September 15, 2006

What Makes a Great Audiobook

I've been listening recently to Leadership and Self-Deception and really have been enjoying it. It reminded me a lot of the audiobook for The Goal in that it takes place in the form of a dialogue and the narrator takes on different voices to represent who is talking.

I've realized that having some sort of dialogue (like this with a single narrator or a title like Kosmic Consciousness that's an actual dialogue) seems more engaging (at least to me) than having the traditional model of just having a single narrator reading a book as a monologue.

I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons why podcasts are becoming so popular. 99% of podcast are of the dialogue variety and I think, in the case of audio, that's truly what works better. Think of radio shows that are popular (e.g., Howard Stern, Opie & Anthony). Can you imagine how much worse they would be if you were forced to listen to one person the entire time? I think most people would flip the station in a heartbeat regardless of how entertaining that one person was.

Audiobooks are more popular than ever but I think they'll start to become "mainstream" once audiobook publishers wake up to the fact that most people don't want to listen to a single voice droning on for hours on end regardless of how good the content or narration is. If audiobook publishers don't realize this I think their businesses will be increasingly threatened by what's happening in podcasting.

I find myself listening to more and more podcasts these days and it has little to do with the fact that podcasts are free and audiobooks cost money. Rather it has more to do with the fact that I find the back-and-forth format of most podcasts to be better suited to how I like to consume information. I'm sure it's different for everyone but I wonder how many audiobook publishers even have this on their radar. If not maybe this will be a little free consulting for them...

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August 15, 2006

Our Top 100 Bestsellers

I'm a sucker for lists. When I was kid I remember creating a Top 100 list of songs each year and dubbing the songs (along with a voiceover of course) onto cassette tapes. It was one of my fondest memories of childhood.

If you're a sucker for lists like me you might want to take a look at the new Top 100 Bestsellers list we just posted to the site. We've had our Top 10 up for a while but now we've finally had enough orders to produce a meaningful Top 100. Here were a few I found interesting:

#20: English for Portuguese (Brazilian) Speakers - Easily our best selling language title. Who knew LearnOutLoud was so popular with the Portuguese and Brazilians?

#30: Spiritual Enlightenment - This one came to us via our TeachOutLoud service which allows you to self-publish your audio content. This title and Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment are both in our Top 50 which shows the great opportunity for those who want to self publish content to our site.

#71: A Survey of Ancient History - I love a good value as much as the next person. How about 8 hours of educational audio content for less than $5? Now that's what I call a bargain!

#93: Appreciating Emotional Intelligence - These interviews from New Dimensions are excellent. This represents a big part of why I'm so proud of the collection we've got here at LearnOutLoud. You might not find all the latest best-sellers but you will find a lot of high-quality stuff that you probably won't find elsewhere (with lots more on the way soon!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your Top 100 list. I can't even begin to imagine how much this world would change for the better if everyone made it their mission to listen to as many of these titles as possible!

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May 26, 2006

Classic Christian Audio from Hovel Audio

We recently added to our Downloads section over 60 titles from Hovel Audio, which is an excellent publisher of classic Christian audio books.

Here's the publisher page we created for them:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/hovel

From them you'll find classics like The Confessions of St. Augustine and Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton, as well as thoughtful audio books from contemporary Christian authors like Eugene H. Peterson and Dallas Willard. They also do some classic fiction by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, John Bunyan, and others. They've been generous enough to currently offer two of their titles in our free directory, Tolstoy On Death: The Death of Ivan Ilyich & Master Man and The Practice of the Presence of God.

I speak from listening experience when I say their production is stellar. I'm currently half way through listening to their edition of The Brothers Karamazov and in all honesty it's one of the best audio books I've ever listened to. Narrator Simon Vance provides a distinct voice for each character and he really brings the text to life. Their other narrators are industry professionals like Dan Cashman, Grover Gardner, Lloyd James, and many other superb narrators.

Also check out their expanded site Christianaudio.com which features their titles as well as other Christian audio books by many publishers. This site lets you save on audio books in all formats when you subscribe to their Thoughtful Listener plans.

