audiobooks
 

what do you guys think about audiobooks?

for those who've used them do you find the experience better or worse than actual reading? (in terms of enjoyability and understanding the text)

Re: audiobooks
 

Useful for long driving trips, but that's pretty much it. You have to concentrate or you won't understand (for me at least). It sucks having to rewind if you miss a portion. I also read very fast, so it takes a lot longer to listen. Reading is far superior.

Re: audiobooks
 

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Useful for long driving trips, but that's pretty much it. You have to concentrate or you won't understand (for me at least). It sucks having to rewind if you miss a portion. Reading is far superior.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sums up my experience. I tried downloading and listening to some while I play poker or just while relaxing and in both circumstances I found I was unable to concentrate enough on the material to make it rewarding. On a very long road trip with lots of long desolate highway time, they are really nice.

Re: audiobooks
 

Along with lond road trips, I could see audiobooks being good for running/jogging/walking/etc.

Re: audiobooks
 

When i had Lasik i downloaded a bunch of audiobooks to listen to, some of them were great (The Hobbit) others were very difficult to follow. I think its really dependent on the material and the reader.

Also make sure to get unabbridged versions, not much point in listening to the shortened versions.

Re: audiobooks
 

Good for work, if you can stand the mutlitasking.

Comedies work quite well (like mp3 rips of Cheers, say), cos you can just stop em if you need to concentrate hard for a bit, and start again without losing the plot.

Re: audiobooks
 

At my last job we had to read The Da Vinci Code for research on a project so they got us the audio books and played them while we worked. After rewinding the first 2 pages of the first chapter 5 times I gave up. I think you pretty much have to be doing nothing or be good at "multitasking" to get anything out of it.

Re: audiobooks
 

I listen to music so much playing poker I need a change of pace in the car. I always have one ready to go, and while I'm driving I hardly ever lose track.

If you are going to do it listen to stories that are easy to follow. I just listened to the Shining...good, I thought...and right now I'm in the middle of Diary by Chuck Palahniuk.

I find when I get into the stories I do not mind being in the car at all, and it makes drivin ten times easier/seemingly faster.

Of course, I'm also a dork.

Re: audiobooks
 

I have a tough time falling asleep at night (or early in the morning, usually). I like d'loading/listening to audiobooks as a way to relax at night. For me, actual reading doesn't help me sleep (using my eyes, brain, lights are on, etc.)...but listening to audiobooks is great. I'm up for a little while listening, and after a while, it just helps me fade away. Good stuff.

Re: audiobooks
 

i have trouble getting to sleep also.

one thing i tried was listening to digital white noise, which is just like radio static.

some sites sell CDs of "professionally made digital white noise" which is just a horrible scam.

thankfully they let you download a 10 second clip of it, so you can create an MP3 file of whatever length you want out of that one clip.

Contrary to what I expected it actually makes falling asleep a lot easier.

as for audio books, i'm not a huge fan of them for any occasion. i'd rather listen to a good concept album.