Audible Audio Book Review
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Beamer92
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Review by Beamer92 -- Audible Book of your Choice by Amazon
[Following is a volunteer review of "Audible Book of your Choice" by Amazon.]
4 out of 4 stars
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To start, I'd like to mention that I've never been big on buying audio-books over regular reading. Generally I find it difficult to focus on the story as intently as when I'm reading it; doubly hard when trying to listen at work and actually get anything done. However in the spirit of giving everything another try, I waited until I had a road trip planned so I could get into the audio book and still focus on what I was doing.
The first thing you notice, if you weren't already aware, is that Audible was bought and is still owned by Amazon. Personally I'm a loyal Amazon user and have loved the service I get from them, so I start out pretty confident that I'm going to get a good product or good customer service if I had problems with it. After quite painlessly signing up I got to peruse their book collection and decided to look for a book they likely wouldn't have. I've been wanting to read A Slow Regard For Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss, but knowing full well it was an odd and short story I didn't think Audible would have it. They did, I was overjoyed, and there was much rejoicing. I searched around out of curiosity for some other odd titles and some more popular ones; I was not disappointed.
I set about downloading the book and decided to try the PC downloader/player first and then later mess with getting the file on my iPhone for the trip. Using just the Audible site was fairly straightforward, but when I clicked 'Download' on the book I had to install the manager first. That went through no problem but there wasn't an intuitive way to tell the site "Okay I got it, may I have my book now?". I had to go back, refresh, and click the 'Download' button again. Minor gripe, but I'm sure those less technologically inclined may have found frustration there. Another slight source of confusion was that I felt almost 'directed' to the amazon site to do things. I could have also downloaded the book there but I'm one of those people that figures "Find ONE way to do something, stick with that". On the other hand I'm sure plenty of frequent Amazon users like having their books readily available, and as a supplemental source that's a little more convenient than the Audible website I can see why that might be nice.
When the Audible Manager began downloading I noticed a pop-up telling me it needed Chrome to be closed to update. I found this happened most any and every time I opened the Audible Manager. THAT was somewhat annoying. I used Chrome at work and had multiple tabs open, what a pain to close and re-open them all. Again, fairly minor gripe when looking at the big picture but worth mentioning. After that I got the book, it worked wonderfully, and I decided to try my iPhone now. Long story short I had no issues getting the audio book on my phone either. I was ready for the drive.
I hit the road, drove a little ways then decided I was ready for the book. A certain stretch of the drive is basically two lane flat road with no curves, very boring, great time for some prime listening material. I had pretty average expectations, I know how audio file compression works so I expected pretty 'OK' quality from my iPhone through my stock car speakers. I was pleasantly surprised to find the story of great quality (or at least high enough I couldn't have told the difference with the equipment I was using). No static, no echo or any other annoyances with a recording, no problems with the file itself, pretty darn close to flawless. I fully enjoyed my mini-book for the majority of the drive. I was also pretty impressed with the preface and out-going message from the author, I understand this is pretty standard? Overall the reading was great. Audible definitely added some geek factor points since the author was the one doing the reading in this case.
I can say I am quite pleased with the Audible service as a whole. A couple minor things I would alter from a technical perspective, but maybe that's the IT Nerd in me rearing up. I had zero qualms with the product itself. I don't think I'll use the service as a continuous subscription however since I still prefer a physical book or ebook, but if I have some long road trips or something of that nature I would definitely consider buying a book credit from Audible. It may even be worth buying some of my favorite books to simply 're-read' on those types of trips so if I miss something while concentrating on the road I won't be totally lost. For me its no substitute for a tangible book, but overall I'm very happy with my Audible experience.
Despite my minor gripes I'm going to give Audible 4 out of 4 stars because they gave me a solid product that was exactly as promised. The process was almost as easy as it could be but when is anything flawless? I think the service would appeal to anyone who finds they travel a lot or can give audio its due attention while doing other things, unlike myself.