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May 03, 2006

Napoleon Hill Audio Books on Digital Download

LearnOutLoud.com is proud to be the first retailer to offer Napoleon Hill's audio books on digital download including the all-time self-help classic "Think & Grow Rich". These 15 titles are published by Highroads Media which we've created a publisher page for:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/highroads

And we also feature an author page on Napoleon Hill:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/napoleonhill

Commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon Hill spent 20 years interviewing over 500 millionaires and his books feature the collected knowledge he gathered on how to attain success in business and in life. From his monumental 4 volume set "The Law of Success" to over 12 hours of rare recordings of Napoleon Hill lectures in "Your Right to Be Rich", you can learn from one of the most important self-help and wealth-building authors of all time.

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March 28, 2006

Audio Round-up

I don't post nearly enough about what I'm listening to. So I've resolved to change that and to share with all of you what I've been putting in my ears in the hopes that you find it useful. So, without further ado, here's is my latest playlist:

The Search by John Battelle - Polished this one off over the last 10 days. It was the best longish audiobook I've listened to since Friedman's The World is Flat. This history of search is fascinating and the intimate look at Google even more so. I'd highly recommend this one.

Mosaic - I've been looking around lately for a cool church here in LA. I was stoked to see that a church I had heard a lot about called Mosaic was podcasting. I listened to a couple of their sermons tonight and really dug them. I'm looking forward to checking them out in person...and what a great way to sample a church before you attend?

Brian Tracy - I've been all about the Brian Tracy stuff lately. It's perfect stuff to put on when you're tasks around the house because you can pick it up for ten minutes and regardless of where you're at you don't need that much context. I'll fire up his CDs when I'm doing dishes, laundry, etc. A perfect way to squeeze some more audio learning into the day.

Kosmic Consciousness by Ken Wilber - I'm a disc into a half into Wilber's 12+ hour dialogue and I'll admit it that it's pretty weighty. Having said that it's one of the more compelling listens I've had in a while. For anyone interested in the cutting edge of philosophy I'm not sure there's anything I could recommend more than Wilber's stuff. I've been a big fan of (and subscriber to) Integral Naked for a while and if you dig that you'll dig this one and vice versa.

OK, that's enough for now. Since I'm finally done with The Search I'm going to be cruising around looking for a new audiobook to listen to. Any recommendations?

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March 03, 2006

Most Teaching Company Lectures on Download

I was visiting the Teaching Company site and most of their courses are now on audio download. When purchased the courses are available for download on both MP3 and bookmarkable MPEG-4 files which is good for people that don't have an iPod. Also their downloads are contained in a download library so you can always go back and download again if need be. The prices of their downloads are about equal to the price of audio cassettes, which is reasonable if they're discounted. Here's the Teaching Company courses on our site updated with the ones that are now available on audio download:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/teachingcompany

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January 06, 2006

Two More Broken Records

I've added a couple more titles to my list of broken records: Jack Canfield's The Success Principles and Mark Victor Hansen's Dreams Don't Have Deadlines. These are two excellent titles that will get you thinking a little bit larger about your life and your goals. Great listening for the New Year!

By the way, it's interesting how so many people deride "self-help" and would steer away from titles like this. In actuality, many of the people who would shy away from books from people like Canfield and Hansen are probably the people who most need to be listening to them. The stuff we surround ourselves with has a bigger influence than we realize. Challenge yourself to turn off the talk radio on the way into work in the morning and throw one of these audio books. Notice the difference that it makes in your attitude and demeanor.

Now lather, rinse and repeat. :)

Have a great weekend everybody!

