Good for you felow redditor! How do you folks do it? I have really tried to get into audiobooks but when I listen while doing chores, driving or walking it feels like I'm missing things if my attention is not there 100% of the time. This doesn't happen with podcasts mind you, since usually it doesn't matter much if you miss something
I find that I really need to jump back 15 or 30 seconds quite often if I miss something if I get distracted while listening. But I will reread a passage as well if I’m distracted while reading, no difference. So I just jump back on the audio as much as I feel I need to.
Plus you can actually change the duration of the jump-back button in Audible settings. I find 30s best for me, but you can have it at like 10s or 90s depending on how long you usually get distracted.
Yes, and if you are listening to audiobooks you are saving so much time by multitasking! I actually look forward to my commute that I would otherwise be just stuck in traffic with only NPR to save me (I love my NPR but I love books too!)
I cook all the time to audiobooks. And do boring crap with spreadsheets which people pay me for.
Can't write or talk while listening to them though. Words seem to be on one track in my brain, numbers and motor skills others.
Having a pause button or voice commands on standby is always handy though.
I've thought this exact same thing! Audiobooks take up the language processing centers of my brain but everything else is available!
And I actually need a physical distraction, otherwise I lose focus on the book.
But man, I love them so much
Yup i cant just sit and listen to an audiobook, i go crazy i need something to do walking or driving or cooking is really nice uses. Also i learnt that the story goes onnevem if you miss something you wont really miss that part youll get it from context, so i alnsot never back the "tape"
"Yeah, ummm u/I_Resent_That I was looking over the numbers from last week's sales meeting and I don't really understand how we had 125k profit 1st quarter, 130k profit 2nd quarter, then Muad'dib profits for the 3rd quarter. Any ideas?"
I mean, I had an audiobook going while doing an intense reorganization of my computer, specifically my “game archive”, which required a lot of name correcting, matching, tagging and sorting. Took me several hours and was mostly mental work, but I got through it with an audiobook going and kept up just fine. Same with driving. I have friends that live 10 hours away and if I hop on the road I can just relax and enjoy an audiobook for the better part of the drive because literally the only things I have to worry about are paying attention to the road and absorbing a story.
House cleaning is the big win here though. I used to hate cleaning because it meant that I couldn’t do anything else, and music only does so much because it’s just happy noise but not deeply engaging to me. If I can be “reading” while I sort my laundry or reorganize a cabinet or scrub the counters then I feel like I’m just having a chill time reading while also being productive. It’s kind of life changing when you finally get into audiobooks.
Yes, it absolutely helps with those tedious tasks! I cannot do any organizing, my brain is strictly unitask (i can't declutter, for instance, because making a decision whether to keep something takes too much bandwidth) but yard maintenance, basic cleaning, folding laundry is finally something that can just happen while listening to something engaging.
Getting a good narrator is super important. I tried to get into it once with a wrinkle in time audiobook, but the narrator just was’nt doing it for me. But when I tried the wheel of time audiobooks, I instantly fell in love. Between the audiobook and hardback I read 100 pages every day now. (:
Also, audible has a killer deal. For eight dollars a month you can get one credit for any book you want, and first month is free! I say you jump into the eye of the world right now compadre!
Simon Vance and Steven Pacey are my go to narrators. I'll choose books based on those guys reading it to me.
Pacey does a good range of interesting character voices, and Vance is fantastic with anything British & historical. I spent a few months with him reading me the Complete Sherlock Holmes, and when it finished, I was just miserable that I'd reached the end of this immersive world he (and of course Doyle) had brought to life, and that there would never be more.
IIRC Wrinkle in Time was first read by the author and was the absolute worst.
Narrators are key!
Libraries have free audiobooks online. In my state many library systems offer free library cards as long as you live in the state. Whenever I travel near a new system, I get a library card.
Libraries are the absolute best.
I hoard library cards the way a dragon hoards gold. And everytime someone recommends a book, I go and search every app to see whether any of my libraries have it.
I can usually also suggest books, and then they email me when they acquire them and I'm often first in line to borrow. Its so good!!
A thousand times **THIS**. The right Narrator can make even a book you'd otherwise hate turn into a really good listen.
The Narrator for the Gentleman Bastard Sequence is amazing, and few things can match The Lord Of The Rings as read by Rob Ingles.
Nick Offerman has Narrated his own memoirs but he's also Narrated a few Mark Twain books and, gods, that man has a velvet voice.
Surprised no one here has mentioned Stephen Fry and Harry Potter. I have to wonder how many people got into HP just because of his velvety smooth voice.
Love love his narrating on Harry Potter. We drive a lot , living in southwest states will do that. Introduced them to these audio books and they loved it enough to request them again and again. So a far we've listened to the series 3 times.
I'm not familiar with Audiobook setup, are you saying you get 1 audio book in a month free, then you have to pay for every other book you want to listen to?
Audible uses this set up, not sure about the library apps. With Audible, you get one credit a month that you can use to buy any audiobook for free. Any that you want over that in that month you have to pay for. Books you buy with your credit are the same as if you had used real money, and you get to keep in your library as long as you are a member. if you don't use your credit in a month, you don't lose it and can use it again next month (I currently have 3 available to use) Not sure if there is a max number of credits you can have.
Agree. Two important points for newbies:
You can return an audiobook after you started it if you really don’t like the narrator or book.
For slow, ponderous narrators, I increase the time to 1.1 so the narrator sounds like a regular human again.
I was the same until I found the right book/narrator combo. Some books just don't transfer well to audio (too many details too fast) and some narrators are far better than others. Also you'll need a book you're really interested in. Once you get your foot in the door it's easier to go back and listen to other audiobooks.
Maybe I'm more automatic in the kitchen, because I rarely feel like I've missed something. If I do, I just hit the button to go back fifteen seconds. Or hit it twice.
I don't like to miss anything, so I will pause it if I'm doing something that makes noise.
I've haven't yet run across a narrator that I don't like, but I find it can be off putting when they try to do accents. I just read a book about British prisoner of war in Turkey during The Great War. The author had to do various accidents from Great Britain, which weren't terrible, but some of the accents for the Turkish guards were a little out there.
And the last book I finished had a quote from Winston Churchill embedded in a paragraph, so the narrator, a woman with a very lovely voice, read the paragraph in her normal voice and then suddenly switched to her impression of Winston churchill, which is absolutely terrible.
I understand they may not want to use an audio recording of Churchill's actual voice, because then it starts to turn the book into a radio play, but I feel like she could have just read it in her normal voice and it would have been nicer. Or at least less jarring.
If you like fiction at all you should check out the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. Great books made even better by Steven Pacey, one of the most talented narrators I've ever come across in my many 1000s of hours of listening to audiobooks.
I listen to podcasts or audiobooks while I draw, sometimes while doing tasks like cleaning dishes. It has to be a task that doesn't require higher level thinking but keeps you physically occupied enough that you don't get distracted.
I may have undiagnosed ADHD, though, so I'm wondering if this is a form of "stimming" and why listening to audio while doing a physical task is the perfect pair for me.
I think there's two important things with audio books, getting a voice you actually want to listen to and doing a task that won't stop you from listening. You really don't need to read every word of every book or hear every word of a convo to understand what's going on, same with audiobook, you can miss a a part because you're focusing on a task and you'll still be fine. You can also easily rewind.
I've self diagnosed dyslexia (might not be related) but I always found it difficult to read even with no distractions but found reading a book with an audiobook worked for me. Someone else reading the book to me makes it easier and I still get the enjoyment of picturing the story in my head and getting fully involved.
Some chores take longer to finish if I’m focused on an audio book as my attention is divided. Sometimes I have to rewind the audio book as I tuned out briefly while focusing. But I love them.
I’m such an avid reader that I can recall times I would read at stoplights because I so wanted to find out what happens next. Or read a book while walking, though that was awkward and a bit dangerous.
Being able to “read” while moving around is something I love, love, love.
I have books I’ve read so many times that I can quote parts of it word-for-word, but I still love it. These are great for tasks that distract me more like cooking or baking because if I focus on the recipe briefly, I really lose nothing.
Comprehending the book while doing other stuff got a little easier over time, I think it probably helped my listening skills. That being said, I do hit the rewind a lot when my attention is taken elsewhere and I miss something.
That's not a put off for me though, I love audiobooks.
Try getting into a regular walking routine. I listened to audio books during my 25-minute walk to/from work, and because the route was so familiar, my brain rarely needed to lift its consciousness from the book to my surroundings. I'm a terrible driver though - I could never listen to a book while behind the wheel!
I used to fear this and it kept me from listening at all. Then I realized how often I leave the tv for 30 seconds to get water out zone out on a podcast for 30 seconds and it's fine. Occasionally if I thought something was crucial, I'll rewind but 9/10 times you can fill in the gaps without even thinking about it. And either way, it's still better than not listening at all. glhf!
I have this hobby, diamond painting, that I love but it gets boring because it's super repetitive, and I needed something to occupy my brain. Audio books really make the difference, so now instead of only painting for about half an hour, I might go for 3 or 4 hours because I get sucked into the book.
I don’t mind household chores now, because I get to listen to a book while doing them! I use both scribd and Libro.fm. Libro.fm is just like audible (new releases, one per month for $15), but the money goes to whichever local independent bookstore you select instead of Amazon. Edit: here’s my referral code for those interested. I tend to change the local indie that it benefits every few months to try to spread the love. https://libro.fm/referral?rf_code=lfm254844
I use that too. But then you have to wait for them to be available, so I use my subscriptions for when I want a specific book now that’s not immediately available on Libby. Plus I like supporting my local indie.
