EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion
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I listen to audiobooks all the time. But I don't drive. However, Audible's newest app is supposed to make it easier.
I also use Overdrive's app as well as Downpour.
Overdrive's come in mp3 files so maybe you could save them to a file or burn on a CD? Not sure.
Now, as to Audible and data. It should only affect your husband's minutes during download not replay. There is something you can do so that it only download with a wifi signal and not using data.
Listening to MP3 audiobook downloads in the car is easy if your car has a USB port. Buy a USB drive (also known as a jump drive or a thumb drive) of adequate capacity (I'd recommend at least 4GB -- that should hold a few). Download the files to the USB drive, plug it into the port into your car, and voila! I only listen to audiobooks in the car and library audiobooks plus a USB drive has been a lifesaver!
I use 3 different methods for listening to books in the car:A) CD's - Just love that my old car from 2008 can hold up to 6 CD's at a time. Seems like all the newer cars can only handle 1 at a time:-(
B) Overdrive - Only started using this method a few months ago. I don't know what kind of cell phone plan I have, but I don't seem to have any limits on data for books. I've never downloaded more than 2 stories at a time, but I love that I always have a book ready in my back pocket!
C) Playaways - I don't know why more libraries don't offer these. Luckily, my library card also gives me access to the whole county (one of the largest in the USA), so I am in audio version heaven! They are small and portable (smaller than a cell phone). They contain one full story, no matter the length. Insert a AAA battery, plug in your headphones, earbuds, or port in the car, and off ya go!
I've never tried a playaway. Most new cars have USB ports. My mom's Subaru has it in the storage unit between the front seats.
I get almost all of my audio books from Overdrive now because they are free. I download them to my phone (mp3 files) then listen through headphones or bluetooth in the car or house through my Alexa. I read a lot more books by doing that because there's really no downtime. The good thing is that because I use my phone, I never lose my place regardless of going phone to car to house. It's all the same file.As a side note, I LOVE the sleep feature on Overdrive. You can set the book to play for 15, 30 or a different number of minutes. It's how I time my lunch hour at work.
I also like that you can increase playback speed. I only do it with an exceptionally slow reader, but sometimes speeding up to just 1.2 makes a huge difference in how much I enjoy a particular "performance."
I listen to most audio books on my phone. Overdrive works well and, as Kandice said, you can speed it up or slow it down as you want. I just turn the volume up all the way on my phone and listen. So far I haven't had any issues with not being able to hear.I've also started listening to Moby Dick using the add on audio option in Kindle. It's turning out very well that way (and listening to Moby Dick is turning out to be a great experience!)
There's also the Whispersyc with Kindle. You can read along while listening. I find that classic books are much better in audiobook format. I get more out of them that way.Places/times I use audiobooks:
- when I have a migraine/sinus headache and just can't wear my glasses for long
- at the dentist's office (it really relaxes me)
- when I'm walking my dog
- outside when Misty wants some outside time
I have an app on my phone called Listen Audiobook Player that I use to listen to audiobooks from a variety of sources. I like it a lot, it has plenty of functions and gives lots of control over playback (I did have to strip the DRM from my Audible audiobooks in order to be able to use the app). Apart from Audible, I get audiobooks from places like Librivox and Project Gutenberg, as well as an app my library uses called BorrowBox, which lets me borrow ebooks and audiobooks for a couple of weeks at a time. Most library apps and similar let you download the whole book on your smartphone and then play it back later, but if not you should be able to download it on a PC and import it into a generic audiobook app like Listen. Then you can play it through the car speakers via an aux cord or bluetooth or whatever.
Unfortunately when driving I just rely on my phone speaker because my car stereo is ancient, but I'm sure that people with newer cars and/or more motivation than me could easily come up with a better solution.
My boyfriend uses Libby (the newer app version of OverDrive) and he says that it lets you download the book directly to your phone so you don't even have to be hooked up to the internet to access it.I can't imagine using anything besides OverDrive/Libby for audiobooks since it's free and they have soooo many books.
If you have a smartphone and a local library card you should try using it!
