Adventures In Audiobooks #2

Yesterday I blogged about my interest in audiobooks. This is an interest that has grown with time.

The Christmas I was considering a roadtrip to visit my kin in Texas, like the one I took last summer.

I didn’t end up going (good thing, too, as the weather was horrible), but while I was gearing up for the trip, I decided that I wanted to find a better way to listen to audiobooks while I was gone.

In particular: I didn’t like having to change CDs every hour. That’s a big pain if you’re doing ninety, whipping down the curvy, boulder-avoiding road through Texas Canyon in Arizona.

So I thought to myself: .mp3s of spoken word can be much smaller than ordinary CD files, and many new car stereos will play .mp3s, so here’s what I’ll do: I’ll get me one of the newer stereos for my pickup, then download a bunch of books on .mp3 from Audible.Com (which advertises your ability to listen to its books on portable devices), and I’ll be all set.

So I went down to Best Buy, bought a car stereo for like $130 that would play CDs, .mp3s, and Windows Media Player files, and had it installed the next day.

I was all set.

So I went ot Audible.Com to download some books and made a horrible discovery: Audible doesn’t let you download books in .mp3. They have a proprietary format that won’t play on my new player.

So I did a little research about what portable devices will play Audible files. It turns out: iPods can.

So I went out and got an iPod.

I also got a cheap broadcast device to let me play the iPod through my car stereo.

I haven’t actually set up the broadcast device yet, but barring another misfortune, I should be set.

VISIT AUDIBLE.COM.

LEARN MORE ABOUT .mp3s.

LEARN ABOUT iPODS.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

16 thoughts on “Adventures In Audiobooks #2”

  1. Jimmy, you’re a technically savy guy, I think. Why didn’t you consider the following alternatives to buying the iPod:
    1. Instead of buying through audible.com, why not rip purchased/rented CD’s into .mp3?
    2. If the audible.com format is supported by the iPod, it’s got to be some sort of reasonably well known format, so there’s got to be some software out there that will convert from this format to .mp3.
    Maybe you were itching to buy an iPod anyway. I know I am…

  2. The base format is mp3 but Audible wraps an ‘envelope’ around it to protect the copyrights. I’ve been an Audible subscriber for 3 or so years (maybe longer) and I took advantage of the subscription to get a free mp3 player. (I’m drooling over the Muvo right now.) I have a Rio500 and an Audible Otis) I’ve also got one of those little broadcast things and a cassette adapter. Both work well.
    The Audible subscription gets me two books each month for a fixed monthly fee. Works great and I’ve got a ton of books to read/listen to.
    Jimmy, if you haven’t heard it yet you will really enjoy “The Screwtape Letters” with John Cleese reading. (It’s abridged. They skipped two or so letters in the middle.)
    AND
    Most Audible books can be burned to CD, though that’s in CD format (wav?)and not MP3 so you’ll need LOTS of CDs to do that.

  3. The multiple CD bit is why I didn’t want to just by the books on CD and rip them to .mp3. Takes too long. Also, by going with Audible I get a *huge* discount over the purchase price of buying the books in CD form. A book that might cost $100 on CD only ends up costing $10 via Audible.

  4. So I went out and got an iPod.
    Glorious!
    You’re half-way towards conversion.
    🙂
    And the great thing about iPods is that you can store PDFs on them too and take them wherever you go! Mmmmmm, PDFssssssssss.

  5. Right now I’m listening to James Patterson’s novel “The Jester.” It’s interesting . . .

  6. Hi Jimmy!
    I guess I’m a bit of a Luddite. To me it’s not a book unless you’re actually reading it. There’s a certain tactile quality that I’d be sure to miss if I started “reading” the majority of my books with my stereo.

