Ten months ago I purchased an Audible.com AudibleListener® Platinum Annual Membership which gave me 24 “credits” to buy audio books with. All of the books I purchased were only one credit but there are books that cost more. Buying 24 credits at once lowered the cost to under $10 a book, which is a great deal when most audiobooks are $25 or more. The subscription is meant to last a year, but I used all my credits in 10 months. I could buy another 24 credits right now but have decided to listen to podcasts for a little while.
I downloaded the “Enhanced” format for most books and imported them into iTunes then listened to them using my iPhone. This worked really great for me as my car has an auxiliary jack that I am able to use to play audio directly from the iPhone through the car stereo system. The enhanced format is such a high quality that I am able to hear the edit points in the audio of many of the books.
The only really big problem I have when listening to audio books is not an issue with Audible but the TERRIBLE iPod interface on the iPhone. The next and previous chapter buttons are really close to the play/pause button and I regularly click them by accident, which is horrible when on a motorcycle, driving in traffic, or working in the garage. Recovering from jumping a chapter or two forward in a book is a real pain that can spoil a twist in the story.
Since January 2009 I have listened to 59 different books from Audible, they have ranged from terrible to incredible and my wishlist always has more books waiting for me to purchase and listen to.
Over the past year I have to say that the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and narrated by James Marsters have been my favorite books. James Marsters is an incredible actor that brings every character to life and draws me into the books in a way that reading print would not. The next best book was Storming Las Vegas by John Huddy and narrated by Stefan Rudnicki. It is a great account of armored car robberies in Las Vegas.
If you like audiobooks, have a long commute, like to jog/walk/exercise, or would like to read books in the dark I highly recommend Audible.com as a source of great audiobooks.
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