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November 01, 2005

Christian Audio Book Publishers

There's a lot of Christian book publishers and we've added three of them as publisher pages. Thomas Nelson Word, Zondervan, and Oasis Audio publish hundreds of audio bibles, Christian audio books, and audio books covering other topics like business and self development. Here's the pages we've made for them:

www.learnoutloud.com/thomasnelsonword
www.learnoutloud.com/zondervan
www.learnoutloud.com/oasisaudio

And if you're interested in finding more Christian audio books check out these publishers:

Mars Hill Audio
Creedence Communications
Multnomah Publishers
Tyndale House
Destiny Image
Baker Publishing Group

Posted by LOLDavid | Permalink

October 17, 2005

Audio Tour Guides For Travelers

For those of you who prefer learning about where you are traveling rather than wandering around aimlessly we just added 3 publisher pages for producers of audio tour guides. Here they are:

www.learnoutloud.com/ridewithme
www.learnoutloud.com/soundwalk
www.learnoutloud.com/soundtravel

Ride With Me Audio covers a number of the nation's interstate highways covering the history and geography of the area you're traveling through. Obviously great for road trips the audio tours are based on extensive research and narrated by world class narrators like Flo Gibson and Grover Gardner. On their site they sell their products as well as other travel audio on CD and cassette. Or you can get over a dozen of their titles through audio downloads on Audible.com.

Soundwalk is a publisher which create audio walking tours for various parts of New York City. For more details about Soundwalk you can read my article "Listening Your Way Around The Big Apple". Their audio guided NYC walking tours are available on CD and MP3 download.

If you're going to Europe, Sound Travel features audio-guided walking tours of major European cities including the cities of Paris, London, Florence, Rome, and Venice. Each city tour lasts 3 hours and includes a total of four tours/walks to places that are considered to be "off the beaten path". You can get their tours on cassette or on audio download through Audible.com.

So if you're traveling through any of these destinations there's no need to be bored. Even the most banal turnpike has a rich history and why not learn about it while you're there?

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October 09, 2005

MP3 Downloads of Great Lecturers & Speakers

We just put up three new publisher pages for What Is Enlightenment?, The Great Lecture Library, & iAmplify:

www.learnoutloud.com/whatisenlightenment
www.learnoutloud.com/greatlecturelibrary
www.learnoutloud.com/iamplify

These are three great publishers that offer downloadable lectures from leading speakers in a wide variety of fields. What Is Enlightenment? features speakers that discuss the latest trends in spirituality, psychology, religion, politics, science, and other topics. For $10/month you can subscribe to them and have access to all their streaming audio and video as well as the ability to download all their audio content on MP3. They've got samples of all their titles and they offer a free one month trial that gives you access to all their content.

The Great Lecture Library is a digital audio library of 1200 lectures and sermons from over 600 speakers that have been recorded at the Chautauqua Institution over the past 35 years. These lectures cover a vast array of topics and can be purchased a $5.95 per lecture or for an annual subscription fee you have access to all their lectures through streaming audio as well as a set number of audio downloads. They have a 15 day free trial that gives you access to all their lectures through streaming audio.

iAmplify features MP3 audio downloads from fitness professionals, lecturers, spiritual leaders, and self help speakers like Marianne Williamson and Barbara De Angelis. Users can browse through 24 different topics with downloadable programs on personal growth, yoga, parenting, and a wide variety of exercises. Once programs have been purchased they can be downloaded as MP3s or played through streaming audio.

So check out these publishers for great original audio content that you can download and take with you.

Posted by LOLDavid | Permalink

October 07, 2005

Language Learning Software

Sometimes when learning a language you don't want just the Listen & Repeat CDs or tapes because there are limitations to simply learning a language on audio. You can't see the words you're saying which limits your understanding of how spelling informs the pronunciation of the language. You can't read or write the language at all with audio language programs and that can be important when you're in a European city trying to read all those signs. And interactive language learning software can be a lot of fun since there's so many entertaining tests, exercises, and games you can play to learn the language instead of just memorizing it through listening and repeating.