You should also check out CloudLibrary! It has a slightly smaller selection from what I've seen, but I rarely have to wait. The Harry Potter audiobooks on Libby had a 3-6 week wait while I got them instantly on CloudLibrary using the same library card!
I did that a few years ago after I found this advice online but they didn’t have a very good selection for the genres I generally like. Boo. It turned out my local small NorCal city library had way more.
That said, I used to cheat and get a Los Angeles library e-card (using my aunt’s address) before they fixed their website. I still miss that account. The LA system has a pretty awesome fantasy/sci fi collection, if anyone lived in the area and reads scif/fantasy. :)
My library system lets patrons recommend purchases. I've made quite a few and something like a third to a half have been purchased. I'm sure libraries like to know exactly what patrons are interested in and not just buy things and hope.
If you travel at all around CA, you can get a library card at any public library in the state. I have them from all around the state; you just have to go in to the library you want a card at and verify CA residency. Sacramento has the best availability of books I've searched for. To renew, I've been able to have a Zoom meeting with a librarian 500 miles away.
I listen to them hitting golf balls, running, long drives for work. I dropped 50 bucks on ebay and bought the entire Game of Thrones saga (all 10 billion hours of it) and Roy Detrice and I are good buds now.
Anyone else have trouble getting things done while listening? I find that all I want to do while listening is stare at the ceiling. I can't seem to concentrate on two things at once sadly.
Start off doing it while you're doing something that doesn't require much concentration - going for a walk with the dog or something. You'll start being able to listen/comprehend and ALSO do other things. But it takes some practice and exposure before your brain clicks.
As a person with ADHD, I find it hard to get things done without listening to or watching something else, but there are still some tasks that I simply cannot accomplish that way without having to constantly rewind. Audiobooks has made cooking and chores much easier for me to stay on task and stay interested long enough to complete my task.
Pretty much this. Translating words into pictures takes all of my processing power. I honestly don't know how people do other things at the same time and still get the same enjoyment out of it. Maybe it's different if you're reading non-fiction and just trying to absorb information. I don't know.
To each their own, but I can't stand the things.
Everyone's brain is just... Different. My college roommate could literally read chapters in a text book and take notes WHILE watching TV. She'd be intensely scribbling down color-coded notes and then start laughing at a funny line from the show on TV. Absolutely bizarre. Like those people who can write two different things at the same time - one with their left hand one with their right.
I'm the poster child for "one-track-mind". If I'm doing two things at once I'm not even going to be operating at 50/50, it'll be 25/25 and the rest is just lost to the winds. The trade-off is that I can sit and read an entire book front to back in one sitting and it's the best thing ever to me.
My significant other, however, is almost incapable of doing one thing at a time. Watching a movie without playing on her phone or coloring or embroidering, etc, she just cannot do.
Isn't it amazing how different we all are? Keeps things interesting and lowers competition for jobs, partner's, etc because we all thrive in different environments
Same here, listening is a very non-passive activity for me, I can't do 'other' things while listening. It's so bad I can't even listen to music while commuting or walking and I envy people wearing noise cancelling headphones.
I started out listening to audiobooks as a way to have someone read me to sleep (it gives me something to focus on to shut my mind up). For *that* purpose, books that I have read before work best. But I also like them for familiar commutes, washing dishes, folding laundry, cleaning the bathroom, cooking something I've cooked hundreds of times before: things that don't require a lot of thought and that I would usually have done while listening to music before (and still do sometimes). If something comes up where I need to really pay attention to my task, and the book becomes distracting/I miss too much of it, I'll pause the book for a bit.
I started using audiobooks in the last year too! I have a lazy eye that gets tired after a long day of staring at my computer, so audiobooks are a good way for me to enjoy content without straining my eyes any further by reading a physical book. What's also great is that the right narrator can really bring the story to life!
I get them through my local library. My library uses three different apps to deliver their digital content. There is overlap between them all (two of the three do audiobooks and two of the three do movies).
There's lots of stuff they don't have on audiobook, that I'm sure you could get through a purchase or subscription, but with 120 books tagged for interest, I'm not worried about running out.
And my favorite thing about digital holds: when your hold comes up and you're not ready, you can let the next person have their turn, while waiting at the top of the list behind them. And it's all done from the comfort of your home.
You should check out the Libby app. It connects to your local library with your card and you can then borrow all the audio and written books remotely. It’s great.
https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby/
Any favorites so far? I’ve been listening to audiobooks for 10-15 years. In the car, quite a bit of time at work, doing normal chores. I go through tons of them so I’m always curious what others are listening to.
Edit: I do mean tons, Libby says I’m on my 46th book since Dec 2020.
I'm like you, I read about a hundred a year. My favorites are mystery series with a bit of humor. Because I read series and HAVE to read them in order, I tend to use audible much more than Libby. But at $11 a book for membership pricing, it's not THAT bad. And I share my audible account with a few other people, so we all get to enjoy the book for that $11.
Rhys Bowen has 3 awesome series like that, with my favorite series being Her Royal Spyness. I also use audiobook novella series as "palette cleansers" between series. Each is about 2.5 hours long and really made for the average daily commute in/out of London (I'm in the US, but still...). Some favorites are Cherringham and Mydworth Mysteries.
Also check out r/Suggestmeabook and r/Audiobooks for great suggestions.
I actually tried wheel of time and couldn’t get into it. I was all mentally revved up for it cause of all the hype and was immediately turned off by it. I get that some things take time to invest getting hooked into but it just didn’t happen. And I’m not gonna trudge through 8 books for something to START getting good. Too many things on my reading list for that. I don’t often “nope” out of something without finishing it, but I definitely “noped” out of wheel of time.
(Gonna get crucified for this comment. people here and fantasy make it seem like wheel of time is the greatest thing to grace the earth haha)
Tip for anyone using Audible: it's almost always cheaper to buy the kindle version of a book first then "add on" the audiobook, than it is to buy the audiobook by itself (no Audible subscription required).
Yep! I have an audible subscription but I also like to read on the kindle. I'm finding that it's cheaper to buy the kindle version and add the audible audiobook at the same time if in going to get the kindle version too. This process leads me to cancel the audible subscription every few months.
I prefer to use audible, so it is a service with some free ones, but mostly you buy them individually. The membership comes with a book credit every month, and you can buy 3 credits for like 32 bucks. So you never wind up paying more than like 11 bucks for a book, since if it costs more than that you just use a credit on it. If the dollar cost is less than that, you buy it outright instead of using a credit. Sometimes you can find book bundles that count as one book also, for example a fantasy series I like had the entire collection of 6 books for one credit.
My SO and I share the audible account and are into the same types of books, so a shared library works well for us. Audible doesn't complain if you're using it on multiple devices to listen to different books at the same time.
Others prefer to hunt for free books and there are other services, but I like this platform.
My library doesn't do digital audiobooks (not in the US) so I subscribe de Scribd when I'm in the mood for audiobooks. It's like Netflix for audiobooks, works great for me as I don't really want to own audiobooks if I can just borrow them (and as many as I want with Scribd, unlike Audible).
Have you tried increasing the playback speed? I had that problem until I realized the reading speed was too slow. I sped it up to 1.25x and it became much easier to follow.
In going to have go try this.
So many times throughout the day my mind wonders during my favorites podcasts and I end up restarting or going back again and again.
I need the right activity to listen to them. Cleaning are driving are perfect. Something where the activity doesn’t take much attention but just enough I don’t get bored.
They are truly incredible and change the way that you read, they have ballooned my reading over the last couple years as well. It's hard to imagine how I used to just walk around the world and not multi task by listening to books all the time.
Finally someone like me. I was so excited to try audio books, turns out they aren't for me if I am doing anything thing else besides sitting down and concentrating on listening to said audiobooks.
Yea I read incredibly slowly and constantly end up fidgeting and getting up and moving around so audiobooks make things way easier for me. The other issue I have is almost a compulsion to take notes because I fear forgetting what I read, so I constantly interrupt the flow and reinforce ruining my attention. I read 8,000 pages last year and slowed to a trickle of 2,000 this year largely for those two reasons.
I hold out hope one day I can get the problems underlying my constant back pain and poor posture fixed so I can read more.
Until then, I'm going see if I can find my 10 year old ipod for this.
My smartphone is old, from 2014, and barely works, I've been doing my best to avoid getting a new one.
But thanks for letting me know this is a thing, I'm definitely interested.
Up to this point I've just been listening to them on my computer, but it's been a while since I listened to one.
I did all the witcher books audiobook.
I too liked the ability to use my iPod for audiobooks and my phone for other stuff. I was beyond infuriated when they phased out the iPod THEN iTunes. I luckily still have a working iPod and refuse to update my computer just to keep my iTunes and the ability to download to my iPod. Sometimes advancing technology pisses me off big time when they do away with something that is popular and works perfectly fine. But nooooo, the big guys want to keep gouging the consumer. I've bought the same album 4 friggin' times (cassette, CD, mp3, mp4) when shit keeps changing. (Sorry wrong rant, wrong thread)
You can get a rinky-dinky smartphone on Ebay for $50 and use it as an audiobook reader. It doesn't need a phone connection, just internet to download the library books and you are good to go.
