http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/isaac-asimovs-favorite-st...
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version 2 https://youtu.be/rjqjSP7kOO4
Amazing resource, though. After recording a short story I wrote, I have even more respect for people who volunteer their time to librivox. I had to do a surprising amount of editing and re-takes just reading my tiny story. Could barely get through a paragraph without some sort of error, even if it was just a weirdly timed breath.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/oldio-audiobook-classics/id135...
https://librivox.org/the-count-of-monte-cristo-version-3-by-...
Anna Karenina, as read by MaryAnn, English
https://librivox.org/anna-karenina-deutsch-by-leo-tolstoy/
As read by Eva K., German
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EBook_Lending_Libraries#Wid...
If you're in the US some cities will give access to their library system as long as you live in the state. Overdrive has a good UI, and with waitlists, I always have something to read.
I feel kinda bad that I haven't been inside my local branch in a very long time. I love libraries and are very grateful for how much material they have lent me over the years. I am glad that they continue to provide those services for people, and hope that the shift to digital resources doesn't result in closing branches. They're still needed.
Just last week on a Saturday, I took my daughter to Numbers Camp and it was a librarian teaching patterns. There were activities on patterns (stamps, bracelets to make patterns), and books about patterns. The room was full of families.
For a free conversion tool, checkout
- https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool
It's longer than the entire Games of Thrones series, plenty of content there. It is a fan created recording and the early parts are a bit rough, but gets more professional over time and eventually becomes extremely polished.
This is a sample (standalone, relatively spoiler free since this is 100% flashback) chapter from the sequel story Ward. Read Worm first but this specific chapter can be read by itself. http://parahumanaudio.com/podcast/gleaming-9-x/
If it feels like audiobooks aren’t having an impact on you then I’d suggest trying to relisten to them and not treat them as a once-through.
One significant negative of audiobooks is that I tend to listen while doing "active but mindless" activities (mowing the lawn, commuting, cleaning my office, doing dishes/chores) which means I'm not in a position to stop and take notes in the margin or in a notebook. To really absorb a work and make it your own I think you need to take notes and summarize the main points of each chapter, in your own words, after finishing each chapter.
That said, listening-only is far better than having no exposure to these great works. Would I would love even more is to have commentaries or Joe-Rogan-Style recorded discussions about the books by academics so I could read the book, listen to discussions about the book, then read the book again with these critiques in mind.
Audio books impose a strict pace on me; I have no choice but to keep up. Personally, I like also being able to speed them up. My brain accommodates the new transmission rate just fine after some time. So, what would normally be unintelligible becomes a really low-effort way for me to ingest content.
For me, background noise creeps in when I'm trying to read by sight. It can be exhausting.
My 2¢
But even with physical books, I could often drift mentally when I was reading and would need to reread a page or two when I noticed I hadn't been fully present.
However many audio book players allow you to control playback speed. I do find the occasional voice actor that's just too fast or slow for my comfort.
it took me a while to get "used" to them but now i can easily focus on them while doing chores (washing the dishes, walking the dog).
I tried to order, but it errored out because of some file not readable error, but error was fatal and with no recourse but doing everything again.
I would use this all the time if it was a little smoother. Hit me up if I can be helpful. (see my profile here for email)
They quickly reached out to me with the fixed file and the output is really good.
This is the first voice synthed audiobook that I can actually stand to listen to at length, and it plays well using Podcast Addict on Android, and the voice speeds up well too (encoded at 93%, listened to it at ~1.7x)
That uses Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), which can achieve realistic pauses gaps in speech.
Nice work though!
Auditus looks like a great idea.
[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acmeandroi...
on mobile, vlc
Some advantages I have experienced:
When I read James Joyce "Ulysses" several years ago, it was somewhat difficult to follow the narrative. I then listened to it as an audio book with a half a dozen good actors reading the parts and the book came to life for me.
I have some arthritis in my hands, and any time not using a keyboard, holding a physical book, or an eBook reader helps.
When I am working in the yard, cleaning up the kitchen, etc. it is good to listen to a book.
The one thing that bothers me is the possibility of losing a large investment in Kindle and Audible books if I ever lost my Amazon account. I mitigate this somewhat by buying some eBooks and audio books on Google Play and on Apple's store. --> don't put all of your eggs in one basket.
http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/iggy-pop-reads-edgar-alla...
As for timestamps, I'm not aware of anything other than the chapter markers.
They need to make money somehow.
https://www.audible.co.uk/ep/alexa-free-audiobook
Caveat being, audiobooks can be rather long and it might be a push to fit them into the month!
[1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acmeandroi...
Not encouraging!
Also, subscription plans are designed around most people not using them fully, and not optimizing their purchases.
Soon enough neural net TTS + ebooks will be nearly equivalent, and doesn't cost any more than the base ebook. Plus TTS allows synchronizing between print and speech which you can't get between ebooks and audiobooks; i.e. it would be nice to read in print, then switch to TTS while commuting or working out, then back to print.
It can work. There's an Indian celebrity ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bappi_Lahiri ) who is famous for his great love of gold. And for the Hindi dub of Moana, he was cast as the voice of Tamatoa.
Narration quality is a big deal. I am pretty impressed with the latest TTS but if I'm going to spend 10-50+ hours listening to a single audiobook I will be happy to pay a few bucks for the best narration.