So in the case you're interested in obtaining CD-ROM or online software for language learning you should check out our recently added publisher pages for Rosetta Stone and Transparent Language. You can check them out by going to:

www.learnoutloud.com/transparent
www.learnoutloud.com/rosetta

Rosetta Stone offers software in 29 languages with Level 1 & Level 2 programs that you can buy on CD-ROM or access through their monthly online subscription which costs $49.95 per month. Level 1 programs provide 92 interactive lessons and Level 2 programs include 118 lessons. Through these lessons you'll learn through 4 methods:

1. Listening to native speakers speak their everyday language
2. Speaking the language and making sure your pronunciation is right through speech recognition that compares your voice to native speakers
3. Reading exercises that link written language to real-life objects
4. Writing exercises that check your spelling, syntax and punctuation

Transparent Language has a more extensive offering of languages with over 100 different languages to learn through their 7 product lines that are available on CD-ROM with some of their titles available as online software that you can download. These product lines are all described in detail on their publisher page but basically they are an interactive mulitmedia immersion into a foreign language teaching you how to comprehend, converse, pronounce, read, and write a language. Their Complete Suites include three of their software programs along with Linguaphone's PDQ Talk which has 4 audio CDs and a translation dictionary.

Demos of their products are available online. For the online demo of Rosetta Stone click here. To download Transparent Language's free trial software click here. We feature most of Rosetta Stone's titles and Transparent Language's titles on our site so check them out.

Posted by LOLDavid | Permalink

September 12, 2005

The Ultimate Audio Cliff Notes

I recently picked up the massive collection "The World's 100 Greatest Books" which is a collection that consists of 100 45-minute audio abridgements of the greatest books of western literature. I thought they were very well done in terms of their content and giving background to the stories within their historical and literary context. But they were of course very abridged. If you're majoring in Literature they'd be pretty priceless because whenever you were falling behind in your reading you could likely pull out the disc for the novel you're needing to catch up on and get a basic understanding of the plot. The summaries are almost strictly plot related with a little character and thematic analysis. The stories move at a brisk pace which you must pay close attention to. For people who want a broad knowledge of all western literature without spending a lifetime reading I consider it a good set to have.

It's created by Sybervision whose 14 titles we recently added to our site. They also have the "The World's 100 Greatest People" and "The World's 50 Greatest Composers" which I'm going to try to track down. And the rest of their titles are on training yourself through Neuropsychological and Neuromuscular methods. Interesting stuff. Check it out:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/sybervision

Posted by LOLDavid | Permalink

September 11, 2005

Listen & Learn in 10 Quick Steps

Online Today publishes a series called "10 Quick Steps" which are downloadable audio programs that teach ways to do over thirty different things in just 10 Quick Steps. There's useful ones like "10 Quick Steps to Converting VHS Tapes to DVDs", there's techie ones like "10 Quick Steps to Perfect Backups", and there's fun ones like "10 Quick Steps to Becoming a Standup Comedian". They typically run between a half hour and an hour. Check them out:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/10quicksteps

Posted by LOLDavid | Permalink

August 05, 2005

Unabridged Classic Literature on Audio

For those of you who love classic fiction audio books I figured I'd point out some places to find classics unabridged. Three places where you'll find just about all the seminal classics unabridged are Recorded Books, Blackstone Audiobooks, and Books on Tape. Blackstone and Recorded Books offer their titles for rent, and all these publishers have their titles on Audible.com and iTunes available for audio download. In Audio and Tantor are two other publishers that pride themselves on unabridged editions of classic literature. Penguin Audio and NAXOS Audiobooks offer some unabridged literature in addition to many abridged works of literature.

Posted by LOLDavid | Permalink

July 17, 2005

Teaching Company Offers Audio Downloads

I love the Teaching Company. For anyone unaware they publisher and sell lecture courses from the nation's best university professors on CD, Cassette, DVD, VHS, and now for a few select courses Audio Download! Here are the courses available for audio download:

American Civil War
American Identity
Books That Have Made History
Chamber Music of Mozart
Classical Mythology
Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed Through Biography
Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition
History of Ancient Egypt
How to Listen to and Understand Great Music
Peoples and Cultures of the World
Plato's Republic
Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations
Story of Human Language

And they appear to be adding more courses for download every day so I'll update this list. You can download these courses as MP3s or as MPEG-4 which makes the files bookmarkable on your iPod. I bought "Peoples and Cultures of the World" in MPEG-4 format and the lectures showed up in the Audiobooks section of my iPod. My only qualm was that each lecture showed up separately there so you can bookmark each lecture individually but you have to remember which lecture you were on. I prefer what Audible.com does with the Barnes & Noble Portable Professor series where the course is listed as a whole within your Audiobooks section and then the file is broken up into chapters according to each lecture and you are able to bookmark the course as a whole. But other than that I think it's awesome that the Teaching Company has made the leap to the digital realm with their courses and I plan to buy and download many more.