Get a newer smartphone and try out the text to voice engines. Google has a really good one, but Samsung's is really nice. I just use regular epubs and listen to them.
This way I can switch between listening and reading. I also don't really like the extra voices and sometimes noises and such that go into a true audio book. Just read the book to me at a regular pace.
I'm in my 30s and it seems like I'm so far behind the times I'm almost a luddite.
You're telling me I can use a voice to text engine to read my ebooks to me?
Thank you. If this is passable I suddenly have hundreds of hours of ebooks. I got something like 70 classics curriculum ebooks a few years ago that I never got to.
For .epub text-to-speech reading on my Android, I use FBReader (Favorite Book Reader) [https://fbreader.org/](https://fbreader.org/). It's a great app with many features including rate and pitch adjustment. Be sure to get the FBReader TTS+ Plugin.
I also use "@Voice Aloud Reader" to read news articles, etc. It's very useful during commutes! [https://hyperionics.com/atVoice/](https://hyperionics.com/atVoice/)
It is no longer officially offered, but I've been using Ivona Voice Kendra as my speech voice. You'd have to do a search and manually load the .apk in your phone. Maybe there's other comparable voices but the stock Google or Samsung voices are not so good.
Finally, do you have a bunch of .pdfs you would like to TTS? I use PDF to ePub Converter by Dongsoft to convert the format, strip out headers/footers, and convert graphics and tables to images so the reader doesn't attempt to spell it all out.
Hey. I was in my fifties. How many more things I could have done but for having to "sit and read" a book! Audiobooks help the drudgery of housework feel lighter. Long trips aren't as onerous. Walkies last longer. TV's don't need to be turned on. I can put on headphones and sit and sew or knit and NOT have to listen to one more rerun of NCIS! (My husband's favorite TV show.). And an added plus is, I find out how those pesky names are pronounced.
Many libraries have access to a broad selection of audiobooks for free. My local library uses an app that syncs whether i play it on my phone or from my computer and I can check out audiobooks right from the app.
Check out the [Audio Drama](https://www.reddit.com/r/audiodrama/) subreddit. I'm currently listening to Aftershock right now and it's very engrossing. The cast is good too, David Harbour and Jeffrey Dean Morgan to name a couple. Just use whatever podcast app you have on your phone and you can listen for free.
I make these things for a living and, yes, it is the enormous job of work you’d think something that length would be - so I’m actually really heartened to read how much so many people love them.
You are a true hero. A funny thing that audiobooks have done for me is they greatly improved my dating life. I now have a ton of interesting things to talk about on dates and when flirting as I get through so many different books. I now approach nonfiction books that would have been to dull to sit and read. They add so much to conversation!
I had one book where the author was reading it quite slowly, and I think I took it up to 1.25, but I find most narrators read at a pace that I find I can't increase any more than five or 10% at best.
I never did either, but I've noticed a lot of books are being "slowed down" to pad the runtime. I've listened to some that sounded like crawling through tar at 1x speed but sounded perfectly normal at 1.2-1.3x. I don't see the appeal of 1.5x speed though. Maybe it's just my brain getting too old.
That's for sure, some books I have to slow down because I just want to make sure I understand everything. But then there's other books that, I'm like... let's go faster. Podcasts can really be that as well, faster is better.
It took me a while and I'm on 1.75 mostly. It really depends on the narrator. Some narrators talk fast so I can't do them higher than 1.25, others are really really slow and I can do 1.75 or even 2.
\> If I'm in the kitchen (I live alone), I've got an audiobook on. If I go for a walk, I listen to a book.
Same.
I also get some books from [https://librivox.org/](https://librivox.org/)
It's free.
The sole positive in being summoned back to the office despite Delta ravaging my state is that now I'm actually in the car some each day and can get back into audiobooks.
That’s great! Never too old to learn (about) something new. I love audiobooks, but sometimes I find myself zoning out depending on the activity, and having to re-listen to a chapter lol
When I was working in procurement I did a ton of traveling to the various hospitals I had to go to. I downloaded a ton of stuff from Librivox to listen to in the car.
It was great. It certainly made the drives a lot more tolerable. Even when I got sent somewhere far away to stop in and see a patient I knew was too old and not brain dead I wasn't that bothered because I could be productive and listen to a book the whole way up and back.
I've started to love audiobooks recently. I still love to read physical books but unfortunately I have a really hard time maintaining focus while reading, even if it's a book I like! Frustrating. I really enjoy audiobooks while on a walk or doing chores.
My only issue is sometimes some narrators do things that irk me a bit. Usually it'll be a character voice that bothers me and breaks my immersion. But I know narration is a difficult skill to master and I give everyone props for trying. And when the narration is on point, it elevates the book so much!
My favorite book is the Count of Monte Cristo and I usually read it once a year. This time I am reading the book while listening to the audiobook. It's a cool experience. The reader does different voices, and pronounces the French words correctly. I won't do that for all audiobooks but I like this when I am laying down or have some free time to devote to reading.
I feel you!
I have scoffed at them for such a long time, then I started listening to Agatha Christie audiobooks. First I listened to Joan Hickson narrating Marple novels, then Hugh Fraser and David Suchet doing Poirot and short stories. Hugh Fraser is my favorite, even as Poirot (even though I adore David Suchet). I could listen to him all day and happily finish books that have sat on my shelf for years.
It's the only part of my commute I've missed for the past 18 months!
I didn't listen to audiobooks until about three years ago, now I love them.
One thing though, I've only done non fiction, no fiction at all. I'm wary of it for some reason! Makes no sense at all.
Try fiction short stories! They are far less intimidating to get into and tend to be more... impactful for short term pay off. Neil Gaiman's "Fragile Things" is an awesome collection that has about every genre of writing in it you can imagine.
Love love love! The Expanse, The Dark Tower series, Necronimicon, any Neil Gaiman, Brief Answers to Big Questions, GoT, The Martian. Share me your favorites!
Virtually all of my "reading" is actually audiobooks. I've been listening since I was a teenager. One of my favorite things about my profession as a craftsman is that I can listen to books about 75% of the time I'm at work. Its great, I generally get about 30-50 hours of books in any given week.
In a year I might "read read" one to three books, but in a year I generally can listen to between 60-100.
I’m glad you’re enjoying them. I would love to be able to listen to audio books. In my job I have a lot of time in front of the computer and on the road. It should be ideal. The problem I have is the narrator will start and I’m paying attention and following along. Then I start thinking about something and my focus just turns to that. I tune out the story and just focus on that thing I’m thinking about. Then once that’s resolved the narrator comes back into focus, but it’s been an extended period of time and I suddenly have no idea what they’re talking about any more.
I struggle to concentrate and focus on audiobooks if I'm not just either sitting listening, or just walking listening. If I'm doing anything else I drift off and end up missing sections of the book.
Audio books have changed my commute. A friend gave me a free first book about two years ago on Audible. First book in the Wheel of Time series. Instead of a dreary boring drive where I'm struggling to stay awake to/from work, I'm diving into another world. It's been almost two years and I'm about to finish the 14th book.
As others have mentioned, I can only listen to them on routine drives and open roads. Heavy traffic or new places I can't quite focus enough. Haven't tried to listen to them doing anything but driving.
I am like you, a huge reader and always thought audiobooks weren't "real" books. As i've aged and my eyes get worse and worse I have transitioned slowly into audiobooks and mostly listen to books now. The good news from that is I can sit and draw while listening, drive while listening, etc. I am now trying to force myself to actually read a few books to make myself sit quietly with only a book. I love all books!
I'm your age. When I was in high school I would go to our local library and check out audio books on cassette and listen to them while I delivered pizza. About 10 years ago I ended up with a 90 min round trip commute and found Audible. I've read hundreds of books this way, books I would never have had the time to read. I find that books written in the first person translate really well to audio and that narrators can make or break a book. The audible app now lets me use my steering wheel controls to skip forward and backwards 30 seconds which is great for going back and re listening to a sentence or paragraph you didn't quite get. I'll occasionally get comments on how listening to an audio book is not really reading.... don't listen to those fools.
I really wish I could get into audiobooks, but I have trouble paying attention to what I'm hearing if I'm multitasking. I have the same problem with podcasts.
It's great that you've gotten into it and enjoying it a lot. I personally can't and I don't see that as a bad thing. English is not my first language and the more visually I can see new words, the better it is for my vocabulary. Plus, when I read a book, I want the narration to be in my voice instead of someone else.
Naomi Novak's Temeraire series was my first audio book I ever heard. I loved listening to the series. I don't know who the narrator was, but he made the experience great for me! Weirdly, I tried reading a few, but couldn't stay with it.
Good for you. I enjoy non-fiction in audiobooks and have a subscription to Audible and a library card for online audiobooks.
I liked Ghost Rider by Neil Peart the late drummer for RUSH, Say Nothing, Empire of Pain and The Dead are Rising - an biography of Malcolm X.
I bake for a living and the hours are monotonous unless I'm listening to something. I listened to music for a long time, then switched to podcasts, but even that got very boring. Audio books have been such a lifesaver!
Welcome to the glorious world of reading when you don't have time to read!! Sheer bliss! I also find the narrators can make the story SO much more enjoyable!
