I used to read a lot in digitized speech -- the artificial voice doing
a dsy file (it's the standard markup for making a document navigable
when reading by voice). But a few years ago I upgraded handhelds and
suddenly proper audio was feasible, so I mostly do that now. I've
found it's less mentally tiring, and also much easier to follow
human-voiced narration in loud environments like the train, which is
where I do my reading. But the problem is I still have piles of TBR in
dsy, and it's great stuff, but as you noted, no one has bothered to
record it yet. There has been a big push in the past year to record a
lot of older scifi and fantasy, which is great. Contemporary
nonfiction has a pretty good shot at being recorded, though obviously
the more obscure stuff that doesn't get Ny Times buzz is hit and miss.
But I've found the back catalog of politics/policy in particular is
slim.
My main audiobook sources are Audible (somewhat evil, but damn useful,
and the annual plans are quite cost effective), the National Library
Service (not sure if you would qualify to be a patron, but if you do,
they have an excellent and growing online library), and a third source
which I will not mention here, but that I'd be happy to tell you about
in pm if you're interested. ...ahem. I also get occasional audiobooks
from my local public library -- I think in some cases you can borrow
audio by Kindle or otherwise download.
You can be 99% sure that any book I talked about in the last two years
has been made into an audiobook by someone, somewhere. But if you want
the source on anything, just ask -- I probably remember.
no subject
I used to read a lot in digitized speech -- the artificial voice doing a dsy file (it's the standard markup for making a document navigable when reading by voice). But a few years ago I upgraded handhelds and suddenly proper audio was feasible, so I mostly do that now. I've found it's less mentally tiring, and also much easier to follow human-voiced narration in loud environments like the train, which is where I do my reading. But the problem is I still have piles of TBR in dsy, and it's great stuff, but as you noted, no one has bothered to record it yet. There has been a big push in the past year to record a lot of older scifi and fantasy, which is great. Contemporary nonfiction has a pretty good shot at being recorded, though obviously the more obscure stuff that doesn't get Ny Times buzz is hit and miss. But I've found the back catalog of politics/policy in particular is slim.
My main audiobook sources are Audible (somewhat evil, but damn useful, and the annual plans are quite cost effective), the National Library Service (not sure if you would qualify to be a patron, but if you do, they have an excellent and growing online library), and a third source which I will not mention here, but that I'd be happy to tell you about in pm if you're interested. ...ahem. I also get occasional audiobooks from my local public library -- I think in some cases you can borrow audio by Kindle or otherwise download.
You can be 99% sure that any book I talked about in the last two years has been made into an audiobook by someone, somewhere. But if you want the source on anything, just ask -- I probably remember.