If you have been keen to the internet in the last month or so, you might have seen news about a new children’s book that aims to get them to go to sleep as easily as possible: by just telling them exactly what mommy and daddy truly are thinking. “Please, my darling, just go the f*** to sleep.” Now you don’t even have to read these words aloud, you can let Nick Fury do it!
I spent a few days trying to figure out what I wanted to buy with the two free books offered by the Audible deal posted a few days ago. The experience of getting books in the audio format was somewhat strange, I must say.
It was really kind of difficult to find something that I wanted simply because I wasn’t standing somewhere holding it in my hand. Call me old fashioned, but I do like to physically hold and open and flip through a book before buying it, as it will be my compatriot in the hours it and I will spend together. While I don’t think my difficulties with finding something is a fault of Audible at all, I do like the experience and steps one has to go through with buying traditional novels. I like going to the store and wading through isles to find that one novel that looks the best. Buying the same literature online in the fashion that Audible presents feels very sterile and uninteresting.
I did, however, find two novels that I had somewhat on my periphery: Coraline
I hear a lot of discussion online via other podcasts about audio books. I happen to listen to a few shows that are sponsored by Audible, an online audio book service, and it is given some ample praise. Some people seem to gravitate towards audio books in lieu of picking up physical copies of novels, but do audio books deserve the hype? The answer to this question is my ultimate goal.
Audio books give off some strange miasma in my view of consumable media. I’ve yet to see where I could place them in my daily usage, opting instead, of course, to simply read with my eyes and not my ears. I can, however, see the function if you travel frequently. One cannot always keep their nose in a book. But if you find yourself at home and want to know the contents of The Illiad, why would you choose the audio over the novel?
I want to hear if anyone has had any experience with audio books. Did you find the experience to be pleasant, or did it feel like a big waste of time? Would you rather just read the books themselves? Is it technically “reading” if you’re just listening?
So here’s what we’re going to do: using this link you can sign up for a 14 day free trial of Audible and receive two free book credits. If you cancel before the 14 days are up you get to keep the books, so no biggie. Don’t say I didn’t do anything for you.
ALSO: the link above came from a really great podcast that I’ve listened to for a long, long time called “TWiT,” or This Week in Tech. The show discusses the major technology headlines of the week and is really fun to listen to. Please take some time to hop over there and listen to a show or two; if you like technology, you’ll probably like the show.