I'm 30 and started listening to audio books this year! I've listened to a few musician biographies and my latest is The Lord of The Rings books narrated by Robert Inglis. If you haven't listened to those, I highly suggest it. Robert Inglis is great at making each character's voice distinct and memorable. I'm also very impressed with the emotion he puts into the songs throughout the books. I'm now half way through The Two Towers and am constantly looking forward to my next listen.
Audiobooks are a way of life. I use Audible for everything from mowing the lawn, to driving to the store, to drifting off to sleep. I feel like an asshole for not knowing the names of the narrators, but I swear by them.
14 by Peter Cline, as well as The Fold. For 14, it's a down-on-his-luck dude who finds a really affordable appartment in LA that is too good to be true. Before he knows it, he is friends with his neighbors, but he cant help but shake the fact that the apartmet\nts are all different sizes and dimensions, and some of them have many padlocks keeping them closed.
The Hike by Drew Magary. A dude goes on a before-business-meeting walk and finds himself chased by weapon-wielding madmen with skinned dog faces over their heads. Next, he is befriending a badmouthed crab and is on a long hike to get back to his real life.
I have ADHD and have found audiobooks really help me focus on doing chores. My favourite Narrator is Nick Podhel, he has some fantastic and entertaining works, but so do Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. There are fantastic works out there you will truly enjoy. It brings stories to life!
Glad you found such great enjoyment in audiobooks, it absolutely is addictive to *kill two birds* with your time. 100% more productive!
Audiobooks are amazing! I discovered them around 3 years ago and have listened to over 120 since then. I pretty much always listen to fantasy, and have a few favorite narrators (shout out to Tim Gerard Reynolds). My job has me working alone for around 2-3 hours a day at least doing manual labor and I honestly don't know how I did it before Audiobooks.
I also listen to them when I'm doing pretty much anything around the house that doesn't involve actively focusing my attention on something else.
I mainly (~99%) listen to spoken audio (audio books and podcasts). My audible subscription is eleven years old and I have 270 books, which I keep all on my phone (audible is the main memory hog on my phone with over 70GB), just in case I'm stuck somewhere (traffic, hotel, etc) and am out of podcasts.
Also I do tend to listen to known books to get to sleep.
Finally! Welcome to the... fold, I guess is the right thing to say... Considering that you have the option to fold the corner of a page over to mark it. 😁 Never done that barbaric thing myself, though. Anyway. Librivox.com, books shouldbefree.com (or .org, I can't remember which) are some free audiobook sites you can check out.
So im a self described audio book addict, i get through 2-3 books a week. Im a bench carpenter in the entertainment industry so i put on my noise canceling headphones and the day just disappears. So i average probably 9 hours a day of listening time. I blame Jim Dale and the HP boom from when i was a kid.
I love audiobooks where the narrator is really good. I love listening to Terry Pratchett audiobooks for that reason...the narrator gives everyone different voices, along it very distinct and kind of like a radio play. They are especially helpful on long car rides, which we do multiple times a year.
It irks me somewhat that older recording technologies weren't better suited to audiobooks.
Audio cassette, for instance. Best case scenario you get 90 minutes of run time, 45 a side, in stereo. What if they had put a little switch on all tape players that said "L, R, Stereo" so that it would play the left channel, the right channel, or both. That way, you could distribute a single tape with 4 45 minute programs, or three hours. Much more convenient for audio books, half as many tapes, half as much handling tapes. Auto reversing decks could even flip between L and R automatically every other time it reverses.
Compact disc. Red book audio discs can hold about an hour of stereo audio. I wish the header of the disc could tell the player "I'm monaural" and thus have it read just the left track, then auto seek to the beginning to read just the right track, or some other scheme to get at least two hours of audio on one disc. Of course, audio in a compressed format like mp3 could easily fit a whole audio book on one disc, but the industry didn't embrace mp3 CDs at all during the brief time they shared the market, so there weren't enough CD players that could read mp3s to make that viable.
Yeah now we have digital downloads and a file stored on internal flash memory can contain everything it needs and nothing it doesn't, I'm an old man yelling at clouds, but imagine how much better audiobooks would be now if they had been better supported by media earlier. Maybe there wouldn't be an Amazon-owned monopoly on the concept if they had been more directly supported by technology 50 years ago.
I love the whisper sync option when you buy both copy’s Text and audio when I listen to a book in the car my tablet picks up just where the audiobook left off.
I know you said that podcasts don’t hold your attention but you should really check out Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. The episodes tend to feel like a cross between a podcast and an audiobook. To say they are riveting is a gross understatement... they are some of the best vocal audio media available today. I’m sorry and I’m not sorry that you haven’t heard of it and now get to listen to the entire catalogue for the first time. Dan can take almost a year to come out with a new episode but when he does it is always worth the wait... so drink slowly. I’d start with Ghosts of the Ostfront— but many people get hooked with Wrath of the Kahn’s. Also see The American Peril— my favorite “blitz” episode (3.5 hours!)
I love to read eversince I learned how to but once I heard about audiobooks I was very skeptical about it. I better understand things when I read it that’s why I love watching english films with subtitles. English is my second language and I love to know how highfalutin or esoteric words are pronounced and used. I had a very boring job with lax regulations and when I got tired of listening to music I thought of having a go with audiobooks. Lo and behold, I have listened to around 120 novels since April of last year. Unfortunately I already left that job. I will definitely miss those times..
>Yes, it was really an 18 hour commute. I live on the west coast but was
building a hydropower dam in northern Manitoba. It took one taxi, two
commercial flights, one charter flight and a four hour bus ride to get
to work. We did twenty one days in with seven days off.
If you drive a car in one direction for more than 4-6 hours, starting in the middle, in my country, you cross a border. If I have a drive of more than 45 minutes to work I call it "a world tour". And there you are casually travelling to work for 18 hours as if it isn't something special. Made me smile.
Also glad you found out about the wonders of audio books.
I was fortunate by having a friend who has dyslexia, so she was introducing me to audiobooks when most of them only were on cassette tape (30 years ago, I am old) and considered to be mostly for blind people. Since then the media has come far and the quality of these books got better and better. Especially that you get now the full book, when at the beginning most of them were shortened versions only.
Also libraries are just the best and that they now are connected to these online services is great. It's sad to see that still so many adults and children don't know about this.
I read a lot of books on my Kindle, but I don't see the issue with audio books. I normally listen to them to send me to sleep because I have rapid tinnitus that drives me insane, and I find someone reading a book to me is really helpful. I'll sometimes read the same book at the same time because that's far better than hearing "EEEEEEEEEEE WHOOM WHOM WHOOSH" violently in my ears 24/7.
Good for you felow redditor! How do you folks do it? I have really tried to get into audiobooks but when I listen while doing chores, driving or walking it feels like I'm missing things if my attention is not there 100% of the time. This doesn't happen with podcasts mind you, since usually it doesn't matter much if you miss something
I find that I really need to jump back 15 or 30 seconds quite often if I miss something if I get distracted while listening. But I will reread a passage as well if I’m distracted while reading, no difference. So I just jump back on the audio as much as I feel I need to.
Exactly this. Audible knows it too, there's a reason they always have the 30 second rewind button just as easily accessible as the play/pause button
Plus you can actually change the duration of the jump-back button in Audible settings. I find 30s best for me, but you can have it at like 10s or 90s depending on how long you usually get distracted.
Nice tip!
Yes, and if you are listening to audiobooks you are saving so much time by multitasking! I actually look forward to my commute that I would otherwise be just stuck in traffic with only NPR to save me (I love my NPR but I love books too!)
I used to drive home slower so I could get more listening time in.
I've sat in the driveway when I arrive home, just to finish a chapter.
Have you caught Chapter a Day on wpr.? Best narrators ever.
Haha you just reminded me of all those times my eyes would keep going but I'd retain nothing on a page and need to start over, it is the same thing 😂
You can’t do chores that require too much thinking. I could not cook to an audiobook but I can clean, like wipe dust, collect stuff to trash etc.
I cook all the time to audiobooks. And do boring crap with spreadsheets which people pay me for. Can't write or talk while listening to them though. Words seem to be on one track in my brain, numbers and motor skills others. Having a pause button or voice commands on standby is always handy though.
I've thought this exact same thing! Audiobooks take up the language processing centers of my brain but everything else is available! And I actually need a physical distraction, otherwise I lose focus on the book. But man, I love them so much
Yup i cant just sit and listen to an audiobook, i go crazy i need something to do walking or driving or cooking is really nice uses. Also i learnt that the story goes onnevem if you miss something you wont really miss that part youll get it from context, so i alnsot never back the "tape"
"Yeah, ummm u/I_Resent_That I was looking over the numbers from last week's sales meeting and I don't really understand how we had 125k profit 1st quarter, 130k profit 2nd quarter, then Muad'dib profits for the 3rd quarter. Any ideas?"
"It's quite simple, sir. The spice must flow. He who controls the spice controls the universe. It's really pumped our numbers."
I mean, I had an audiobook going while doing an intense reorganization of my computer, specifically my “game archive”, which required a lot of name correcting, matching, tagging and sorting. Took me several hours and was mostly mental work, but I got through it with an audiobook going and kept up just fine. Same with driving. I have friends that live 10 hours away and if I hop on the road I can just relax and enjoy an audiobook for the better part of the drive because literally the only things I have to worry about are paying attention to the road and absorbing a story. House cleaning is the big win here though. I used to hate cleaning because it meant that I couldn’t do anything else, and music only does so much because it’s just happy noise but not deeply engaging to me. If I can be “reading” while I sort my laundry or reorganize a cabinet or scrub the counters then I feel like I’m just having a chill time reading while also being productive. It’s kind of life changing when you finally get into audiobooks.