Overdrive is great, but you need to remember each library is different. Not every library offers the same books or the same choices. I've even heard of some libraries that let you check out films via Overdrive!!!
You can check out films through Overdrive here, and Honore said, you do need access to the internet to download the files, but once they are downloaded, you don't need it at all. The added advantage is that the file drops off without you having to do anything, so no late fees.I'm going to look into Libby. I've never heard of it.
Kirsten wrote: "Overdrive is great, but you need to remember each library is different. Not every library offers the same books or the same choices. I've even heard of some libraries that let you check out films v..."And some libraries are not affiliated with Overdrive at all. Even though my mom lives in Los Angeles county, Overdrive doesn't recognize her city library, so she can't access it:-(
Wow. There are lots of different ways to listen. Thank everyone.I never heard of playaway.
My library offers both MP3 and overdrive files, so I'll experiment with both, on my phone and on a thumb drive.
Playaway. is new to me. it sounds cool.
I've got to remember to use the sleep function at home. I often loose track of where I was when I fall asleep, or it wakes me up and I can't get back to sleep.
We have Borrow Box here. It normally works OK. Bit annoyed with it today though. I was halfway through Contest by Matthew Reilly on my phone. It was renewed early and everything was great but this afternoon when I went to listen to it again it was telling me that I had to redownload it. It had disappeared. Without wifi I wasn’t downloading it again. I checked my iPad and it was still on there so it was all good in the end. Don’t know why it disappeared. Nothing else has.
I'm sure every library is a bit different, including the technology they provide. One of the things my library is very good about is obtaining items requested by patrons. Certainly they do not get everything, but if the requested item has a reasonable cost and is likely to appeal to more than just the one person requesting it, there is a very good chance they will purchase it. This applies to audiobooks on CD or MP3. For MP3s they belong to a statewide consortium whose collection is available through OverDrive and RBdigital.For those of you who struggle to find what they want to listen to on OverDrive, you may want to check with your library to see if they accept purchase suggestions for OverDrive.
I usually listen to CDs in the car (I have a 6 disc changer) and OverDrive on my phone using a bluetooth speaker in the house. I love the idea of listening to the same book in the car as in the house, but I don't think my car has a USB Port. I'll have to look.
my library has overdrive and very patient librarians. I keep forgetting my password. They keep resetting it.I also have assess to hoopla. I have not used the hoopla much I am not sure if is different from overdrive.
Shelley wrote: "I'm sure every library is a bit different, including the technology they provide. One of the things my library is very good about is obtaining items requested by patrons. Certainly they do not get ..."My USB port is hidden deep in the back of a storage bin in my car. I wouldn't have know it was there if the car salesman didn't point it out.
Jacqueline wrote: "We have Borrow Box here. It normally works OK. Bit annoyed with it today though. I was halfway through Contest by Matthew Reilly on my phone. It was renewed early and everything was great but this ..."Glitchy things like that happen.
Sometimes glitches work out in your favor too. When I look at my library account on line, I can see the date that the files are due, and then in the last day it switches to show the exact time. The first time I saw that, I was surprised it wasn't midnight and I thought I wouldn't get to finish a book on time. I just kept listening, and it stayed there for several hours past the deadline. Maybe it was because I still had the window open and it was still playing.
Shelley wrote: "I'm sure every library is a bit different, including the technology they provide. One of the things my library is very good about is obtaining items requested by patrons. Certainly they do not get ..."That's a great suggestion. My library has purchased several things I requested, and often very quickly. One time though they said it was approved, but it still hasn't shown up (months later). Someone suggested that non-fiction books are more likely to get approved.
It might also help to know where they are in their budget year. At the beginning of a fiscal year, they have more money.
My USB port on my car is in the glove box and boy is it hard to find it. But it’s really good to plug my iPod into because nobody can see it. I’ve been using Bluetooth a lot lately though. Unless I renew the audiobooks/ebooks my phone loses the file as soon as I open the app after the due date. That one was renewed so it shouldn’t have been lost. Doesn’t matter. Glitches do happen yes. My iPad on the other hand isn’t a cellular one so I need wifi for it to work. Which I don’t have unless I’m at the farm. So the files stay there until I’m ready to give them up. I got to finish reading the ebook of Wonder Woman Warbringer days after it deleted itself off my phone while I was sitting at the hospital waiting for my daughter after a procedure she had.
