www.defianceaudio.com/ is a similar, smaller site. In both cases they are heavily tilted to the pulp action genre.

[MikeFromHC]

Originally Posted by magicmonster

MikeFromHC - try http://www.graphicaudio.net/default....t/default.aspx

They are Dramatizations quite like original old time radio show!

This link has 6 60 minute mp3 sample: http://www.graphicaudio.net/t-green.aspx

Radio shows were written to be listened to.
Books were written to be read.

I suspect you mean they are read with dramatic interpretations.
If the books are "dramatized" just like OTR then they are much shorter in length and fit within a particular time frame. Even short stories suffer under this form.

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by MikeFromHC

Radio shows were written to be listened to.
Books were written to be read.

I suspect you mean they are read with dramatic interpretations.
If the books are "dramatized" just like OTR then they are much shorter in length and fit within a particular time frame. Even short stories suffer under this form.

I have ripped dozens of stories from the Selected Shorts series, finding them terrific read by various actors.
I don't find they "suffer" at all!

[Steven Lake]

I think that dramatic readings of books, as well as OTR dramatic presentations of books put a nice spin on the book that makes them lots of fun to listen to.

[elizilla]

There's a site, http://librivox.org/ , where they do something similar to what this forum does with public domain ebooks - volunteers read the books, and they publish audiobook versions. The skill of the readers is variable - some of the readers do a fantastic job, others not so much. And the books are sometimes done as a team effort, so the reader changes from chapter to chapter. Still it's a good source.

Audiobooks tend to be expensive, and the available choices are skewed towards potboilers, so it's nice to have other options.

[brecklundin]

I completely forgot about Cory Doctorow's podcasts:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

He does a LOT of book reading of novels, works in progress, etc...plus hey is fun guy to listen to anyway.

Spider Robinson has a fun podcast as well. I haven't checked into it since his wife became ill, terminal cancer, I know she did die from it and, well, having been through too many deaths this past 2-years I've sort of avoided the feed which is silly because of all things he would not be the sort to rehash everything. Anyway, here is his podcast URL:

http://www.spiderrobinson.com/podcast.html

He is a funny guy who is a fun writer to read as well. I actually have Audible versions of every book he has on Audible...I am especially fond of the whole Callahan series of stories (novels, novellas and short stories) and really recommend The Callahan Chronicals as an introduction to the whole Callahan world.

I could not help myself and went to his site...there I found one of the most touching fair well letters about Jeanne's dying and insight into her life, not that he ever stopped fawning over her, ever. If nothing else there is something there that should show people all they need to know about Spider as a human being:

http://www.spiderrobinson.com/index2.html

Also as radio shows have been brought up, if you aren't aware anyone can subscribe and listen to BBC audio which had something for EVERYONE. I like BBC7 for it's SF & Drama's...right now listening to Miss Marple: The Body in the Library just fun stuff with extremely high quality performances, mostly, and in general even us beastly Americans can understand the words...hehehehe...anyway here is the feed URL for BBC7 but I really recommend visiting the site itself, which can be a bit of an adventure until, and even after, one gets a bit of a clue how it is setup.

http://feeds.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bbc_7/drama/list

BBC radio one of my favorite and often forgotten entertainment options...it' everything US radio should have been in terms of entertainment.

Oops!! Jacking my own thread...cool...yet, for me, nothing new...hehehehe

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by magicmonster

MikeFromHC - try http://www.graphicaudio.net/default....t/default.aspx

They are Dramatizations quite like original old time radio show!

This link has 6 60 minute mp3 sample: http://www.graphicaudio.net/t-green.aspx

Originally Posted by murraypaul

http://www.defianceaudio.com/ is a similar, smaller site. In both cases they are heavily tilted to the pulp action genre.

Fantastic sites!! thanks for adding the info...

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

For the first time I can remember, I gave up on the audio version of a book (which I'd paid for from Audible), and switched to the print (library e-book) - a non-fiction book that was too dense to continue listening, but
I wanted to skim through to the end. I couldn't imagine going back and forth between the print and audio versions of a book.

yeah, I have had the same sense from the samples I have listened to of some non-fiction books. Certain books just don't lend themselves to audio as entertainment. However I find the biographies I've purchased excellent experiences. In these cases I likely will never buy the book versions but ya never know. There are two I really enjoyed, one was about Einstein and the other Oppenheimer. Don't have the exact title names handy but the readers add a lot to the well written books. I doubt anyone would be bored reading the books even after listening to the audiobook version.

I find even some fiction, especially SF, can be tedious listens if there are long detailed sections of details that really are best read than listened to. I think part of that is my mind tends to wander when listening to an audiobook as I am usually busy with something else, like posting on a message board, so I need to listen to the book a few times to get everything.

Pandora's Star is example of a SF book so detail dense that the listen is often overwhelming but I was also reading the book at the same time so the audio and written word reinforced the story lines, and there are a LOT of story lines in Pandora's Star.

But this sort of thing is why I could see a company like Amazon, as they own Audible anyway, at least trying out the idea of the audio & ebook bundle or even an option for a discount on either the audio version or the ebook version, depending on the Price Fix 5 Cartel's mood at the moment. I just see it as a way to add value to a lot of people who already do buy both or to expose people who would never thought of an audiobook version thanks to having to live with the hassle of cassette tape recordings with a dozen, or more, tapes. But if they can have just the content sent to either their computer media player (which also manages the content on your MP3 player), ebook device, iTunes (supported by Audible) might be attractive to a nice subset of readers.

I think one reason I enjoy audiobooks so much is I never have been much of a listen to music all the time sort of person. So audiobooks fill the void for background noise when I quickly get tired of any music I might have playing.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Crowl

I think the only way I would be interested in any kind of audiobook and ebook bundle would be if the ebook reader could seamlessly switch between your position in the ebook to the same place in the audiobook i.e. you had the benefit of a TTS feature while not losing out on the quality of the narrator.

Now THAT would be nice. I am sure it could be done in the case of a single source content provider, like the Audible-Amazon combo, but it would likely be a really long process to add the ability to sync "smartness" to the audio player, which as a rule are not web aware unless connected to your computer when the sync could happen.

Maybe if listening on your reader it would work very well, it's tossing in the 3rd party MP3 players where I could see it being a fairly daunting task to develop the connection to the ebook and audiobook. Still this would certainly add a lot of value for people who listen while commuting/traveling.

nice idea!!

[magicmonster]

for those who like comic/super humans try: http://www.secretworldchronicle.com/

[SeaBookGuy]

I know a person who refuses to listen to an audiobook unless either she's read it before, or she has a print copy available at the time. She has somehow convinced herself that there's a danger she might "miss" something by listening to an entire unabridged book by itself (for the first time).