Does anybody use audible?
Discussion
All the time, costs me 9 quid a month and I get two book credits that roll on. Very good and passes many hours driving. Can get a bit annoying though when you see a book you want but its not available in your region. You even get crazy situations like a trilogy where book 1 & 3 are available but no 2 although it is available in the states. Have written to complain but they just say it is down to the publisher.
Bloody mad in my opinion, why the hell would you only make certain books available in America, just encourages you to download illegally as it is the only way to get it. Seems that a lot of these publishing houses have to much money and don't want ours.
Bloody mad in my opinion, why the hell would you only make certain books available in America, just encourages you to download illegally as it is the only way to get it. Seems that a lot of these publishing houses have to much money and don't want ours.
No point starting a new thread. After finding how easy this works with the Connected Drive in the BMW I have been using this for the past few months.
I've listened to "The man in the White Suit" and now going through William Porter's "And on that BombShell"
Anyone have any other recommendations...
I've listened to "The man in the White Suit" and now going through William Porter's "And on that BombShell"
Anyone have any other recommendations...
Bloody hell, I didn't know you could pay a membership and get 2 credits a month!
I've been working my way through the Aubrey/Maturin series for the last couple of months, I'm on book 12 and they've all been about 18 quid each.
Is there a way to let someone else listen to them when you've finished?
I've been working my way through the Aubrey/Maturin series for the last couple of months, I'm on book 12 and they've all been about 18 quid each.
Is there a way to let someone else listen to them when you've finished?
On the 7.99 a month and had some expensive ones for a credit. Aubrey/Maturin, up to wine dark sea. Stopped there as I out listen the speed they were coming on line. Jumped to Hornblower (have the paper backs but what the heck).
With regards requests for recommendations, IIIRestorerIII, depends what tickles your fancy. Personally I have been through history, Le Carre, topics as mentioned above, WWII,scifi and a few more. I go for the unabridged and longest unless I want a particular story that is short, I like to get the best bang for my buck seeing as I listen a lot when driving, and I drive a lot.
With regards requests for recommendations, IIIRestorerIII, depends what tickles your fancy. Personally I have been through history, Le Carre, topics as mentioned above, WWII,scifi and a few more. I go for the unabridged and longest unless I want a particular story that is short, I like to get the best bang for my buck seeing as I listen a lot when driving, and I drive a lot.
Edited by jmorgan on Friday 4th March 21:57
I have found that some books are not quite ruined, but upset the feel by the narrator. Master and commander series are superb but some of the Dune books are a bit weird. "Do robots dream of electric sheep" (turned into the Blade Runner film), seems an odd choice with the voice but you settle down into it once the you get into the story.
Yeah I've been using it for ages. love it and have pretty much stopped listening to music in the car now.
Getting a good narrator makes a huge difference, most are pretty good but I tried the Game of thrones books and they were terrible!
Depending on your tastes I've really loved these -
- The Joe Abercrombie series "the blade itself" - Steven Pacey is brilliant at reading these
- The rivers of London books
- NOS4R2 By Joe Hill - I found out afterwards that he is Steven King's son and the influence is strong, like King's earlier works....also interestingly it's read by Kate Mulgrew who was Cpt Janeway in Star Trek Voyager
- The Universe Vs Alex Woods
- The first 15 lives of Harry August
- The name of teh wind by Patrick Rothfuss - absolutely superb, highly recommended!
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- The Monster Hunter and Hard magic series by Larry Correia
- Fear the Sky series by Stephen Moss - Just listening to these at the moment and I am really enjoying them.
Getting a good narrator makes a huge difference, most are pretty good but I tried the Game of thrones books and they were terrible!
Depending on your tastes I've really loved these -
- The Joe Abercrombie series "the blade itself" - Steven Pacey is brilliant at reading these
- The rivers of London books
- NOS4R2 By Joe Hill - I found out afterwards that he is Steven King's son and the influence is strong, like King's earlier works....also interestingly it's read by Kate Mulgrew who was Cpt Janeway in Star Trek Voyager
- The Universe Vs Alex Woods
- The first 15 lives of Harry August
- The name of teh wind by Patrick Rothfuss - absolutely superb, highly recommended!
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- The Monster Hunter and Hard magic series by Larry Correia
- Fear the Sky series by Stephen Moss - Just listening to these at the moment and I am really enjoying them.
I used Audible for a while - they do (or at least they DID) count radio series as "books" too - I picked up some comedy series and a series on the origin of the English language by Bill Bryson on there for free (or at least via the credits on my 7.99 a month subs). I also found it very good for biographies when narrated by the original author - eg listening to Michael J Fox talking about his career and diagnosis of Parkinsons was all the more powerful for being read by him.
I've been a member for 9 months or so now, listening on the 90 min journey back from work most days.
So far I've listened to:-
Atlas Shrugged
World War Z -
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Neuromancer
Catch 22
Harry Potter book 1
and have just finished Ulysses
All have been pretty good and infinitely better than Steve Wright in the afternoon.
Next up is Slaughterhouse 5.
So far I've listened to:-
Atlas Shrugged
World War Z -
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Neuromancer
Catch 22
Harry Potter book 1
and have just finished Ulysses
All have been pretty good and infinitely better than Steve Wright in the afternoon.
