Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Audible.com

I've had my Kindle Fire for what, two years now?  And I've never used it to listen to an audio book.  Of all the things I can do on it, I've probably spent the most time playing games.  Age of Conquest is awesome (!!) but it's also a time-suck.

Each morning when I get up I get on the elliptical trainer for 20 minutes.  I turn on the radio but don't always want to listen to music or, what's far worse, the myriad commercials.  I want to burn 20 minutes!  I was discussing this with a guy at work one day and he suggested audio books.  Hmmm, I thought, not a bad idea.

And then I did nothing with that suggestion.  Until a few minutes ago.

I signed up on Audible.com to get 2 free audio books, and I have don't have to pay anything for 30 days.  This gives me 30 days to see if I like listening to audio books at 6am any more than I like listening to the radio!  If I do I pay $14.95 a month, which includes one book download.

Now I'm going to go fire up the Kindle and see what books I should download.  I'm thinking one will be this book on John Adams.  Can't decide if, for the second book, I should get some "contemporary politics" or perhaps some good ole relaxing fiction. 

6 comments:

Auntie Ann said...

I have an old Kindle keyboard, and I find nothing makes the time go faster than actually reading while on an elliptical. With a kindle you don't have to figure out how to keep it open and turning pages is easy.

Elaine said...

If you have Google books, it will read any book or pdf you have on it aloud. The reader isn't fantastic, but the price is right.

Steve USMA '85 said...

John Adams was a good 'read' - I did the audible version.

Have you tried podcasts? I listen to some interesting ones such as "Stuff You Missed in History Class" from How Stuff Works. Episodes are about 20 minutes and very interesting if you are interested in obscure history events and/or people. The Stitcher app is great for listening to multiple podcasts. Best part, they are all free.

Darren said...

I used to read Smithsonian magazine on the elliptical, as the print is usually large enough for me to keep my place. But I found that I don't really *like* reading while on the elliptical, but I enjoyed the first 20 minutes of John Adams this morning.

Mike Thiac said...

My mother loved to get a "Book on CD" and listen to it on long car drives....she's at the age the music ain't her thing,

Darren said...

I really love the show I listen to during my drive to work, but I'm getting a bit tired of Hugh Hewitt on the drive home and there isn't really anyone else I'd rather listen to. I could always switch over to FM and hear some music, but to be honest I think I'd rather hear the John Adams book on the way home. It's 37 hours long so it's not like I don't need to find plenty of time to listen!