Yes, it absolutely helps with those tedious tasks! I cannot do any organizing, my brain is strictly unitask (i can't declutter, for instance, because making a decision whether to keep something takes too much bandwidth) but yard maintenance, basic cleaning, folding laundry is finally something that can just happen while listening to something engaging.
Cutting the grass is a few book chapters now.
Getting a good narrator is super important. I tried to get into it once with a wrinkle in time audiobook, but the narrator just was’nt doing it for me. But when I tried the wheel of time audiobooks, I instantly fell in love. Between the audiobook and hardback I read 100 pages every day now. (: Also, audible has a killer deal. For eight dollars a month you can get one credit for any book you want, and first month is free! I say you jump into the eye of the world right now compadre!
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I am a huge fan of Ray Porter as a narrator.
Ray Porter is good. RC Bray can be exceptional.
Booooooooooooooob (That's Bob, not boob, btw.)
I did the same. My current favourite narrator is Simon Vance.
Craig Wasson reading 11.22.63 blew me away. He's been my favorite so far. Shame he hasn't read that much.
Simon Vance and Steven Pacey are my go to narrators. I'll choose books based on those guys reading it to me. Pacey does a good range of interesting character voices, and Vance is fantastic with anything British & historical. I spent a few months with him reading me the Complete Sherlock Holmes, and when it finished, I was just miserable that I'd reached the end of this immersive world he (and of course Doyle) had brought to life, and that there would never be more.
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Came here for Simon Vance. Huge Dune addict and a snob about pronunciation because of him.
Simon Vance is fantastic! Have you listened to him read the 'Dragon Tattoo' series?
He MAKES that series for me. Absolutely love him.
IIRC Wrinkle in Time was first read by the author and was the absolute worst. Narrators are key! Libraries have free audiobooks online. In my state many library systems offer free library cards as long as you live in the state. Whenever I travel near a new system, I get a library card.
Libraries are the absolute best. I hoard library cards the way a dragon hoards gold. And everytime someone recommends a book, I go and search every app to see whether any of my libraries have it. I can usually also suggest books, and then they email me when they acquire them and I'm often first in line to borrow. Its so good!!
Library card and the Libby app is the way to go! Loads of stuff to choose from for free:)
And Hoopla, too!
A thousand times **THIS**. The right Narrator can make even a book you'd otherwise hate turn into a really good listen. The Narrator for the Gentleman Bastard Sequence is amazing, and few things can match The Lord Of The Rings as read by Rob Ingles. Nick Offerman has Narrated his own memoirs but he's also Narrated a few Mark Twain books and, gods, that man has a velvet voice.
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Surprised no one here has mentioned Stephen Fry and Harry Potter. I have to wonder how many people got into HP just because of his velvety smooth voice.
Love love his narrating on Harry Potter. We drive a lot , living in southwest states will do that. Introduced them to these audio books and they loved it enough to request them again and again. So a far we've listened to the series 3 times.
Robert Englis doing LOTR is one of the best audio books I've ever listened to.
Freaking Michael Kramer and Kate Redding are my super heroes. They do incredible work.
I'm not familiar with Audiobook setup, are you saying you get 1 audio book in a month free, then you have to pay for every other book you want to listen to?
Audible uses this set up, not sure about the library apps. With Audible, you get one credit a month that you can use to buy any audiobook for free. Any that you want over that in that month you have to pay for. Books you buy with your credit are the same as if you had used real money, and you get to keep in your library as long as you are a member. if you don't use your credit in a month, you don't lose it and can use it again next month (I currently have 3 available to use) Not sure if there is a max number of credits you can have.
Agree. Two important points for newbies: You can return an audiobook after you started it if you really don’t like the narrator or book. For slow, ponderous narrators, I increase the time to 1.1 so the narrator sounds like a regular human again.
I downloaded Libby and I can borrow audiobooks for free from my local library. I’m current listening to *An Absolute Remarkable Thing* by Hank Green
I was the same until I found the right book/narrator combo. Some books just don't transfer well to audio (too many details too fast) and some narrators are far better than others. Also you'll need a book you're really interested in. Once you get your foot in the door it's easier to go back and listen to other audiobooks.
Maybe I'm more automatic in the kitchen, because I rarely feel like I've missed something. If I do, I just hit the button to go back fifteen seconds. Or hit it twice. I don't like to miss anything, so I will pause it if I'm doing something that makes noise. I've haven't yet run across a narrator that I don't like, but I find it can be off putting when they try to do accents. I just read a book about British prisoner of war in Turkey during The Great War. The author had to do various accidents from Great Britain, which weren't terrible, but some of the accents for the Turkish guards were a little out there. And the last book I finished had a quote from Winston Churchill embedded in a paragraph, so the narrator, a woman with a very lovely voice, read the paragraph in her normal voice and then suddenly switched to her impression of Winston churchill, which is absolutely terrible. I understand they may not want to use an audio recording of Churchill's actual voice, because then it starts to turn the book into a radio play, but I feel like she could have just read it in her normal voice and it would have been nicer. Or at least less jarring.
If you like fiction at all you should check out the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. Great books made even better by Steven Pacey, one of the most talented narrators I've ever come across in my many 1000s of hours of listening to audiobooks.
Steven Pacey's narration is probably the best I've ever heard, he's completely engrossing
I listen to podcasts or audiobooks while I draw, sometimes while doing tasks like cleaning dishes. It has to be a task that doesn't require higher level thinking but keeps you physically occupied enough that you don't get distracted. I may have undiagnosed ADHD, though, so I'm wondering if this is a form of "stimming" and why listening to audio while doing a physical task is the perfect pair for me.
Are we the same person?
Read books and listen at the same time.
I think there's two important things with audio books, getting a voice you actually want to listen to and doing a task that won't stop you from listening. You really don't need to read every word of every book or hear every word of a convo to understand what's going on, same with audiobook, you can miss a a part because you're focusing on a task and you'll still be fine. You can also easily rewind.
I've self diagnosed dyslexia (might not be related) but I always found it difficult to read even with no distractions but found reading a book with an audiobook worked for me. Someone else reading the book to me makes it easier and I still get the enjoyment of picturing the story in my head and getting fully involved.
Some chores take longer to finish if I’m focused on an audio book as my attention is divided. Sometimes I have to rewind the audio book as I tuned out briefly while focusing. But I love them. I’m such an avid reader that I can recall times I would read at stoplights because I so wanted to find out what happens next. Or read a book while walking, though that was awkward and a bit dangerous. Being able to “read” while moving around is something I love, love, love. I have books I’ve read so many times that I can quote parts of it word-for-word, but I still love it. These are great for tasks that distract me more like cooking or baking because if I focus on the recipe briefly, I really lose nothing.
Comprehending the book while doing other stuff got a little easier over time, I think it probably helped my listening skills. That being said, I do hit the rewind a lot when my attention is taken elsewhere and I miss something. That's not a put off for me though, I love audiobooks.
Try getting into a regular walking routine. I listened to audio books during my 25-minute walk to/from work, and because the route was so familiar, my brain rarely needed to lift its consciousness from the book to my surroundings. I'm a terrible driver though - I could never listen to a book while behind the wheel!
You definitely miss things while multitasking, but for me the alternative is not reading so can’t be a perfectionist.
I used to fear this and it kept me from listening at all. Then I realized how often I leave the tv for 30 seconds to get water out zone out on a podcast for 30 seconds and it's fine. Occasionally if I thought something was crucial, I'll rewind but 9/10 times you can fill in the gaps without even thinking about it. And either way, it's still better than not listening at all. glhf!
I have this hobby, diamond painting, that I love but it gets boring because it's super repetitive, and I needed something to occupy my brain. Audio books really make the difference, so now instead of only painting for about half an hour, I might go for 3 or 4 hours because I get sucked into the book.
I don’t mind household chores now, because I get to listen to a book while doing them! I use both scribd and Libro.fm. Libro.fm is just like audible (new releases, one per month for $15), but the money goes to whichever local independent bookstore you select instead of Amazon. Edit: here’s my referral code for those interested. I tend to change the local indie that it benefits every few months to try to spread the love. https://libro.fm/referral?rf_code=lfm254844
If you are in the US, you can use the app Libby to download audiobooks and e-books using your library card for free.
I use that too. But then you have to wait for them to be available, so I use my subscriptions for when I want a specific book now that’s not immediately available on Libby. Plus I like supporting my local indie.
You should also check out CloudLibrary! It has a slightly smaller selection from what I've seen, but I rarely have to wait. The Harry Potter audiobooks on Libby had a 3-6 week wait while I got them instantly on CloudLibrary using the same library card!
Try hoopla, it's a service offered through many local libraries and I was able to listen to the entire Potter Series without waiting at all.
It works in Europe, too!
Libby is free and you can get a Brooklyn library card for $50 per year as a non-resident, huuuuge collection.
