Save Time and Add Value with Audio Books – Part 1

August 19 by Leon Ho | 37 comments | Lifehack, Lifestyle, Productivity, Technology |

Few months ago, I sat down and worked out estimation on time needed per day for my usual projects. The outcome is pretty shocking to me:

I sleep for 6-7 hours, spend around 1 hour for lunch, dinner and bath, 8-10 hours for my work and 1 hour for commuting. Adding them up, I already spent 16-19 hours on those projects. By spending 2 hours per day for blogging and its preparation (reading, planning etc), time for attending my post-grad courses in human resources management, and time for my girl friend and family – That leaves me less than 3 hours per day to do the rest of things – including self-development.

It is a rough calculation but it indicates I have little time for developing myself for the future. This worries me.

I still read books but my progress on reading is getting slow paced.

Beginning of this year, I found a way to leverage some of the used time for self-development – by listening to audio books. With some tasks like commuting and bathroom break, I can utilize these times to listen and learn from the audio content.

So I purchased an iPod Mini at Amazon, subscribed to Audible, download a book to iPod, plug my ipod into my car audio system and off I go to commute everyday. Isn’t that easy?

If I ever had enough for audio books on a day, I can switch to my music collection in ipod. Very handy.

When I was searching for audio books solutions, I set out some requirements:

I need a large selections of self-development books.
I need a quick system of selecting what I need.
I need a good software integration for transferring books to my ipod.
I need a subscription based so I don’t need to take care of payment every time I purchase a book.

I have found Audible suits me well. It is pretty easy to manage on audio books, integrates with ipod pretty well and it has large range of selections. I have Audible subscription since Feb and I love every bit of it. Subscription is cost effective as well because if you purchase one book at a time books’ price may vary from $10 to over $20. However subscription fee is fixed and you can use any book credit to it.

My current collection of self-development audio books are:
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships
10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking
How to Win Friends & Influence People
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Develop a Powerful Memory

For paper book, I do not usually read through again once completed. For audio books, as I can go through them really fast (like 10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking is around 3 hours so I can finish it off in 3 days on commuting), I don’t have excuse of not listening the audio book again.

Have you got similar stories on audio books? Please share your experience. If not, I encourage you to try it out when you are exercising, commuting, or cooking etc. You can listen to two FREE audiobooks RISK-FREE from Audible now to try out this time-saving self-development method.

Next, I am going to write more about my audible setup. Stay tuned.

http://www.wolfger.com/ Wolfger

When I put an MP3 player on my birthday wishlist, I was very excited about finding this kind of resource. I went to audible.com, and quickly went from “excited” to “ticked off”. Audible does not support either my MP3 player or my Operating System (Linux), and when I wrote to them asking about their plans to support these in the future, they replied with a simple “no”.

So does anybody out there know of a good source for downloadable audio books in mp3, ogg, or wma format, with a system that is OS independant? Because audible sucks.
http://www.stevepavlina.com Steve Pavlina

You may find many other opportunities to listen to audio programs throughout the day beyond the daily commute. In college I used to listen to motivational tapes with my Walkman as I walked from one class to the next. 10 minutes here and there add up, which can give you an hour a day of extra learning.

Today I listen to audio programs on my iPod while exercising, cooking, or doing other physical tasks. I keep a digital voice recorder in my pocket too, so if I hear an idea I really like, I record a verbal note about it and keep listening. This generates about 10 recorded ideas for every hour of listening, of which maybe 1 or 2 are actionable.
http://www.lifehack.org/ Leon

@Wolfger: Don’t get discourage by it. Let me propose another solution. Many popular books in bookstore like Amazon also keeps an Audio CD edition of the book. You can easily get around with the specific OS requirement by purchasing Audio Books in CD version, convert it to MP3 in Linux for your own. For instance, like our favorite Getting Things Done – head to there, you should see a small box says Other edition and Audio CD. Hope it helps!

@Steve: Thanks for sharing! This should be really helpful addition for our readers.
griff

I think audio books are great and I especially like delivery method and cost when using services like audible.com. It is the very first service I signed up for when I got broadband and probably a major driver in getting high speed access in the first place.

