Novice type questions... features of audio books

Hi All,
For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be doing a commute of maybe 45 or more miles, one-way. So, I decided that I'd give audio books a try. I've got at radio/CD player/cassette player in my truck, and several bookstores and a Library all relatively nearby, so finding and playing media is not the issue.

I've got a pretty extensive codex library, so one criteria I am using is that I will not get an audio book (hereafter, AB) of something I've already got on my shelves. I've also found that there are full-length ABs and there are abridged ABs. I'm sticking to the full-length ones.

As a matter of fact, I've now got 2 of them -- The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History
by Jonathan Franzen, and What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception by Scott McClellan. The latter clearly indicates that it "tracks every 3 minutes for easy bookmarking". The former makes no such claim, and apparently bookmarks maybe every 15 minutes.

Are there any other 'features' (or issues) I ought to be aware of?

Also, it may be just that I'm not used to the format, or maybe I'm just a tad too ADD...
I started with The Discomfort Zone, because it's shorter - 6 vs. 10 discs. I'm finding that what is being said by the author triggers memories of my own, and at some point, I realize that I'm not listening to the story anymore. So, I've listened to the first CD twice now. Is this a common phenomenon? And, does one generally learn to shut out the 'inner voice'?

Personally, because of the distraction issue, I usually listen to YA novels or something light (humour or a cozy mystery). For most of them, if you miss a bit, it's not usually a big deal (not to mention, they seem less apt to stimulate an internal dialogue).

Some days I find my focus is better than others. But then again, I can get distracted the same way you describe when someone is talking to me, so perhaps I'm not a good example. :)

I usually listen to mysteries or light fiction. If (when) I get distracted, I can usually pick up the story line or back up a few minutes.

The non-fiction I've listen to tends to make a big impression on me but I ususally save it for a time when I'm doing a fairly mindless task.

When I find that I'm not listening, I simply switch the player off until I'm ready to pay attention again. I hit the skip back button if I want to hear a whole section over again, or the fast-reverse button if I just need to repeat the last few seconds. I've rarely listened to an entire disk twice - except when I've fallen asleep while listening at home. Usually, just going back 4 or 5 tracks is enough to get back on track if I've seriously spaced out. If I have to keep going back because I keep drifting, then it gets dumped for something more interesting. (I try to always have a back up on long drives in case this happens.)

I do find it takes more effort to concentrate when I listen to an audio book then it does with a regular hand-held book, maybe because it's a more passive
exercise, I'm not sure. But I am grateful that most tracks are very short, and if I nod off during a track or realize I've missed something really important then I just play the track again. I'm not the type of person who could vacum the house and listen to an audio book at the same time, as some people here do. But then I couldn't read and listen to music at the same time either. I think the more audio you listen to, the better your listening skills become.
Sometimes I am so taken by the way a passage is read by the narrator, that I do want to play it over again just to hear the ways the words sound.

Ditto above stuff.

If I drift off or need to pay close attention to my driving (parking garages or searching for an address, for example), I stop the book until I'm ready to listen again. If it happens too much for no reason, I switch books. I also carry several for just in case.

On cd's, the more tracks the better just for the "repeat what I missed reason." I like cassettes better because you can back up just a little way.

I think you like heavier reading than I do, but I will recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Thirteenth Tale and the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series read by Lisette Lecat. You can get free downloads from your public library (ours lets you copy some of them to disk to play in the car). Elsewhere in this group you can find good recommendations.

A good reader can make all the difference. The reader is important.

I also suggest that you stick with the unabridged as you plan. BUT I have bought some of the really cheap abridgements that I ended up enjoying, especially when I just wanted some fiction good enough to keep me awake but without any redeeming features.

I have discovered that I am an auditory person. For example, when I listened to Northanger Abbey, I found it very funny. I hadn't noticed that when I read it years ago.

I like it when the tracks are short enough that I can
also repeat my listens. This is one thing that bothers me about librivox (although it being free and run by volunteers I shouldn't complain to loud),each chapter is a track and in some of these older novels that means a lot to have to repeat if you missed out on something.

Okay, I'm on my third audio book now. Each were unabridged and narrated by the author. The current one, What Happened by Scott McClellan is by far the best (feature-wise) of the bunch. It's published by Blackstone Audio. Each CD begins with the the narrator identifying which CD is being played, the title of the book and the chapter. Each CD ends with the narrator stating that it is the end of the CD, and which one goes in next. The 'breaks' seem to be set at 5 minute intervals and/or the beginning of a new chapter.

I can't begin to tell you how annoyed I got with the other two audio books when I started hearing a passage ~again~, not realizing that either the CD had finished or had reset itself because I had switched (accidentally) from the CD player to the radio (in my truck). Neither of these 2 audio books identified themselves except at the beginning and end of the books.

The one problem I seem to have with the current 'read' is that the CD player doesn't seem to want to recognize the new disc without me first shutting the device down first.

So, other than Blackstone, are there any other audio book publishers that identify each of their CDs in a reasonable way?