  7. Other Eric:
    What I’ve found interesting, from my research, is the fact that prior to the invention of the printing press it was virtually UNHEARD OF to read a book to oneself, in silence. When people wrote, it was always with the assumption that their work would be read aloud to, or in front of, others, and writers adjusted their writing to reflect this.
    I first discovered this while reading Saint Augustine’s account, in his “Confessions,” of his first failed meeting with Saint Ambrose. Augustine was absolutely shocked to walk in on the bishop while he was reading a book SILENTLY, TO HIMSELF; so shocked, that he left the room and deferred his meeting with the saintly Bishop of Milan.
    What say you, Jimmy? Are books meant to be heard aloud?

  8. Hi Jimmy,
    When you get your FM transmitter hooked up would you be so kind as to let us know how it works out for you. I have checked a few of those out but can’t seem to decide which brand would be good to buy.
    Having an iPod is the best! I agree with being able to use it for transfering files between computers makes things easier. It’s been so popular around my place with that feature my husband ended up hijacking mine. I’m going to have to buy him his own pretty darn soon if i want mine back!

  9. We have TWO iPods. One for me on the road and one for the family at home. We have listened to many books – all unabridged. The benefit of books read aloud is that all can benefit. Even the 3 and 5 year old enjoyed Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Tom Sawyer, and on and on. A shared book is a great shared experience for all the family. We do a bit of travelling and the travel time is never wasted.
    I convert all the Catholic and other CDs straight to MP3, organised in iTunes and then onto the iPod. This way I get to catch up on my spiritual and apologetic reading.
    We connect the iPod to the car system via the cassette tape adapter.

  10. I find that certain genres and authors almost always translate well to audio, while others may not be as amenable. Mysteries, thrillers, and Dave Barry seem to go well. I am not always as fond of “literary” fiction on audio, although I can sometimes get through it better than I can in print.
    Also, I am a big Terry Pratchett fan and think his books are particularly nice on audio. Especially the City Watch novels.

  11. (oops, must continue on second comment…) Unfortunately my ipod mini has, shall we say, battery issues. I understand this is common: the audiobook files are too long for the ipod to cache efficiently, so I waste a lot of battery life. It’s supposed to get maybe eight hours, and I’m lucky if I get four.

  12. Love my iPod. I’ve used the FM transmitter, Angelica. Works very well when there’s no outside interference from actual stations. I was in the SF Bay Area recently & it worked beautifully with no problems but between Sacramento & Reno I have to keep changing frequencies. The sound is equal to any strong FM station. I like that the one I got charges the iPod while you listen. Bonus!
    Mostly, since I don’t have a cd player in my car, I use my cassette adaptor. The sound quality is excellent! And you can get cigarette lighter adaptors to charge your iPod for long trips so, really, it’s a wash between the 2 formats, IMO.
    I’ve put a number of Catholic apologetics cds I’ve purchased on my iPod & haven’t noticed the battery issue. I’ve read that it can depend on the the compression format being used – MP3, ACC, etc. If you haven’t yet, Google “iPod battery life” or something similar & you’ll get a number of sites that discuss the issue in depth. Some really good info!

  14. With a little google’ing you can find kits that allow you to pipe the iPod outputs directly into your stereo via line inputs. Many modern vehicles have hidden inputs on their audio systems to allow for expansion for things like CD changers. These kits leverage that. Some of them even allow some vehicle’s steering wheel controls to provide control input to the iPod. Check out http://www.densionusa.com/ for some examples. This is the route I’m considering for my iPodPhoto. (sue me, I like photography as well as music…)

  15. Creative makes a little device called a Muvo specifically for downloading Audible files (I got it free from Audible for subscribing). I have an iPod and a PDA, both of which are compatible with Audible, but the Muvo was free, so I keep it in my car and download books whenever I need to.
    I have an FM tuner and I HATE IT!!!!! I ended up buying a cassette modifier. The FM tuner is staticky and is prone to interference from tall buildings (and I work in downtown Detroit). The cassette thingy is MUCH easier to use and works perfectly.
    ‘thann

  16. Sure would be nice if catholic.com radio was available as a podcast. As it is I listen on my computer anyway. As a podcast I’d have it anywhere on my mp3 player.

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