-Beamer92
******
Audible Book of your Choice
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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4 out of 4 stars
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To start, I'd like to mention that I've never been big on buying audio-books over regular reading. Generally I find it difficult to focus on the story as intently as when I'm reading it; doubly hard when trying to listen at work and actually get anything done. However in the spirit of giving everything another try, I waited until I had a road trip planned so I could get into the audio book and still focus on what I was doing.
The first thing you notice, if you weren't already aware, is that Audible was bought and is still owned by Amazon. Personally I'm a loyal Amazon user and have loved the service I get from them, so I start out pretty confident that I'm going to get a good product or good customer service if I had problems with it. After quite painlessly signing up I got to peruse their book collection and decided to look for a book they likely wouldn't have. I've been wanting to read A Slow Regard For Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss, but knowing full well it was an odd and short story I didn't think Audible would have it. They did, I was overjoyed, and there was much rejoicing. I searched around out of curiosity for some other odd titles and some more popular ones; I was not disappointed.
I set about downloading the book and decided to try the PC downloader/player first and then later mess with getting the file on my iPhone for the trip. Using just the Audible site was fairly straightforward, but when I clicked 'Download' on the book I had to install the manager first. That went through no problem but there wasn't an intuitive way to tell the site "Okay I got it, may I have my book now?". I had to go back, refresh, and click the 'Download' button again. Minor gripe, but I'm sure those less technologically inclined may have found frustration there. Another slight source of confusion was that I felt almost 'directed' to the amazon site to do things. I could have also downloaded the book there but I'm one of those people that figures "Find ONE way to do something, stick with that". On the other hand I'm sure plenty of frequent Amazon users like having their books readily available, and as a supplemental source that's a little more convenient than the Audible website I can see why that might be nice.
When the Audible Manager began downloading I noticed a pop-up telling me it needed Chrome to be closed to update. I found this happened most any and every time I opened the Audible Manager. THAT was somewhat annoying. I used Chrome at work and had multiple tabs open, what a pain to close and re-open them all. Again, fairly minor gripe when looking at the big picture but worth mentioning. After that I got the book, it worked wonderfully, and I decided to try my iPhone now. Long story short I had no issues getting the audio book on my phone either. I was ready for the drive.
I hit the road, drove a little ways then decided I was ready for the book. A certain stretch of the drive is basically two lane flat road with no curves, very boring, great time for some prime listening material. I had pretty average expectations, I know how audio file compression works so I expected pretty 'OK' quality from my iPhone through my stock car speakers. I was pleasantly surprised to find the story of great quality (or at least high enough I couldn't have told the difference with the equipment I was using). No static, no echo or any other annoyances with a recording, no problems with the file itself, pretty darn close to flawless. I fully enjoyed my mini-book for the majority of the drive. I was also pretty impressed with the preface and out-going message from the author, I understand this is pretty standard? Overall the reading was great. Audible definitely added some geek factor points since the author was the one doing the reading in this case.
I can say I am quite pleased with the Audible service as a whole. A couple minor things I would alter from a technical perspective, but maybe that's the IT Nerd in me rearing up. I had zero qualms with the product itself. I don't think I'll use the service as a continuous subscription however since I still prefer a physical book or ebook, but if I have some long road trips or something of that nature I would definitely consider buying a book credit from Audible. It may even be worth buying some of my favorite books to simply 're-read' on those types of trips so if I miss something while concentrating on the road I won't be totally lost. For me its no substitute for a tangible book, but overall I'm very happy with my Audible experience.
Despite my minor gripes I'm going to give Audible 4 out of 4 stars because they gave me a solid product that was exactly as promised. The process was almost as easy as it could be but when is anything flawless? I think the service would appeal to anyone who finds they travel a lot or can give audio its due attention while doing other things, unlike myself.
-Beamer92
******
Audible Book of your Choice
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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Latest Review: Audible Book of your Choice by Amazon