I'm a recent convert to audiobooks. Although I've listened to some in the past on the radio, usually abridged, I've now started to listen on my ipod. I prefer to buy downloads rather than CDs as the ipod remembers where I left off and my indoor CD player doesn't. Although I can rip a CD to ipod the numerous short tracks are annoying especially as each disc in a title can be labelled differently so that I have to rename the files to ensure that they play in the correct order. I have taken out a monthly subscription from Audible and also buy books from itunes. Librivox is good as it's free but the readers are not always to my taste. Having the right reader is very important - the wrong voice can ruin a good story for me. I'm from the UK and, on the whole, I prefer British accents although American books suit American accents, naturally. But even the right accent can still be the wrong voice. There are certain readers that I would happily listen to reading anything - I have even chosen a book for the reader rather than the story. My favourites, at the moment, are Prunella Scales, Juliet Stevenson and Peter Jeffrey. Both Audible and itunes give you a sample before you buy.
On a technical note; on CD players pressing the next or previous buttons will take you to the beginning of the next or previous track but pressing and holding the button will fast forward or reverse from where you are so that you can move a little bit backwards or forwards as you would with a cassette tape.

Vic:

I couldn't stand the idea of ripping a CD with tracks; I rip each disc as a single track, although the software I use to do so (Cowon jetaudio) outputs to .wma format, which I understand iPod's cannot recognize.

> 8 Hi WHL :-)

My current audio is Beach Music by Pat Conroy, which I borrowed from the library, ripped the disks on my computer, and am now listening to on my mp3 player. I've noticed that there IS someone who announces the start and end of each disk. This isn't something I listen for, but since the novel is narrated by Frank Muller, and it's a woman's voice announcing the start and end of each disk, it has a way of "breaking the spell" for a few moments -- not in a bad way, but noticeable. These CDs are by Recorded Books. I don't know if this is usual for them, but it's a non-Blackstone example. :-)

Although I've never listened to an audiobook in the car, I do recall that my first audio, which I listened to on my desktop computer while doing other things, I DID get distracted a lot, and had to back up in the file to re-listen to parts of it. As there are many people who listen to books during long drives, I'm guessing it's just a matter of getting used to the new format, and being able to listen "well enough" while still driving safely.

For the record, I listen to audios when I'm going for walks, and during housecleaning -- though not vacuuming. It makes sweeping and scrubbing much more enjoyable!

#10: That's interesting. I do have software to combine mp3s but it's fiddly and time-consuming. Ipods can convert .wma files so I will investigate. Thank-you.

Vic -

Hope it works out for you. I name each disc by author or (abbreviated) title: "Smith 01, Smith 02, etc." and put them in a separate folder after the book has been ripped.

I'm also one of those people who tend to reserve my audiobooks for my "guilty pleasures". They're usually shorter and faster paced, so it makes it easier to pay attention. Also, with nonfiction or literary fiction, I like to go back and reference stuff written earlier which is easiest done with a paper book. It does also make it easier to get back into the story if you zone out for a few minutes. Currently, I'm working through the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris (narrated by Johanna Parker who's absolutely brilliant). Each "book" is about 7-9 hours long and very easy to follow. On the other hand, I'm also listening to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova which is a bit more difficult as there is a lot of shifts in point of view, jumps in time, stories within stories, and the actual story itself moves very sloooooowly. That book I might recommend you physically read rather than listen to.

And yes, I agree it takes a little bit of practice to get used to reading by ear. It might help to start off with something lighter and work your way into the heavy nonfiction works...

#8 I agree with you that it's nice to have the notice that you are at "the end of disk #" - especially in the car. At home, I load up 4 disks at a time in the player, and don't mind if they aren't announced. But the problem you mentioned with the disk starting over if you've switched to the radio is an issue with your player - mine doesn't restart as long as I don't eject the disk. And the thing with having to turn your player off before it will recognize a new disk also sounds like a hardware problem - I've never experienced that. You might be able to set your player so that the disk doesn't automatically repeat. I can do that on some of mine, but maybe not all.

My favorite publishers are Books on Tape and Recorded Books, but to tell the truth, I've never noticed which ones announce end of disks, and which don't. I'm not convinced that there is any consistency, even in the same publisher - it might be a director decision. Blackstone Audio is another good one. Probably my least favorite audio publisher is Books in Motion, and I will often bypass an audio just because it comes from them if I'm otherwise undecided.

I use tapes/CD's from RecordedBooks.com exclusively because I had already listened to everything in my library's inventory that interested me. Recorded Books sends things from my on-line list as I return and keeps me well supplied. I agree that the reader makes a difference and I have given up on books just because the reader was not meant to be reading that book! Distractions happen and I listen only the car because inside the house I move away from the player (no earphones, I hate them) and forget I am "reading". I have listened to some "lighter" things I never thought I would read because I am more likely to give books a chance because I am stuck with it at least for that portion of the drive. But I also have listened to heavy duty non-fiction I might never have read also because driving is totally boring I have no trouble concentrating on something deeper. I do like to have the end and start announced as the player will just keep repeating and it may take me a moment to realize that is happening. One series I really love is the YA Redwall series which starts and ends each tape/disc with music. Also these books have much singing, use of different readers and other fun effects that I love.

Is there much difference in price between audible.com and itunes? So far I have only purchased books from audible.

If you buy without a subscription from Audible then itunes is often cheaper for the same book. If you have a subscription - I pay £7.99 per month which gives me 1 credit - you can get more expensive books. i.e. I can buy a book costing £20 for my 1 credit.

The first audiobook I ripped to iTunes was very annoying with hundreds of tracks in the music section. Then I found a website that explained how to get them (and other mp3 podcast files) into the audiobook section of my iPod.

CDs can be imported as one track and getting them from the music group to the audiobook group is as simple as renaming the file from m4a to m4b. This is similar to the webpage I had found before: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/itunsabk.htm