Now that I’ve finished Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading, I have nothing to listen to in the car. Oh, sure, I have a case of CDs, and there’s always the radio (praise be to Radio IQ), but nothing passes commuting time and gives one a sense of self-righteous efficiency like a good audiobook. I have two teens under driving age, so to say I spend a lot of time in the car is an understatement. I hate not having a fresh book ready to go as soon as I finish the last one.
A new blog has kicked off its first post by listing the advantages of audiobooks. To Jeff’s list I’d like to add a couple more. My kids starting listening to audiobooks from the library before they could read, and they continue the habit to this day. I believe the habit of listening has given them an excellent ear for their own writing and a good understanding of how narrative works. They are both better writers with wider vocabularies than I think they would have been reading paper books alone. Some parents worry that there’s a danger in audiobooks replacing “real” reading because it’s easier. But I have found that listening and reading are complementary experiences. Occasionally I will listen to a book I’ve already read, and I find myself gleaning more from it — patterns in the story’s structure, repetition of key words and themes, emotional import that eluded me the first time around.
Hi,
I know how you feel because I have a 35 minute drive to work every day.
Outside of my learning to play the Native American Flute (which I freely admit I have pulled out at red lights) Audiobooks are what get me to and from work.
Sometimes it seems like I just left the house and BAM–I’m at work already.
I listen to audiobooks on SD cards, using an inexpensive MP3 player. Then, when I get in the car, I have a MP3 player that fits in the cigarette lighter and plays through the FM radio. I just pull the card out of one and put it in the other. By the way, I never lose my place.
Way cool and EZ to use.
We started putting audiobooks on SD cards because we enjoy them so much and I was fast becoming a danger to others on the road when I was driving. You know, changing the CD’s right at the peak of a book. DARE THEY!!! They always seem to know where to stop a CD, don’t they?
It took us a while but we came up with a solution to the whole bookmarking issue. Not an issue anymore.
Now putting books on SD cards is a fairly new concept, but well received by those who have tried them.
What we do really is for the people that enjoy audio books but are not technically savvy, or do not know how to unzip files, download etc. People like me…..I just want to put the book in and listen to it.
note: No more flute playing in the car
If you would like more information, check out out google knol.
http://knol.google.com/k/tommie-gipson/easy-audio-books-on-sd-cards/24e76txcbkpgx/2#
EZ