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April 02, 2005

Bible on Audio for Upcoming Topic Pages

Busy day working the Topic Pages which we'll be featuring on our live site real soon. Our first topics are "Bible on Audio", "Travel USA", and "Real Estate". I've been entering in every audio Bible known to man including Bibles in every format: CD, Cassette, MP3, and Digital Downloadble Bibles, including Bibles read by a full cast with music to Bibles read by the single voice of James Earl Jones. And you can get just the Old Testament or just the New or just about any indivdual book you want, and you can get them in the King James Version, or the NIV or the English Standard Version or the New Living Translation or any other major translation. My main resource so far has been The Bible Source. They're much better organized than Amazon when it comes to browsing Bibles and they've even got some listening samples so you can get a taste for what you're buying. But when I finish our Bible Topic page I assure you it will be the best and most complete Bible on Audio page on the whole WORLD WIDE WEB!

Posted by LOLDavid | Comments (0) | Permalink

September 15, 2004

Good News from Audible.com

I received a response to my Audible customer service query today (here was the original issue). Audible's response:

"As per your email St. Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton was not up to your standards. I have refunded your account for the book and have restored your book credit."

Kudos to Audible for handling the situation appropriately. They were a bit slow in responding but they did the right thing in the end.

Posted by jbischke | Comments (0) | Permalink

September 13, 2004

St. Francis of Assisi

Well, I knew it had to happen. I've ordered about a dozen books from Audible.com and they have all been great. Awesome sound quality, great narration, etc. However, this week I listened to G.K. Chesterton's essay "St. Francis of Assisi" and wasn't impressed. The sound quality was poor and the narration lackluster. I've come to expect pretty high standards from Audible so I've e-mailed them to let them know and to request a credit/refund. We'll see how their customer service measures up...

If you are interested:

St. Francis of Assisi

I'll keep you posted on what I hear from Audible.

Posted by jbischke | Comments (0) | Permalink

September 08, 2004

There is a Spiritual Solution...

I had the pleasure of going to see Wayne Dyer speak last week here in Los Angeles. I've been a big fan of Dyer for quite some time and really his talk. There is something about Wayne's message that is very reassuring and calming. It's almost "anti-self-development" in the sense of not striving to hard to reach one's goals but rather relaxing, doing what comes naturally and allowing your true self to come out. If you haven't listened to any of Dyer's stuff before, here's a great title that I just recently finished:

There is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem

You'll likely agree that it's a great listen. For information about Wayne Dyer and his products visit http://www.drwaynedyer.com

Posted by jbischke | Comments (0) | Permalink

September 05, 2004

Ultraprevention

Another title that I'm listening to right now is Ultraprevention, an audio course from Mark Liponis and Mark Hyman, co-directors of medicine at Canyon Ranch. Like a lot of Andrew Weil's stuff, it's a sensible approach to nutrition that helps to explain many reasons for illnesss and provide means of prevention. I'll post a more detailed review when I've finished it but it's excellent thus far. Also, you can currently get a used cassette copy through Amazon for under $8!

For more information about Canyon Ranch, visit http://www.canyonranch.com

Posted by jbischke | Comments (0) | Permalink

September 02, 2004

Philosophy of Religion

I'm listening to Professor James Hall's Philosophy of Religion course right now (produced by The Teaching Company). It's a great course but what I'm really enjoying is a feature that The Teaching Company has added to their recent courses. They now have an executive summary at the end of each lecture. This is nice as it ties everything together for the listener.

Kudos on a cool product improvement!

Posted by jbischke | Comments (0) | Permalink