Books on tape? Books on Ipods?

[clopaw]

My husband is visually impaired, so he reads books on tape. Normally, we bring tapes from our public library. In the interest of saving a little space, we were wondering whether the library on Celebrity ships includes books on tape. If they do, are they the abridged versions? Nothing like a Tom Clancy book reduced to two tapes!

 

Another idea we have is for him to download a couple of books onto his Ipod. Does anyone have any experience with this? As far as I can tell, we would have to buy the download from a site like audible.com.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[silentbob007]

Audible.com is a great sevice, and books on iPod really are nice and convenient. Another option, though less legal, is to see if your library has books on CD. You can then convert them to a useable format via iTunes. If you treat it like a tape you would take on your trip and check the CD out, rip it, put it on your iPod, go on vacation, return, delete the files, then return the CD ... it doesn't seem like much of a legal problem.

[montgomeryfamily]

I like books on tape/CD also but I have never seen any in the Celebrity libraries. Unless this is a relatively new feature or the tapes/CDs are kept in a special place, I doubt they have them. You could call Celebrity Special Services and ask if they have them.

 

Our public library offers an on-line service where you can "check-out" electronic books. I download these to my computer and put them on my Ipod. There is some time of feature such that after a couple of weeks (when the check-out period ends) the audio file is disabled. I understand this is how they avoid copyright issues. You could contact your local library and see if they offer this. In addition, many states offer books on tape/CD to visually impaired. It is possible that the states may begin offering this type of service like our library, that is, check-out of audio files to the visually impaired.

 

There is also an additional option. Some hardback books are now including a CD with the book and often additional information including additional books. I don't know what authors offer this. But the last two David Weber Honor Harrington hardback books I bought included a complimentary CD that had all of the David Weber books on them. The genre is science fiction/military, so I don't know if our husband would be interested in that. I usually purchase paperbacks and it was the inclusion of the CD in the hardback book itself that prompted me to purchase the hardback book version. So it is possible that other authors/publishing houses may offer a similar feature on other hardback books.

[RB Bonzo]

I'll second the endorsement of audible.com Very reasonably priced, great selection.

[clopaw]

The Columbus library has a set up for downloading books like the service you are talking about, Kathy. They don't offer a format that works with Ipod. We are fortunate to have an excellent public library in our little suburb, Bexley. They have an extensive collection of unabridged books on tape. For along time, Columbus bought mostly abridged versions.

 

Paul hasn't had his Ipod for very long, and he is trying to figure out all the different things he can do with it, hence our interest in books on Ipod.

 

Thank you all for your responses.

[DeltaOne]

Another idea we have is for him to download a couple of books onto his Ipod. Does anyone have any experience with this? As far as I can tell, we would have to buy the download from a site like audible.com.

 

As mentioned, audible.com is a great resource for books. Besides a normal purchase plan, they offer two subscription plans where you get one or two books per month. That's the cost effective way to buy books.

 

The iTunes Music Store also sells books.

 

I have four books on my iPod now. Books on an MP3 player are great.

 

Many libraries use an incompatible format, but if you're familiar with converting between formats you can get around the limitation.

[montgomeryfamily]

Clopaw, are you using the itunes software? We have found that the software has always converted whatever audioo file format we have downloaded so that it will work on the Ipod.

 

I might also be able to provide some additional advice/suggestions if you can tell me the file format that you are downloading that is incompatible and also which Ipod you are using.

[clopaw]

Okay, you are forcing me to reveal my ignorance of this kind of technology. The Columbus library site says you need to use something called Overdrive Media Console. It has a list of devices, and the list does not include Ipods. Does that even make sense?

[montgomeryfamily]

Clopaw, are you able to download the audio file directly to your computer?

[DelRio]

It sure is a small world.

I subscribe to Audible.com.

Just last night I finished listening to "Skinny Dip". It is about a man who pushes his wife overboard during a cruise. I won't tell you the story here. Go to audible.com and enter Skinny Dip in the search area and read the review.

Last year when we went to the Panama Canal aboard the Galaxy I listened to "The Path Between the Seas". It is an eight hour audiobook about the building of the canal. (also from Audible)

I use an ipod shuffle.

 

Del

[clopaw]

I asked my husband, and I am going to prove that I know nothing about this stuff. He says he could convert the download from the library, but it has a two week time frame and then it's disabled. We're going to be on a 14 day cruise to Hawaii, gone from home for 16 days and he doesn't want a disappearing book.

 

I haven't used the Ipod at all, and he's really enjoyed himself using it. He's been downloading podcasts for radio shows he likes. He's also been putting a lot of music on it for the cruise. He is going to take some very small speakers so we'll both be able to listen to whatever he has.

 

Kathy, thanks for trying to help. In the future, I'll leave the technical questions to pull and stick to what I understand like "do they have books on tape?"

[montgomeryfamily]

Thats ok. :) I'm glad to know that you can successfully download the books from your public library and use them on your Ipod. Our public library has the same feature of the file being disabled at the end of the "check-out" period, so I understand.

 

It looks like your best bet would be from an on-line download service or purchasing one of those hardback books I mentioned that includes the complimentary CD.

 

Have fun on your cruise. :)

[Bill-Squared]

Another idea we have is for him to download a couple of books onto his Ipod. Does anyone have any experience with this? As far as I can tell, we would have to buy the download from a site like audible.com.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks for asking this. I have been researching this myself. I don't have an iPOD, but a standard MP3. I want to do this for when I walk, ride the bike, travel...and my upcoming cruise.

 

I did join Audible.com at their low end membership, just to try it out. I've picked out a couple of books and ready to download. Hope it lives up to my expectations. :rolleyes:

 

Have a great cruise!

[Caris]

I too am a member of audible.com and so far think it's great. I didn't think about downloading from our library.

My question is, if I download the expirable link, then convert the .wma file to my ipod format. Then sync my ipod. Will the book that's on my ipod also expire?

 

I too, will be going on the 14 day Hawaii cruise, and would be unhappy to expire mid-way through. I will stick to audible if that is the case, and perhaps try out the library when I'm not going to be away from the internet.

 

Thanks for any replies :)