Besides listening to a ton of self-help/improvement and business books (often one in the same these days) I also listen to general life and knowledge enriching books on history, science, and philosophy. Occasionally, I get something purely for enjoyment. (e.g. Neal Stephenson, Asimov, Card). These works I use as a motivation tool for exercising. I won’t listen to them unless I am running or walking (and now that I have a pool, I am considering a waterproof solution as well). I found this to be a great way to ensure that I get regular exercise, no matter how beat I am mentally. I just have to be disciplined about listening to the material only when exercising.
http://maulik.net/ Maulik

During the past couple of years, I’ve “read” 88 books in 719 hours! Between commute to work, walking to-fro from classes, shopping, I cannot get enough. i preach to my friends about getting in the habit all the time :-P

here’s a link to my reading log … that’s how i know how much time i’ve spent reading.

http://maulik.freeshell.net/Miki.pl?page=Reading+Log.miki

@wolfger — if you can setup up a windows box, you can convert audible format to mp3 relatively easily.

@steve — good idea about the voice recorder!
http://www.lukegilman.com Luke Gilman

Audible is great, though I’ve discovered that it’s at times easier to “rent” audio books items by buying them used off Amazon or Ebay and selling them back after I’m done with them, usually for around the same price. It’s a bit more leg work, but it gets around compatibility hassles and can be cheaper if you do it right. Whether or not you keep your ‘back up’ copy is between you and yoru conscience. Sometimes it’s just flat out cheaper. ‘A Beautiful Mind’ is currently $60 from Audible (w out subscription of course) and available used from Amazon for $40. Does anyone else find it really hard to follow fiction on audio though? My mind tends to wander and I miss subtle but crucial details.
Rick

I thought this kind of sounded like an ad for Audable, and it is. The link to the 2 free books at the bottom is an affiliate link. Keep in mind this article may be biased because of this.
http://community.lifehack.org/blog/69 Jaco

A book in 3 hours audio? Are the books extremely summarized? thanks
http://community.lifehack.org/blog/69 Jaco

Thanks Rick, the author should explain if this is just an ad or what.
http://www.lifehack.org/ Leon

@Griff: Very good suggestion. When I chewed up all the self-development audio books I will start listening some boarder topics such as history which should be interesting.

@Maulik: I really liked the way you log your progress. Let me know if you want to write a short post on your journey as well :) Do you digest all the books by listening to them once or you may listen to it again?

@Luke: Very good idea. It definitely may suitable for some people. For me I don’t want to spend time on selling and shipping the items again.

@Rick: The article itself is based on my experience so definitely it is not an ad. For your question on links on this site, it would be appreciated if you can check out the third bullet points at Support Lifehack.org page: http://www.lifehack.org/about/support/ . Let me know if it is useful to write a disclaimer to describe this.

@Jaco: Yes, but it is depends on the book. You also will see there are book marked as Unabridged which is the full version – but for some of those it is dragged a bit if you listen to it. Personally, I don’t mind abridged or unabridged version.
http://community.lifehack.org/blog/69 Jaco

I never used audio books but I agree with Luck and Leon that they must be good for technical or selfhelp books but not so for literature (except poetry maybe),

Is there any poor man´s hack for this?. I mean not Ipod or costly equipment or subscritions or buys (60$ ??).

e.g. some place where you can download audio books or free (maybe sharing) and then use your PC to make a tape (yes a tape a walkman is what I have)

Or maybe using text to speech soft to create an audio file from any text/book?. Will the file be huge?.

Possible?. Not practical I know.
http://community.lifehack.org/blog/69 Jaco

text 2 voice

http://www.tucows.com/downloads/Windows/AudioVideo/Audio/TextToSpeech/

http://e-bility.com/speak.php

—-
This is a text-to-speech program with Microsoft Voices. You can have your computer read any part of the news, weather forecast, charting messages and e-mails. The application can also read Word documents, rich text files and PDF files. The speaking speed and voice quality can be changed according to your needs. You can also save the voice as a WAV file, so that you can listen later or burn it onto a CD. You can also record your sound to compare Natural Voice and your voice. It includes Microsoft voices.
http://www.tucows.com/preview/322007 10meg free
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Manish

thanks Leon for introducing me to this wonderful source of information. Transferring the books to my Pocket PC (Dell Axim X50v) was a breeze. Now I can utilize my time better while driving or doing errands.

Pros:
- Good sound quality.
- Allows me to download multiple copies for multiple devices.
- Allows access to Audible manager through 4 different machines at any point of time.

