Audio Books - What are you listening to?
Discussion
condor said:
There are some audio books that are so bad that I have to give up on them.
I don't want to, I listen to the early chapters at least twice to make sure I'm not missing meanings - but sometimes, the books have no appeal, no humour, zero interest.
I then wonder, why would someone bother to recite something so boring/banal that no one would want to read or listen to it? Why would a library list it?
I've downloaded a couple more, so not a big deal
I've returned all the ones I haven't liked, even the ones where I've struggled on hoping it will get better so there might be only an hour or so left.I don't want to, I listen to the early chapters at least twice to make sure I'm not missing meanings - but sometimes, the books have no appeal, no humour, zero interest.
I then wonder, why would someone bother to recite something so boring/banal that no one would want to read or listen to it? Why would a library list it?
I've downloaded a couple more, so not a big deal
I've probably returned 10 or so.
I don't know if there's some sort of limit.
I've just finished listening to Ben Elton's book 'Identity Crisis' which is one I have found enjoyable, though there are a few swear words in it. Ben reads it well and he is good at speaking in the different character voices. I was expecting it to be a comedy but it's satire. I'll look to find some more books read by him.
I find the non fiction books send me to sleep and have to re listen to chapters as I've drifted off. Good for insomnia though
I've just finished listening to The reluctant millionaire by Joseph Birchall which was entertaining and confirms my idea of how awful a large lottery win could be.
I also enjoyed 'A quantum of Tweed' by Conn Iggulden which is a short spy story - think it only took a couple of hours to listen to it.
I download the audio books to a kindle fire and was disappointed to find that when I went away for a fortnight last month - none of my library sourced audio or ebooks would play as there was no wifi available. Does anyone know if this is because they were library copies? I had a few normal ebooks that aren't library ones and I was able to read them...so think that might be the reason.
I've just finished listening to The reluctant millionaire by Joseph Birchall which was entertaining and confirms my idea of how awful a large lottery win could be.
I also enjoyed 'A quantum of Tweed' by Conn Iggulden which is a short spy story - think it only took a couple of hours to listen to it.
I download the audio books to a kindle fire and was disappointed to find that when I went away for a fortnight last month - none of my library sourced audio or ebooks would play as there was no wifi available. Does anyone know if this is because they were library copies? I had a few normal ebooks that aren't library ones and I was able to read them...so think that might be the reason.
condor said:
I download the audio books to a kindle fire and was disappointed to find that when I went away for a fortnight last month - none of my library sourced audio or ebooks would play as there was no wifi available. Does anyone know if this is because they were library copies? I had a few normal ebooks that aren't library ones and I was able to read them...so think that might be the reason.
Possibly - which service provider does your library use?Condor said:
RBdigital
No worries - there are essentially four service providers in the UK and Ireland: for my sins two of them are my responsibility and a third one used to be...With RBdigital your access to content is determined solely by which library you belong to: you can be physically located anywhere in the world but the app won't use your location to restrict what you can see and borrow or to determine whether you can read/listen to what you've downloaded.
It also won't default to downloading the titles you borrow, however, so if you don't enable 'auto-download' then it will only download enough to keep just in front of your place in the book, and it will only start to do this when you actually open each title: without 'auto-download' in effect it's just streaming - so could it be that although you had borrowed the books the app hadn't actually downloaded them?
Depending on how much use you make of it you may be interested to know that one of the things that's made my 2020 so entertaining has been the decision to sunset RBdigital and roll all its customer libraries worldwide onto the OverDrive platform and with it the Libby app - as of a year ago the two parent businesses share the same owner. The timing will depend on which library service you use, but the migration is already underway for eBooks and eAudio and the whole process is scheduled to be complete by the end of March.
That is very interesting Ironingman, Thank-you
I rejoined Bedford Borough libraries early last year via the mobile library service. Unfortunately, Covid has stopped the mobile library service from running. However, I had gained access to borrowing audio and ebooks via the kindle fire which I had bought around the same time. I'm now a regular user of the service, and usually listen to an audio book a week. Currently, Mythos by Stephen Fry. I think's a great service.