One of my reserves became available the other day and turned up on my phone. Unfortunately I don’t have enough data to download it. Hopefully I find some wifi soon.
Kandice wrote: "You can check out films through Overdrive here, and Honore said, you do need access to the internet to download the files, but once they are downloaded, you don't need it at all. The added advantag..."My BF prefers Libby because it dealt with some of the less user friendly features that the OverDrive app has. Primarily Libby lets you get to your downloaded books faster than naviagating OverDrives "bookself". It will also give you a time estimate on holds you have, rather than juts saying what place you are in line.
In the past, I've downloaded books from Librivox (free audiobooks read by volunteers) - because it's public domain books only, the selection is limited, and because of the volunteer thing, the quality varies. Nice for older authors - was great for catching up with Jane Austen, for instance.I've tried Audible but found it too expensive. Now I'm using Scribd, which has less to choose from in terms of audiobooks but still plenty enough for me, and I find their app easy to use as well.
Our local library has Overdrive which worka well for me! Check to see if your library has it. You can get audiobooks or ebooks on your kindle. I think it supports Nook, too.
M wrote: "In the past, I've downloaded books from Librivox (free audiobooks read by volunteers) - because it's public domain books only, the selection is limited, and because of the volunteer thing, the qual..."Thanks! My son likes Librivox too. I should also check out scribd .
I agree about Audible. I love it, but I have to take a break from the subscription once in a while to save money. The best deals are when you buy a kindle for 1.99 and get the audio for 1.99. The 2 for 1 deals are nice too. For anyone who reads a lot of romance, they have an all-you-can-read romance package.
My husband downloads from Overdrive to his PC and then transfers the files to our Sansa clip mini-Mp3 players and/or flash (jump/thumb) drive. At download we need an internet connection so of course we do it at home on wi-fi. After that, the file is just simply on the drive indefinitely as if we had burned it ourselves, no internet or minutes or data needed. He also burns CDs from the library similarily to listen to later.
(As soon as he has our copy burned/transferred, he returns it to the library for the next user. And as soon as we listen to it, we delete it; we don't share with others.)
Karen wrote: "Kirsten wrote: "Overdrive is great, but you need to remember each library is different. Not every library offers the same books or the same choices. I've even heard of some libraries that let you c..."Yeah, each library contracts with Overdrive. And they contract for different books and services. For instance, my library gets a lot of books in Spanish and Russian because of our local community.
A friend of mine used to get CDs from the library near her place and rip them to her computer. I was talking to her sister at her funeral last month and she said that she had heaps of books on CD and on her computer. She used to travel a lot and used to listen to them in the car. I was looking through the books on CD down here at our library but there’s so many of them and they’re all so tightly packed into the space and it’s really hard to do. I gave up after a couple of shelves. It was really frustrating. I’ll stick to the Borrow Box app and Bluetooth in the car methinks. For now anyway.
I used to use books on tape/cd... but it's such a pain, I much prefer the Audible, Overdrive system.
Jacqueline wrote: "A friend of mine used to get CDs from the library near her place and rip them to her computer. I was talking to her sister at her funeral last month and she said that she had heaps of books on CD a..."I can't read the labels on CD spines half the time (unless I move far away or really close). So I do all my browsing here and on the library website. I pick out books I want to read and then go to the library site to find them. For a popular book I'll request the large print book, the CD, and an electronic file is they have it.
If only we could see the spines Nancy. They’re packed on a shelf 5 deep and probably 7 wide (so 35 to a shelf) and that’s over at least 15 shelves. Maybe more. And you can only see the ones on the front. So you have to pull every one out to see the ones behind. Also they’re so tightly packed you can’t just flip them forward. And some are too high to be able to see without physically pulling them all out. As I said...a couple of shelves and you’re over it.
I use Libby and it’s completely free. Simply download the app and search the title of the book. It’s just that simple.
