I’ve been using Audible during for years, and I love it. I don’t have time to sit and read for long periods, so audiobooks have definitely helped optimize my time.<p>During monotonous tasks, such as cooking breakfast, vacuuming, or driving on a long highway (when I lived in the US) I could easily finish a book a month. And generally those were 20-40 hour historical or classic books, not the short novels.
A shout out to my favourite audiobook website, <a href="https://librivox.org" rel="nofollow">https://librivox.org</a> . All free and open.
I'm a big fan of the android tts. A bit robotic, with quite a few prosodic errors (which is simple to get used to), but so convenient. No need to hunt for audiobooks - actually in most languages the size of the audibook market is rather poor...<p>I can switch easily from audio to reading, e.g. listening while walking to the bus, and if I get a seat then switch to read, and then back to listening etc...
As someone who grew up on printed editions I have trouble adjusting to digital editions. Now I have 3-4 boxes full of books which is a pain while shifting houses.<p>I tried ebooks but retention is an issue. So, taking notes has become a big priority.<p>Recently started listening to audiobooks but a lot of times I find my mind starts drifting towards unrelated topics. Are there any tips which can help focus my mind?
If you’re blind you can also get free audio books from the library of congress[1]. The selection is more limited than audible and you need a special reader, but it is free. My father who’s blind uses both services actively.<p>1: <a href="https://loc.gov/programs/national-library-service-for-the-blind-and-physically-handicapped/about-this-service" rel="nofollow">https://loc.gov/programs/national-library-service-for-the-bl...</a>
Audiobooks have been a real help for me, especially Audible which makes everything very easy. My problem is with some narrators of non fiction books. Is it me ? Or some narrators are so bad that actually makes you don’t want to listen. While the majority of them are good or acceptable, some are really painful to listen. Is like if you have a science book, and the narrator doesn’t find it interesting, he/she will let you know.
Audiobooks are great. You can listen to them while doing chores, commuting or having a walk. It is a pity that they are so expensive. I bet Amazon's monopoly has something to do with it. Podcasts, on the other hand, are worth what you are giving back to the creators via means like Patreon.
On iOS, <a href="http://voicedream.com" rel="nofollow">http://voicedream.com</a> will perform high-quality, rate-adjustable TTS for most (unlocked) text file formats, including PDF and epub. Provides paid, good quality voices for many languages.
While we're talking about audible I wanted to bring 2 things up.<p>1. You can cancel and restart your membership to get a new token for $15/month.<p>2. They recently added different portals for different countries. If you've been using the American portal (.com) like me, you may not have noticed your own countries. You should check it out, it may be cheaper. For example, the Canadian portal (.ca) charges $15 CAD a month which is cheaper than $15 USD.