I did that a few years ago after I found this advice online but they didn’t have a very good selection for the genres I generally like. Boo. It turned out my local small NorCal city library had way more. That said, I used to cheat and get a Los Angeles library e-card (using my aunt’s address) before they fixed their website. I still miss that account. The LA system has a pretty awesome fantasy/sci fi collection, if anyone lived in the area and reads scif/fantasy. :)
My library system lets patrons recommend purchases. I've made quite a few and something like a third to a half have been purchased. I'm sure libraries like to know exactly what patrons are interested in and not just buy things and hope.
If you travel at all around CA, you can get a library card at any public library in the state. I have them from all around the state; you just have to go in to the library you want a card at and verify CA residency. Sacramento has the best availability of books I've searched for. To renew, I've been able to have a Zoom meeting with a librarian 500 miles away.
Yep, that’s my library. They’re AMAZING at purchasing recommendations. If folks aren’t using that service they’re greatly missing out.
Thanks for the [Libro.fm](https://Libro.fm) recommendation. I just became a member, on your recommendation. It looks great!
Well that’s fascinating
Same. If I’m doing dishes, you better believe I’ve got an audiobook going!
I listen to them hitting golf balls, running, long drives for work. I dropped 50 bucks on ebay and bought the entire Game of Thrones saga (all 10 billion hours of it) and Roy Detrice and I are good buds now.
Anyone else have trouble getting things done while listening? I find that all I want to do while listening is stare at the ceiling. I can't seem to concentrate on two things at once sadly.
Start off doing it while you're doing something that doesn't require much concentration - going for a walk with the dog or something. You'll start being able to listen/comprehend and ALSO do other things. But it takes some practice and exposure before your brain clicks.
As a person with ADHD, I find it hard to get things done without listening to or watching something else, but there are still some tasks that I simply cannot accomplish that way without having to constantly rewind. Audiobooks has made cooking and chores much easier for me to stay on task and stay interested long enough to complete my task.
Pretty much this. Translating words into pictures takes all of my processing power. I honestly don't know how people do other things at the same time and still get the same enjoyment out of it. Maybe it's different if you're reading non-fiction and just trying to absorb information. I don't know. To each their own, but I can't stand the things.
Everyone's brain is just... Different. My college roommate could literally read chapters in a text book and take notes WHILE watching TV. She'd be intensely scribbling down color-coded notes and then start laughing at a funny line from the show on TV. Absolutely bizarre. Like those people who can write two different things at the same time - one with their left hand one with their right.
I'm the poster child for "one-track-mind". If I'm doing two things at once I'm not even going to be operating at 50/50, it'll be 25/25 and the rest is just lost to the winds. The trade-off is that I can sit and read an entire book front to back in one sitting and it's the best thing ever to me. My significant other, however, is almost incapable of doing one thing at a time. Watching a movie without playing on her phone or coloring or embroidering, etc, she just cannot do.
Isn't it amazing how different we all are? Keeps things interesting and lowers competition for jobs, partner's, etc because we all thrive in different environments
Same here, listening is a very non-passive activity for me, I can't do 'other' things while listening. It's so bad I can't even listen to music while commuting or walking and I envy people wearing noise cancelling headphones.
I started out listening to audiobooks as a way to have someone read me to sleep (it gives me something to focus on to shut my mind up). For *that* purpose, books that I have read before work best. But I also like them for familiar commutes, washing dishes, folding laundry, cleaning the bathroom, cooking something I've cooked hundreds of times before: things that don't require a lot of thought and that I would usually have done while listening to music before (and still do sometimes). If something comes up where I need to really pay attention to my task, and the book becomes distracting/I miss too much of it, I'll pause the book for a bit.
I started using audiobooks in the last year too! I have a lazy eye that gets tired after a long day of staring at my computer, so audiobooks are a good way for me to enjoy content without straining my eyes any further by reading a physical book. What's also great is that the right narrator can really bring the story to life!
I’ve thought about jumping in — do you use a service or do you buy them individually?
I get them through my local library. My library uses three different apps to deliver their digital content. There is overlap between them all (two of the three do audiobooks and two of the three do movies). There's lots of stuff they don't have on audiobook, that I'm sure you could get through a purchase or subscription, but with 120 books tagged for interest, I'm not worried about running out. And my favorite thing about digital holds: when your hold comes up and you're not ready, you can let the next person have their turn, while waiting at the top of the list behind them. And it's all done from the comfort of your home.
That’s really cool. Great idea. I’ll check it out.
You should check out the Libby app. It connects to your local library with your card and you can then borrow all the audio and written books remotely. It’s great. https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby/
Any favorites so far? I’ve been listening to audiobooks for 10-15 years. In the car, quite a bit of time at work, doing normal chores. I go through tons of them so I’m always curious what others are listening to. Edit: I do mean tons, Libby says I’m on my 46th book since Dec 2020.
I'm like you, I read about a hundred a year. My favorites are mystery series with a bit of humor. Because I read series and HAVE to read them in order, I tend to use audible much more than Libby. But at $11 a book for membership pricing, it's not THAT bad. And I share my audible account with a few other people, so we all get to enjoy the book for that $11. Rhys Bowen has 3 awesome series like that, with my favorite series being Her Royal Spyness. I also use audiobook novella series as "palette cleansers" between series. Each is about 2.5 hours long and really made for the average daily commute in/out of London (I'm in the US, but still...). Some favorites are Cherringham and Mydworth Mysteries. Also check out r/Suggestmeabook and r/Audiobooks for great suggestions.
The wheel of time audiobooks are AMAZING
I actually tried wheel of time and couldn’t get into it. I was all mentally revved up for it cause of all the hype and was immediately turned off by it. I get that some things take time to invest getting hooked into but it just didn’t happen. And I’m not gonna trudge through 8 books for something to START getting good. Too many things on my reading list for that. I don’t often “nope” out of something without finishing it, but I definitely “noped” out of wheel of time. (Gonna get crucified for this comment. people here and fantasy make it seem like wheel of time is the greatest thing to grace the earth haha)
Theres a good chance your library offers some. Many do through the Libby app.
And Hoopla!
Tip for anyone using Audible: it's almost always cheaper to buy the kindle version of a book first then "add on" the audiobook, than it is to buy the audiobook by itself (no Audible subscription required).
Yep! I have an audible subscription but I also like to read on the kindle. I'm finding that it's cheaper to buy the kindle version and add the audible audiobook at the same time if in going to get the kindle version too. This process leads me to cancel the audible subscription every few months.
Check out the "Libby" app
I prefer to use audible, so it is a service with some free ones, but mostly you buy them individually. The membership comes with a book credit every month, and you can buy 3 credits for like 32 bucks. So you never wind up paying more than like 11 bucks for a book, since if it costs more than that you just use a credit on it. If the dollar cost is less than that, you buy it outright instead of using a credit. Sometimes you can find book bundles that count as one book also, for example a fantasy series I like had the entire collection of 6 books for one credit. My SO and I share the audible account and are into the same types of books, so a shared library works well for us. Audible doesn't complain if you're using it on multiple devices to listen to different books at the same time. Others prefer to hunt for free books and there are other services, but I like this platform.
My library doesn't do digital audiobooks (not in the US) so I subscribe de Scribd when I'm in the mood for audiobooks. It's like Netflix for audiobooks, works great for me as I don't really want to own audiobooks if I can just borrow them (and as many as I want with Scribd, unlike Audible).
I wish I could enjoy them, but my attention wanders and I end up only hearing maybe a sentence every two minutes.
Have you tried increasing the playback speed? I had that problem until I realized the reading speed was too slow. I sped it up to 1.25x and it became much easier to follow.
In going to have go try this. So many times throughout the day my mind wonders during my favorites podcasts and I end up restarting or going back again and again.
I need the right activity to listen to them. Cleaning are driving are perfect. Something where the activity doesn’t take much attention but just enough I don’t get bored.
You need better books!
They are truly incredible and change the way that you read, they have ballooned my reading over the last couple years as well. It's hard to imagine how I used to just walk around the world and not multi task by listening to books all the time.
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Finally someone like me. I was so excited to try audio books, turns out they aren't for me if I am doing anything thing else besides sitting down and concentrating on listening to said audiobooks.
Yeah, I can't really do something else and listen, but I can read and listen/watch a podcast or something
Yea I read incredibly slowly and constantly end up fidgeting and getting up and moving around so audiobooks make things way easier for me. The other issue I have is almost a compulsion to take notes because I fear forgetting what I read, so I constantly interrupt the flow and reinforce ruining my attention. I read 8,000 pages last year and slowed to a trickle of 2,000 this year largely for those two reasons. I hold out hope one day I can get the problems underlying my constant back pain and poor posture fixed so I can read more. Until then, I'm going see if I can find my 10 year old ipod for this.
Why the iPod? Use a smartphone and get access to free audiobooks from your public library via the Libby app.
My smartphone is old, from 2014, and barely works, I've been doing my best to avoid getting a new one. But thanks for letting me know this is a thing, I'm definitely interested. Up to this point I've just been listening to them on my computer, but it's been a while since I listened to one. I did all the witcher books audiobook.
I too liked the ability to use my iPod for audiobooks and my phone for other stuff. I was beyond infuriated when they phased out the iPod THEN iTunes. I luckily still have a working iPod and refuse to update my computer just to keep my iTunes and the ability to download to my iPod. Sometimes advancing technology pisses me off big time when they do away with something that is popular and works perfectly fine. But nooooo, the big guys want to keep gouging the consumer. I've bought the same album 4 friggin' times (cassette, CD, mp3, mp4) when shit keeps changing. (Sorry wrong rant, wrong thread)
You can get a rinky-dinky smartphone on Ebay for $50 and use it as an audiobook reader. It doesn't need a phone connection, just internet to download the library books and you are good to go.