I have finally found the one good thing about my library computer update. They have joined a larger network. I now can find almost everything on cd.
I just downloaded Libby and requested my first audiobook. Thanks guys!
I have seen a couple mentions of Hoopla in this post, and if you haven’t checked it out, you should if your library has. Unfortunately, I believe it is just a US or Canada option. I believe Access 360 is similar, if that it an option. I use it much more than Overdrive/Libby for the reason that there is no waiting or holds. And it has a much larger selection of titles for my library. It works similar to Netflix, and has its own inventory that libraries pay to use. Overdrive features the titles that libraries specifically purchase. Hoopla also has music, movies and ebooks. It allows you to move forward or back in 15 second intervals and listen at varying speeds.I do really like using the Libby app as it allows you to jump to chapters or sections, which Hoopla doesn’t.
I like Librivox for less popular titles in the public domain.
I use Bluetooth in the car.
Just stumbled on this article on the USA Today feed:New study finds that audiobooks elicit stronger emotional response than movies, TV
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2...
I use 3M Cloud, Libby (overdrive), RB Digital, Hoopla & Librivox from my phone. Then my library offers Cds and Mp3 playaways for titles that aren't on those apps. If a title I want is at none of these, then I can search Mobius on my library's website to see if counties in neighboring states keep it in stock. If so, I'll use my library card to borrow, they ship it to the library location I select, and I can have it for 10 days. With mobius borrows I just have to return to the same locale I picked up, I can't just take it to any in my county. If Mobius turns up out of stock as well, then I have my monthly audible credit I can use. I also have kindle unlimited, which has about 3/4 of their books coming with the audible download (whispersync) On these, the button that says "Read for Free" to get the kindle will instead say "Read and Listen for Free". Lastly, you can buy the kindle and Upgrade to audio book for a discount on either amazon or audible websites. 95% of my reading has become listening to audiobooks
Rebecca wrote: "Our local library has Overdrive which worka well for me! Check to see if your library has it. You can get audiobooks or ebooks on your kindle. I think it supports Nook, too."I have used Overdrive with my Nook since 2012. For audio I either borrow the CD and burn a copy on my computer , transfer to my Zen MP3 player to listen (Overdrive too). I still have a couple of portable CD players that I use when I don't want to mess with burning CDs (LOL) Recorded books used to be like Overdrive but they changed their format to an app. I have used them a couple of times in the last year now that I have a smart phone, it works well. All the libraries in our area don't have audio books from Hoopla so I have never used them.
One other option I have been using is to check ebay or amazon for MP3 CD's. I have bought a number of these over the last 6 months for a series I want to own. At times they are cheaper than Audible which I also subscribe to.
Share your questions, answers or tips here. Tech questions/tips are particularly helpful.
First Topic - how to listen to audio books in the car.
1. I've been listening to audio book CDs in the car for years. They're simple and easy to use, and you can get them from the library for free. But they take up a lot of space on long trips. Car stereos differ - My old car enabled me to rewind/ff in small increments. My new car limits me to the increments set in the CD. Automakers are starting to phase out CD players. It will take years, but be sure to check the next time you buy a car.
2. Ipod. I used to download CDs or MP3s into my computer itunes folder, and copy them into my old ipod. I could attach the ipod with a cable to the Aux plug, and listen through the car stereo. It worked really well, until it didn't. Now I can't even get itunes to work on my computer. (Lots of tech support calls, reinstalled software, no resolution.) It was an old ipod anyway (without wifi/data capability), and it was hard to read.
Do you have ipod tips to share? Newer ipods?
3. Library downloads. Mp3, or Overdrive - has anyone had success using these downloads in your car? How?
4. Audible.com audiobooks. I have a subscription, and I get one audiobook per month. I listen to these at home on my smart phone. I can rewind or fast forward in 30 second increments which is nice if I miss a word or get interrupted. I loaded one on my husband's phone for a long trip, but he got a warning that it would use up data minutes. Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid using minutes? I thought by downloading a book into the phone, it was all in the phone, but apparently not. I plan to upgrade my phone soon, and potentially get more storage space, but i don't know if it will make a difference. Tips?