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Audible.com
Posted by jon | Posted in Basic Lifehacking | Posted on 30-06-2007

Reading is good. Reading makes you think. Thinking makes you alive.
I am quite a bad and a slow reader. I tend to read word for word and for me to finish a book would take a long time. Not to mention that there are plenty of distraction out here. I may enjoy surfing the web more than reading. I may end up watching some show on my computer than reading. Heck, I would be rather editing one of my favourite photo or attempt to host a podcast . But with the recently packed schedule, I wouldn’t have time to spend time exclusively to read. I would like to read….. . *cross finger*
I commute a lot. Simply because I stay quite a distance from where I need to travel most of the day. I spent easily more than an hour a day, in my car. Driving is quite mundane if you ask me, and radio has always been a life saver. I’ve got my ipod hooked up with a FM transmitter, and it works like a charm.
I consume a lot of podcast to keep myself up to date with the geek news and entertainment news. Nothing too dry - at least for me. Recently, this podcast that I am listening got me going on to Audiobook @ Audible. They were giving away free audio book by signing on as a member. Odd that they did say it was meant for the US residence only. Heck, I signed up and got my audiobook.
There is this book that I wanted to read for quite sometime. I know, some of you would say fanboy, but hey, he’s quite an inspiring character. I’ve downloaded iCon - Steve Job, the man who co-founded Apple, got outcasted, came up with nExt ,and PIXAR and made his grand entry back to the apple computers. Audio was 3 hours ++ long, to my surprise, I complete listening to the book within 2 days. Not bad that for someone who would not finish a book in months! I thought.

I’ve just completed my second book that I bought for USD$10++. Slightly less than 2 weeks. And I am looking for another book now over at audible. It isn’t really expensive for something that works for me, I think.
The thing I did not speak about, which was my bad - is that I’ve made a resolution to finish 1 book a month! Which by this time of the year, I am already 7 books behind. I thought I will single handedly fail this resolution. I think it might not be after all. :).
So, if you are like me, who cannot sit still and just read a book, audiobooks is the answer - While doing something mundane, *read* a book. It may not be great for avid season readers, I reckon - whatever which works.
You may try signing up an audible account here. Though I don’t think the free book thingy still works.
Popularity: 35% [?]




Hi Yitweng. You certainly are blogging quite a bit recently. Another good post. Actually like you I commute a lot each day, close to 2 hrs per day. I like to listen to audio books on my car stereo which supports mp3 on cd. I was thinking about signing up with audible.com a while back, but I wasn’t so sure about their .aa format. It is supported on many devices, but not my car stereo it seems. Some people have published techniques / software that supposedly can convert .aa to .mp3 but I’m not sure how successful it would be.
Also I found in some instances the cost savings of audible over buying the audiobook from amazon are not that great (although you do save quite a bit on shipping I have to admit, since audible is a download).
For example I bought the “undercover economist” in audio cd from amazon. The cost was US$21.89, to download from audible the cost is US$20.99 ! Although you can get it cheaper if you sign up for one of their membership plans.
So how was the audiobook? Well it starts out quite boring as he explains the fundamentals of economics, but later it gets more interesting as he tries to explain why rich countries are rich and poor countries are poor. Also check out his website, the articles he posts are really interesting. Especially the archives for the last couple of years.
http://www.timharford.com/writing/
Well have a great week !!
Posted on: 1/Jul/2007@10:12 am
Hi Anthony, nice hearing from you :). Ah, yes.. a little blogging here and there to keep some of the interested people about what the heck I am doing.
I am downloading Audiobooks in .aa format and transfer them to my ipod. Pretty seamless. I am the lazy type, any tougher than that, I am throwing my ipod away!
Under Cover economics. Hrm, let me put that into my reading list!
See if I can get around to mail you to catch up with you. would love to do that!
Cheers dude
Posted on: 8/Jul/2007@9:39 am
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Posted on: 17/Jul/2007@1:32 am