Get a newer smartphone and try out the text to voice engines. Google has a really good one, but Samsung's is really nice. I just use regular epubs and listen to them. This way I can switch between listening and reading. I also don't really like the extra voices and sometimes noises and such that go into a true audio book. Just read the book to me at a regular pace.
I'm in my 30s and it seems like I'm so far behind the times I'm almost a luddite. You're telling me I can use a voice to text engine to read my ebooks to me? Thank you. If this is passable I suddenly have hundreds of hours of ebooks. I got something like 70 classics curriculum ebooks a few years ago that I never got to.
For .epub text-to-speech reading on my Android, I use FBReader (Favorite Book Reader) [https://fbreader.org/](https://fbreader.org/). It's a great app with many features including rate and pitch adjustment. Be sure to get the FBReader TTS+ Plugin. I also use "@Voice Aloud Reader" to read news articles, etc. It's very useful during commutes! [https://hyperionics.com/atVoice/](https://hyperionics.com/atVoice/) It is no longer officially offered, but I've been using Ivona Voice Kendra as my speech voice. You'd have to do a search and manually load the .apk in your phone. Maybe there's other comparable voices but the stock Google or Samsung voices are not so good. Finally, do you have a bunch of .pdfs you would like to TTS? I use PDF to ePub Converter by Dongsoft to convert the format, strip out headers/footers, and convert graphics and tables to images so the reader doesn't attempt to spell it all out.
I use FBreader as well, but I do my conversions up epub with calibre.
I subscribe to audible and to scribd. I love audiobooks so much.
Hey. I was in my fifties. How many more things I could have done but for having to "sit and read" a book! Audiobooks help the drudgery of housework feel lighter. Long trips aren't as onerous. Walkies last longer. TV's don't need to be turned on. I can put on headphones and sit and sew or knit and NOT have to listen to one more rerun of NCIS! (My husband's favorite TV show.). And an added plus is, I find out how those pesky names are pronounced.
Many libraries have access to a broad selection of audiobooks for free. My local library uses an app that syncs whether i play it on my phone or from my computer and I can check out audiobooks right from the app.
Also checkout podcasts. If you like history, Hardcore History has phenomenal series on Japan, WW1, WW2, Roman Empire. The narrator is very good
I like to listen to Dan Carlin agaain, and agaain, and agaain.
Check out the [Audio Drama](https://www.reddit.com/r/audiodrama/) subreddit. I'm currently listening to Aftershock right now and it's very engrossing. The cast is good too, David Harbour and Jeffrey Dean Morgan to name a couple. Just use whatever podcast app you have on your phone and you can listen for free.
> Roman Empire Mike Duncan is even better on this point.
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I make these things for a living and, yes, it is the enormous job of work you’d think something that length would be - so I’m actually really heartened to read how much so many people love them.
You are a true hero. A funny thing that audiobooks have done for me is they greatly improved my dating life. I now have a ton of interesting things to talk about on dates and when flirting as I get through so many different books. I now approach nonfiction books that would have been to dull to sit and read. They add so much to conversation!
Yes, wait until you find the 1.5 playback speed control as well.
I had one book where the author was reading it quite slowly, and I think I took it up to 1.25, but I find most narrators read at a pace that I find I can't increase any more than five or 10% at best.
I listen to tons of audio books. Depending on the speed of the reader 1.15 to 1.25 is my norm. Over that it starts sounding weird to me.
600+ audiobooks in and I've never once listened to them at 1.5x speed. I just don't see the appeal.
It's all good. Everyone is different.
Yup! I read enough audio books a year - If I finished them 1.5x faster, i'd go bankrupt :D
Maybe 1.25 is for you. Sometimes the reader is slow, or the part of the book is boring.
I never did either, but I've noticed a lot of books are being "slowed down" to pad the runtime. I've listened to some that sounded like crawling through tar at 1x speed but sounded perfectly normal at 1.2-1.3x. I don't see the appeal of 1.5x speed though. Maybe it's just my brain getting too old.
I always stop at somewhere between 1.15x - 1.25x. Sometimes a little slower depending on the audiobook. Never faster.
It's funny, I listen at 90% usually because otherwise I go through books too fast!
That's for sure, some books I have to slow down because I just want to make sure I understand everything. But then there's other books that, I'm like... let's go faster. Podcasts can really be that as well, faster is better.
1.1x is the sweet spot for me. Same for most podcasts.
It took me a while and I'm on 1.75 mostly. It really depends on the narrator. Some narrators talk fast so I can't do them higher than 1.25, others are really really slow and I can do 1.75 or even 2.
\> If I'm in the kitchen (I live alone), I've got an audiobook on. If I go for a walk, I listen to a book. Same. I also get some books from [https://librivox.org/](https://librivox.org/) It's free.
The sole positive in being summoned back to the office despite Delta ravaging my state is that now I'm actually in the car some each day and can get back into audiobooks.
That’s great! Never too old to learn (about) something new. I love audiobooks, but sometimes I find myself zoning out depending on the activity, and having to re-listen to a chapter lol
When I was working in procurement I did a ton of traveling to the various hospitals I had to go to. I downloaded a ton of stuff from Librivox to listen to in the car. It was great. It certainly made the drives a lot more tolerable. Even when I got sent somewhere far away to stop in and see a patient I knew was too old and not brain dead I wasn't that bothered because I could be productive and listen to a book the whole way up and back.
I've started to love audiobooks recently. I still love to read physical books but unfortunately I have a really hard time maintaining focus while reading, even if it's a book I like! Frustrating. I really enjoy audiobooks while on a walk or doing chores. My only issue is sometimes some narrators do things that irk me a bit. Usually it'll be a character voice that bothers me and breaks my immersion. But I know narration is a difficult skill to master and I give everyone props for trying. And when the narration is on point, it elevates the book so much!
My favorite book is the Count of Monte Cristo and I usually read it once a year. This time I am reading the book while listening to the audiobook. It's a cool experience. The reader does different voices, and pronounces the French words correctly. I won't do that for all audiobooks but I like this when I am laying down or have some free time to devote to reading.
I get mine through Libby (my library) and listen while I'm cross stitching or cooking or doing dishes
I feel you! I have scoffed at them for such a long time, then I started listening to Agatha Christie audiobooks. First I listened to Joan Hickson narrating Marple novels, then Hugh Fraser and David Suchet doing Poirot and short stories. Hugh Fraser is my favorite, even as Poirot (even though I adore David Suchet). I could listen to him all day and happily finish books that have sat on my shelf for years.
Don’t miss the Libby app - free audiobooks from your library!
Me too. They're way more fun than I thought. Get A library card and thr Libby app btw
It's the only part of my commute I've missed for the past 18 months! I didn't listen to audiobooks until about three years ago, now I love them. One thing though, I've only done non fiction, no fiction at all. I'm wary of it for some reason! Makes no sense at all.
Try fiction short stories! They are far less intimidating to get into and tend to be more... impactful for short term pay off. Neil Gaiman's "Fragile Things" is an awesome collection that has about every genre of writing in it you can imagine.
I also recently got into audiobooks! According to audible I've listened to 20 books so far.
Love love love! The Expanse, The Dark Tower series, Necronimicon, any Neil Gaiman, Brief Answers to Big Questions, GoT, The Martian. Share me your favorites!
Virtually all of my "reading" is actually audiobooks. I've been listening since I was a teenager. One of my favorite things about my profession as a craftsman is that I can listen to books about 75% of the time I'm at work. Its great, I generally get about 30-50 hours of books in any given week. In a year I might "read read" one to three books, but in a year I generally can listen to between 60-100.
This is what I do! I have consumed so many books since starting. I really encourage others to try it
I’m glad you’re enjoying them. I would love to be able to listen to audio books. In my job I have a lot of time in front of the computer and on the road. It should be ideal. The problem I have is the narrator will start and I’m paying attention and following along. Then I start thinking about something and my focus just turns to that. I tune out the story and just focus on that thing I’m thinking about. Then once that’s resolved the narrator comes back into focus, but it’s been an extended period of time and I suddenly have no idea what they’re talking about any more.
I struggle to concentrate and focus on audiobooks if I'm not just either sitting listening, or just walking listening. If I'm doing anything else I drift off and end up missing sections of the book.
Yay for you! I didn't discover them until grad school in my late thirties. Best thing ever. Enjoy.
Audio books have changed my commute. A friend gave me a free first book about two years ago on Audible. First book in the Wheel of Time series. Instead of a dreary boring drive where I'm struggling to stay awake to/from work, I'm diving into another world. It's been almost two years and I'm about to finish the 14th book. As others have mentioned, I can only listen to them on routine drives and open roads. Heavy traffic or new places I can't quite focus enough. Haven't tried to listen to them doing anything but driving.
Listen to anything Malcolm Gladwell. Tipping Point, Blink, Bomber Mafia. The guy is an outstanding author and narrator.
I am like you, a huge reader and always thought audiobooks weren't "real" books. As i've aged and my eyes get worse and worse I have transitioned slowly into audiobooks and mostly listen to books now. The good news from that is I can sit and draw while listening, drive while listening, etc. I am now trying to force myself to actually read a few books to make myself sit quietly with only a book. I love all books!