Next up is Slaughterhouse 5.
I've been reading/listening to D&D Forgotten Realms setting novels for 18 months or so, I admit I might have acquired all of them in ebook form and the first 20 odd Audible audiobooks of R.A. Salvatore's novels. When I started exploring the other writers, Audible turned out to be brilliant as they inextricably have pretty much all 100+ novels, and I thought they were pretty obscure. If you want recomendations and like fantasy; bar a few not so good writers you can't go far wrong, it is a fantastic universe to invest in.
These are usually in trilogies of 3-400 page books, so can get a bit costly on credits than fat novels, but you can't really complain for 10-12+ hours enjoyment a pop.
Getting a good narrator is a huge difference. I came across some that were literally un-listenable so those books will get read instead, as well as some really egregious pronunciations but manage to get past them and the performances usually aren't all that bad. Even the current one I'm listening to where he suddenly puts everything together at theendofthesentence. "Poley-axe" was the worst I heard lately!!
Keep an eye on Audible.com too, you can run another trial if you've already one on .co.uk, I took advantage of the 3 months for 95 cents offer they had late last year. It's worth maintaining a wishlist so you know if anything is on sale at less than your membership.
These are usually in trilogies of 3-400 page books, so can get a bit costly on credits than fat novels, but you can't really complain for 10-12+ hours enjoyment a pop.
Getting a good narrator is a huge difference. I came across some that were literally un-listenable so those books will get read instead, as well as some really egregious pronunciations but manage to get past them and the performances usually aren't all that bad. Even the current one I'm listening to where he suddenly puts everything together at theendofthesentence. "Poley-axe" was the worst I heard lately!!
Keep an eye on Audible.com too, you can run another trial if you've already one on .co.uk, I took advantage of the 3 months for 95 cents offer they had late last year. It's worth maintaining a wishlist so you know if anything is on sale at less than your membership.
Edited by mizx on Friday 20th May 13:07
Thread resurrection!
My dad is now getting to the point where audiobooks will be a better move than print books so been looking at Audible. I see that the subscription is £7.99 a month but the site is scant on detail. I assume that is £7.99 per month (after the free trial) and that gets you one credit that you can spend on a book of any cost. After you have purchased that one book do you have to buy any others you want a month at full price? I understand if you dont use a credit it rolls on to the next month and once you have a book you get to keep it even if you cancel your subscription. Am i missing anything?
My dad is now getting to the point where audiobooks will be a better move than print books so been looking at Audible. I see that the subscription is £7.99 a month but the site is scant on detail. I assume that is £7.99 per month (after the free trial) and that gets you one credit that you can spend on a book of any cost. After you have purchased that one book do you have to buy any others you want a month at full price? I understand if you dont use a credit it rolls on to the next month and once you have a book you get to keep it even if you cancel your subscription. Am i missing anything?
craigjm said:
Thread resurrection!
My dad is now getting to the point where audiobooks will be a better move than print books so been looking at Audible. I see that the subscription is £7.99 a month but the site is scant on detail. I assume that is £7.99 per month (after the free trial) and that gets you one credit that you can spend on a book of any cost. After you have purchased that one book do you have to buy any others you want a month at full price? I understand if you dont use a credit it rolls on to the next month and once you have a book you get to keep it even if you cancel your subscription. Am i missing anything?
My library has quite a selection, a couple of hundred or so, of Audiobooks, published, apparently, by Bolinda audio. They are on CD.My dad is now getting to the point where audiobooks will be a better move than print books so been looking at Audible. I see that the subscription is £7.99 a month but the site is scant on detail. I assume that is £7.99 per month (after the free trial) and that gets you one credit that you can spend on a book of any cost. After you have purchased that one book do you have to buy any others you want a month at full price? I understand if you dont use a credit it rolls on to the next month and once you have a book you get to keep it even if you cancel your subscription. Am i missing anything?
My wife has taken to them, to ease eyestrain, which it has done so quite dramatically. I've picked up the occasional one, and am now half way through Ruth Rendell's The Face of Trespass.
My library charges £1.40 for three week's loan for books up to 7 CDs. £2.80 for 8 and more. You can order one from another library in the county.
The downside is that they are copyright of Amazon so you can't buy, rip, and convert them to MP3.
I think the credit could roll over once.
7.99 will get you any priced book. You will also get offers, they are quite good. Keep an eye out for them in mails. e.g buy three credits for the price of two or whatever it was.
Special offer credits don't expire I think, they know which ones are which.
I stopped my sub only because I was not using it anymore, stoped travelling, back on the paper version.
I still have access to mine (they allow you to drop them into iTunes, handy for the iPod/phone).
I still have an account with Audible and can re download them should I need to.
7.99 will get you any priced book. You will also get offers, they are quite good. Keep an eye out for them in mails. e.g buy three credits for the price of two or whatever it was.
Special offer credits don't expire I think, they know which ones are which.
I stopped my sub only because I was not using it anymore, stoped travelling, back on the paper version.
I still have access to mine (they allow you to drop them into iTunes, handy for the iPod/phone).
I still have an account with Audible and can re download them should I need to.
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