Joining the Audible Book Revolution
In preparation for a lot of air travel in the next few weeks, I’ve gotten an “Audible Otis” MP3 player with a subscription to Audible.com. Right now I’m listening to Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, which I’ve read (i.e., on paper) a few times before but am enjoying again. Next on the list is Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. (I find, however, that with long and detailed works like those, I still have to carry the book with me to double check names and keep my place in the narrative. I’m sure that that’s not the case with most novels — okay, not Russian novels — or shorter, non-historical, works.)
I highly recommend Audible.com, which has quite good service. They’ve gotten the download operation sorted out and it works quite seamlessly. And after you’ve downloaded a book to your computer, it’s still available to be downloaded later from their site (in case, for example, you have a hard disk problem). There’s a button for “My Library,” which is a bookshelf with all of the books you’ve purchased. If you do sign up with Audible.com, please mention my user name (tomgpalmer) as the referring party. Enjoy!