Cons:
- Pricing information is not listed clearly.
http://community.lifehack.org/blog/69 Jaco

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/2

Audio Book, computer-generated
http://maulik.net/ Maulik

@Leon – a post about my journey to becoming a non-stop audiobook-er? :-) In any case, please find me, I’d love to write a post regarding audio books.

If people are looking for more audio books sources, I’ve cataloged a few here:
http://maulik.freeshell.net/Miki.pl?page=Audio+Books.miki
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http://www.nextstudent.com/ Kelly Miller

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Katie

Hello,

I love audiobooks too and listen to them all the time. I’d like to suggest people check their public libraries. I’ve never paid for an audiobook. I check them out all the time and my library is looking into offering eAudiobooks that people can download for free. I know there are other libraries that already offer this service.

Your public library is a great resource for media of all kinds–books, CDs, DVDs, audiobooks on CD or cassette, art prints, online databases, etc.–all for free!
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Daniel Kim

I had a subscription to Audible back when I traveled a lot. They offered a free MP3 player for a one-year commitment, which was a really great deal to me. I got an Otis player, then a MuVo when I re-upped.

If you have an unsupported player already, you could use Audible’s burn-to-CD feature, then rip the CD tracks to MP3 (this may be a violation of your license agreement, so be warned that I am not necessarily advocating piracy of copyright-protected material, your mileage may vary, past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future performance, some settling of contents may have occurred during shipping and handling, other restrictions may apply . . .)

I found Audible to be *very* worthwhile. You get a terrific deal on the books with your monthly payment, since an audiobook may retail for over $30, but you can download one monthly for about $15, as well as a single periodical. An unabridged novel may give you 12+ hours of listening time, and take two files of 40 Mb each. Recordings that are made today are of very good quality, unlike the rather muddy sound quality found in tapes.

I would also recommend Natural Voices Pro ($40) for text to speech. The AT&T voices in the Pro version are quite easy on the ears, compared with the free Microsoft voices, and the direct to MP3 conversion is convenient. It takes about 15 minutes to convert a feature article in, say, Foreign Affairs magazine.
Daniel Kim

Sorry, I forgot to add a warning:

If you listen to audiobooks while driving, be careful. I was listening to “Dave Barry Does Japan” and nearly ran off the road laughing.
hank

Hello. my 5-year-old,Anna, would like some stories to listen to on cd, for her cd player. We don’t have much money right now. We are struggling, and I will be having surgery on my right leg soon. If you could,please,send her something, we would really appreciate it. Thank you so much,and God bless!

Hank Christen

5603 66 Lane N. St.Petersburg,Florida 33709 U.S.A.
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http://moneyconciousness.com Nenad

This article now has me inspired to go back to audible (I was a member about a year ago, but they ran out of books that seemed interesting to me).

It will be useful, now that I have a new baby and approximately 15min free a day.
http://www.theaudiodownloadstore.com Sam Kanakanui

Hi,
I’ve been listening to book on tape (which dates me, I know) for over 10 years. I must say I disagree about them not being good for anything other than self help or I guess non-fiction. In fact, fiction is mostly what I listen to. I’m not a huge fan of dramatizations but rather a single narrator telling me a story. I can get lost. (blatant plug) I enjoy them so much I started an online store. It has over 5000 titles from big name authors and titles down to independent authors and smaller publishers for less than $5. There are also some completely free titles so you can try out the service. You can email directly at sam@theaudiodownloadstore if you have any question. (end blatant plug)
There are lots of sources out there for MP3 files and audio books. Just point to google and do a search.
Good luck
Sam
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http://freeonlineaudiobooks.blogspot.com/ Nadine

I love being able to put audio books on my mp3 player. But my budget doesn’t allow for purchasing or renting very many audio books. So I started looking on the net for free stuff and have found lots of free (and honest) resources for free audio content. Everything I find gets listed at http://freeonlineaudiobooks.blogspot.com/
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http://selfdevelopmentbooks.net self development books

Thanks for the tip on free audiobooks on the net. I agree Audiobooks are a great way to do two things at once I often listen to subliminal Cds as I’m going to sleep at night or when I first wake in the morning. I find it puts me in a great mood for the rest of the day.
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Yeah audio books are the way to go in the future. Because I find I am just too busy to read a book… It is much nicer to put an audio book on and take the infomation in that way.
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most of the time i listen to audiobooks while surfing the net, i love to multitask he he ~
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