mjbearit

Okay, after reading this I think I have a lock on how to pay that S&S! I'm bringing a video camera! :D

You know it's funny but I lost my connection while trying to post yesterday and it told me it couldn't post so I was all prepared to retype the whole thing, I look today and not only did it take the post, but the darned thing posted twice! LOL! Just one of those days I suppose!

Back a few years ago I did subscribe to Audible, but at that time they were just getting started and really didn't have much, so I dropped them. I keep meaning to check back, but keep forgetting! Since my wife's friend is blind, she has access to some really good resources for audio books and every time I go over there she loads me down with books! LOL! I think she trades with other friends or something. I will get back to Audible and check them out again though. I thought they ahd a really easy system to use and my only complaint was the selection, but as I said they had just started so it is to be expected. Since I work quite a ways from home I have scavanged the shelves of the library near my house as well as the one near work and read just about all they have! :D Time to start driving to the next town over! ;)

I will get some recommendations from my wife as well as from her friend. I'm sure they read stuff they don't even bother telling me about! :D Personally I love a good Stephen King or Dean Koontz novel myself! Although I am a sucker for any of the military "black ops" type books too. Okay, actually you know, I really do like just about anything short of romance! Just call me eclectic!

Mike

I don't know if any of you saw that movie awhile back called The Bone Collector, but there is a whole series of books and that movie was based on one of the books by Jeffery Deaver (Lincoln Rhyme Series). Well our friend loaned me the whole series and they are really good. Kind of a police/investigator tpye dealing with homocides and forensics, etc. If you like that type you'll love them. As usual, the book was much better than the movie! :)

My wife has gotten a few humorous type novels, one of which was "Lean, Mean, Thirteen" by Janet Evonovich (not sure on spelling). It's a female bounty hunter and her adventures (or misadventures) are hysterical. I think it may be a series, but I'm not sure.

And of course we have the whole Harry Potter Series, which was excellent. I don't think we have the final book, I'm not even sure if it is out yet.

The only things I've run into that are stinkers are some I have gotten from the Library. Moby Dick comes immediately to mind. That book is long and tedious to start with that the reader was a VERY monotone, boring guy. I never even finished it! I was afraid I'd fall asleep and wreck the car! :eek:

Of course, IMHO, you can never go wrong with John Grisham. I've read most of his books on CD and/or the paper type books! I do still love to pick up a bound bunch of papers!

If you are new to books on tape/CD, be aware that quite often there is the abridged and unabridged editions. The unabridged is always much more expensive, but in my opinion, they are worth the extra, even if you have to save up to get it!

I've burned through most of the books on CD from the library that I even thought might be interesting (I'm not even the slightest bit interested in Romance type novels!). Of course that was long before MP3 players with enough memory were affordable so I never burned a library book to my PC, but I just might have to think about it....;)

Mike

I don't know if any of you saw that movie awhile back called The Bone Collector, but there is a whole series of books and that movie was based on one of the books by Jeffery Deaver (Lincoln Rhyme Series). Well our friend loaned me the whole series and they are really good. Kind of a police/investigator tpye dealing with homocides and forensics, etc. If you like that type you'll love them. As usual, the book was much better than the movie! :)

My wife has gotten a few humorous type novels, one of which was "Lean, Mean, Thirteen" by Janet Evonovich (not sure on spelling). It's a female bounty hunter and her adventures (or misadventures) are hysterical. I think it may be a series, but I'm not sure.

And of course we have the whole Harry Potter Series, which was excellent. I don't think we have the final book, I'm not even sure if it is out yet.

The only things I've run into that are stinkers are some I have gotten from the Library. Moby Dick comes immediately to mind. That book is long and tedious to start with that the reader was a VERY monotone, boring guy. I never even finished it! I was afraid I'd fall asleep and wreck the car! :eek:

Of course, IMHO, you can never go wrong with John Grisham. I've read most of his books on CD and/or the paper type books! I do still love to pick up a bound bunch of papers!

If you are new to books on tape/CD, be aware that quite often there is the abridged and unabridged editions. The unabridged is always much more expensive, but in my opinion, they are worth the extra, even if you have to save up to get it!

I've burned through most of the books on CD from the library that I even thought might be interesting (I'm not even the slightest bit interested in Romance type novels!). Of course that was long before MP3 players with enough memory were affordable so I never burned a library book to my PC, but I just might have to think about it....;)

Mike

Well I just found this thread and thought I would jump in and have a go at putting in my 2 cents! :) My wife's best friend and her hubby are blind and she turned my wife on to books on tape many years ago (pretty much before the CDD era!). Since then my wife has introduced me to them and I absolutely love them! I used to be a serious reader putting down several books a week, but of course life has a way of getting in the way. The job I have had for the past 10 years is about 45 min to 2 hours (San Diego traffic!) away from my house. We typically get the books on CD and that way we will have them for the car (this was before our new cars which have MP3 jacks!) and then I would just take them and rip them on the computer to MP3 files so I could take them on the go. I work for an electronics mfg so I have been using MP3 players for years. Well I finally happened upon a new MP3 player that I really love! It is a Sony Video Walkman. I can rip DVDs to MP4 files and load them on the player to watch a movie, I can load books on, put on family pics, the only thing it won't do is make me coffee! :D I got the 8 GB version and although I am not sure what they go for retail (employee discount) I know that they are very competitive with others in this class. This one even uses standard Microsoft Media Player 10 unlike the older Sony models of MP3 player which use propriatary software. I use a program called DVDFab Platinum to rip my DVDs to MP4 files too. It allows you to select various sizes, etc with preset values for cell phones, PSPs, etc. It takes a long time (1 hour more or less) to rip a DVD, but it works well. The movies will be aroun 1.5 GB once ripped so you have to plan everything around that. But then again a Harry Potter book is pretty big once it is ripped too! :D So I always keep my laptop handy with books, music, movies, pictures etc handy. This way I can also download any pictures I take with my digital camera.

I agree that Jim Dale is one of the all time great narrators! He has such depth to his voice and has such a wide range of "charecter" voices. It is also nice that he has narrated ALL the HP books so it carries through and is familiar, if that makes sense.

Personally I am looking forward to sitting on the balcony with a good audio book, turn on the noise cancelling headphones and just get away from everything! Just bring me a good single malt at 4:00 and make sure I'm ready for dinner at 5:00! :D I will be so ready for my vacation by March! This has really been one heck of a year!

Mike