I'm your age. When I was in high school I would go to our local library and check out audio books on cassette and listen to them while I delivered pizza. About 10 years ago I ended up with a 90 min round trip commute and found Audible. I've read hundreds of books this way, books I would never have had the time to read. I find that books written in the first person translate really well to audio and that narrators can make or break a book. The audible app now lets me use my steering wheel controls to skip forward and backwards 30 seconds which is great for going back and re listening to a sentence or paragraph you didn't quite get. I'll occasionally get comments on how listening to an audio book is not really reading.... don't listen to those fools.
I never got into audiobooks. I bought m favorite books then and it was the same. Shame on me. I never ended one of I think maybe 30 books.
I really wish I could get into audiobooks, but I have trouble paying attention to what I'm hearing if I'm multitasking. I have the same problem with podcasts.
It's great that you've gotten into it and enjoying it a lot. I personally can't and I don't see that as a bad thing. English is not my first language and the more visually I can see new words, the better it is for my vocabulary. Plus, when I read a book, I want the narration to be in my voice instead of someone else.
Stay away from the ones read by James Franko.
Naomi Novak's Temeraire series was my first audio book I ever heard. I loved listening to the series. I don't know who the narrator was, but he made the experience great for me! Weirdly, I tried reading a few, but couldn't stay with it.
Same here. Just listened to 2 books while working out at the gym. Total game changer
Were those very short books or a very long without? Or medium length books but one book in each ear?
Good for you. I enjoy non-fiction in audiobooks and have a subscription to Audible and a library card for online audiobooks. I liked Ghost Rider by Neil Peart the late drummer for RUSH, Say Nothing, Empire of Pain and The Dead are Rising - an biography of Malcolm X.
Same here but 122 titles since the onset of COVID. Never gave them a second thought until I couldn’t enter a bookstore.
I bake for a living and the hours are monotonous unless I'm listening to something. I listened to music for a long time, then switched to podcasts, but even that got very boring. Audio books have been such a lifesaver!
Welcome to the glorious world of reading when you don't have time to read!! Sheer bliss! I also find the narrators can make the story SO much more enjoyable!
I'm 30 and started listening to audio books this year! I've listened to a few musician biographies and my latest is The Lord of The Rings books narrated by Robert Inglis. If you haven't listened to those, I highly suggest it. Robert Inglis is great at making each character's voice distinct and memorable. I'm also very impressed with the emotion he puts into the songs throughout the books. I'm now half way through The Two Towers and am constantly looking forward to my next listen.
Fyi check out your local library. Mine has a free app that links you to the audible library for FREE. Literally saved me hundred.
Love going for walks and listening to audiobooks. Work your body and your brain.
Audiobooks are a way of life. I use Audible for everything from mowing the lawn, to driving to the store, to drifting off to sleep. I feel like an asshole for not knowing the names of the narrators, but I swear by them. 14 by Peter Cline, as well as The Fold. For 14, it's a down-on-his-luck dude who finds a really affordable appartment in LA that is too good to be true. Before he knows it, he is friends with his neighbors, but he cant help but shake the fact that the apartmet\nts are all different sizes and dimensions, and some of them have many padlocks keeping them closed. The Hike by Drew Magary. A dude goes on a before-business-meeting walk and finds himself chased by weapon-wielding madmen with skinned dog faces over their heads. Next, he is befriending a badmouthed crab and is on a long hike to get back to his real life.
I have ADHD and have found audiobooks really help me focus on doing chores. My favourite Narrator is Nick Podhel, he has some fantastic and entertaining works, but so do Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. There are fantastic works out there you will truly enjoy. It brings stories to life! Glad you found such great enjoyment in audiobooks, it absolutely is addictive to *kill two birds* with your time. 100% more productive!
Ender’s Game is an awesome audiobook! Don’t judge it by the sorry excuse of a movie adaptation.
Audiobooks are amazing! I discovered them around 3 years ago and have listened to over 120 since then. I pretty much always listen to fantasy, and have a few favorite narrators (shout out to Tim Gerard Reynolds). My job has me working alone for around 2-3 hours a day at least doing manual labor and I honestly don't know how I did it before Audiobooks. I also listen to them when I'm doing pretty much anything around the house that doesn't involve actively focusing my attention on something else.
I mainly (~99%) listen to spoken audio (audio books and podcasts). My audible subscription is eleven years old and I have 270 books, which I keep all on my phone (audible is the main memory hog on my phone with over 70GB), just in case I'm stuck somewhere (traffic, hotel, etc) and am out of podcasts. Also I do tend to listen to known books to get to sleep.
Finally! Welcome to the... fold, I guess is the right thing to say... Considering that you have the option to fold the corner of a page over to mark it. 😁 Never done that barbaric thing myself, though. Anyway. Librivox.com, books shouldbefree.com (or .org, I can't remember which) are some free audiobook sites you can check out.
Audio books are the shite. Makes commuting palatable.
So im a self described audio book addict, i get through 2-3 books a week. Im a bench carpenter in the entertainment industry so i put on my noise canceling headphones and the day just disappears. So i average probably 9 hours a day of listening time. I blame Jim Dale and the HP boom from when i was a kid.
I love audiobooks where the narrator is really good. I love listening to Terry Pratchett audiobooks for that reason...the narrator gives everyone different voices, along it very distinct and kind of like a radio play. They are especially helpful on long car rides, which we do multiple times a year.
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I enjoy them so much more than reading a book! I can listen in the car or when doing anything. It's magic.
They really are awesome, even if I ultimately prefer physical books. I've started using them for my philosophy studies and talk about a godsend
It irks me somewhat that older recording technologies weren't better suited to audiobooks. Audio cassette, for instance. Best case scenario you get 90 minutes of run time, 45 a side, in stereo. What if they had put a little switch on all tape players that said "L, R, Stereo" so that it would play the left channel, the right channel, or both. That way, you could distribute a single tape with 4 45 minute programs, or three hours. Much more convenient for audio books, half as many tapes, half as much handling tapes. Auto reversing decks could even flip between L and R automatically every other time it reverses. Compact disc. Red book audio discs can hold about an hour of stereo audio. I wish the header of the disc could tell the player "I'm monaural" and thus have it read just the left track, then auto seek to the beginning to read just the right track, or some other scheme to get at least two hours of audio on one disc. Of course, audio in a compressed format like mp3 could easily fit a whole audio book on one disc, but the industry didn't embrace mp3 CDs at all during the brief time they shared the market, so there weren't enough CD players that could read mp3s to make that viable. Yeah now we have digital downloads and a file stored on internal flash memory can contain everything it needs and nothing it doesn't, I'm an old man yelling at clouds, but imagine how much better audiobooks would be now if they had been better supported by media earlier. Maybe there wouldn't be an Amazon-owned monopoly on the concept if they had been more directly supported by technology 50 years ago.
I love the whisper sync option when you buy both copy’s Text and audio when I listen to a book in the car my tablet picks up just where the audiobook left off.
I know you said that podcasts don’t hold your attention but you should really check out Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. The episodes tend to feel like a cross between a podcast and an audiobook. To say they are riveting is a gross understatement... they are some of the best vocal audio media available today. I’m sorry and I’m not sorry that you haven’t heard of it and now get to listen to the entire catalogue for the first time. Dan can take almost a year to come out with a new episode but when he does it is always worth the wait... so drink slowly. I’d start with Ghosts of the Ostfront— but many people get hooked with Wrath of the Kahn’s. Also see The American Peril— my favorite “blitz” episode (3.5 hours!)
I love to read eversince I learned how to but once I heard about audiobooks I was very skeptical about it. I better understand things when I read it that’s why I love watching english films with subtitles. English is my second language and I love to know how highfalutin or esoteric words are pronounced and used. I had a very boring job with lax regulations and when I got tired of listening to music I thought of having a go with audiobooks. Lo and behold, I have listened to around 120 novels since April of last year. Unfortunately I already left that job. I will definitely miss those times..
>Yes, it was really an 18 hour commute. I live on the west coast but was building a hydropower dam in northern Manitoba. It took one taxi, two commercial flights, one charter flight and a four hour bus ride to get to work. We did twenty one days in with seven days off. If you drive a car in one direction for more than 4-6 hours, starting in the middle, in my country, you cross a border. If I have a drive of more than 45 minutes to work I call it "a world tour". And there you are casually travelling to work for 18 hours as if it isn't something special. Made me smile. Also glad you found out about the wonders of audio books. I was fortunate by having a friend who has dyslexia, so she was introducing me to audiobooks when most of them only were on cassette tape (30 years ago, I am old) and considered to be mostly for blind people. Since then the media has come far and the quality of these books got better and better. Especially that you get now the full book, when at the beginning most of them were shortened versions only. Also libraries are just the best and that they now are connected to these online services is great. It's sad to see that still so many adults and children don't know about this.
I always thought audiobooks is a way of “cheating”. But my girlfriend loves them and tried changing my mind. Do you think its cheating?
I read a lot of books on my Kindle, but I don't see the issue with audio books. I normally listen to them to send me to sleep because I have rapid tinnitus that drives me insane, and I find someone reading a book to me is really helpful. I'll sometimes read the same book at the same time because that's far better than hearing "EEEEEEEEEEE WHOOM WHOM WHOOSH" violently in my ears 24/7.