Last month was the first time I'd been away from home and thought I had downloaded plenty of books to keep me occupied as where I was had no wifi or TV. I didn't realise I hadn't downloaded them and will have to see if that's possible rather than the streaming option. I'm sure there must be others like me who also don't realise.
Do you know how the libraries will inform their users of the upcoming changes?
I rejoined Bedford Borough libraries early last year via the mobile library service. Unfortunately, Covid has stopped the mobile library service from running. However, I had gained access to borrowing audio and ebooks via the kindle fire which I had bought around the same time. I'm now a regular user of the service, and usually listen to an audio book a week. Currently, Mythos by Stephen Fry. I think's a great service.
Last month was the first time I'd been away from home and thought I had downloaded plenty of books to keep me occupied as where I was had no wifi or TV. I didn't realise I hadn't downloaded them and will have to see if that's possible rather than the streaming option. I'm sure there must be others like me who also don't realise.
Do you know how the libraries will inform their users of the upcoming changes?
Glad that you're enjoying it - we've seen a massive upswing in usage through the year, as you can imagine, and it's taken a lot of work to keep up, so it's always great to encounter someone who's benefitting!
We have a lot of debate internally about whether the default settings should be changed so that download is enabled - but the prevailing view is that, particularly for eAudio, the files are so large that this would be a problem for lots of users - many of whom don't have the highest-spec devices or large data allowances.
To change yours, tap on the main menu, then go to 'My Account', followed by 'Settings'.
The team at Beds Borough/Central Beds are brilliant and I expect they will communicate the changeover to OverDrive/Libby with library card holders through the usual social media channels plus any newsletter(s) that they run, but we'll be supplementing that with in-app messages in RBdigital itself and a series of emails to the address that you gave when you set-up your RBdigital account. You should see these from two weeks before the changeover - and there will also be a reminder afterwards.
Any books that you've borrowed in RBdigital at that point will still be available to you in the app even after the changeover so that you can finish them.
We have a lot of debate internally about whether the default settings should be changed so that download is enabled - but the prevailing view is that, particularly for eAudio, the files are so large that this would be a problem for lots of users - many of whom don't have the highest-spec devices or large data allowances.
To change yours, tap on the main menu, then go to 'My Account', followed by 'Settings'.
The team at Beds Borough/Central Beds are brilliant and I expect they will communicate the changeover to OverDrive/Libby with library card holders through the usual social media channels plus any newsletter(s) that they run, but we'll be supplementing that with in-app messages in RBdigital itself and a series of emails to the address that you gave when you set-up your RBdigital account. You should see these from two weeks before the changeover - and there will also be a reminder afterwards.
Any books that you've borrowed in RBdigital at that point will still be available to you in the app even after the changeover so that you can finish them.
DoctorX said:
Quite enjoying this on my daily walk. I think I’d struggle with a print version though.
Yes I agree, just finished it it is epic. Probably the best audible book I've listened to. The productions value are very good. I like audible books when the narrator is the author adds another dimension to the story.He clearly loves his wife, it is a bit Alan Partridge at times, hates Trump, which is why i'm looking forward to the second one, though I only realised half way through this wasn't the full story.
Not the best at criticising himself, but overall very good.
Over the first lockdown listened to
Hitler by Ian Kershaw 44 hour monster of a book. Takes you from his birth to death. Amazing dark driven monster but well worth the time to listen.
Vietnam by Max Hastings - 31 hours of detailed horrific war and political manovering
Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz - insight into human nature. Nice easy listen
Hitler by Ian Kershaw 44 hour monster of a book. Takes you from his birth to death. Amazing dark driven monster but well worth the time to listen.
Vietnam by Max Hastings - 31 hours of detailed horrific war and political manovering
Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz - insight into human nature. Nice easy listen
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