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June 14, 2005

H.G. Wells

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With interest in War of the Worlds at an all time high, we’ve decided you may want to know more about the author of the original book. I just finished an H.G. Wells Author Page for your enjoyment. Believe me, its full of great audio books that shouldn’t be missed. I hadn’t realized Well’s had such an output of continuous classics. I mean you shouldn’t skip any of them; every title is basically world famous, from “The Time Machine” to “The Invisible Man”. So if your interested in War of the Worlds lately, you’ll have to go on and check out more from this guy. Imagine if Bram Stoker had written three books on the scale of Dracula! Again, I can’t believe how many classics Well’s managed to write.




June 1, 2005

I love reading this stuff…

Just read a great article on the growing cult of audio book lovers that is coming out of the wordwork lately. It gives a great rundown on why audio books are becoming more popular lately and how people are reacting to this change in how we consume information. It seems we’re living in a time where spoken word audio is getting to be more in vogue, especially now the mp3 players have made it easier. Take special note of how the article mentions how regular book readers are inclined to marginalize audio books as something less than literate. This sort of thing is going to go away after people realize not only are they retaining the books they hear but they’re also saving time. Anyway, this one is worth taking a look at.




May 27, 2005

Freakonomics

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It’s fitting that the first blurb over on Audible.com for Freakonomics was by no less than Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink. Like those two titles, Freakonomics is an interesting journey through some amazing stories and statistics. It doesn’t get into the meat of the issues and while Levitt and Dubner seem to aspire to not much more than impressing us with some cool, real world applications of economics, the result is nonetheless engaging and highly listenable.

If you’re the type of person with a strong logical inclination, you’ll almost certainly fall in love with this book. The reasons why realtors almost always sell their own homes for more and why drug dealers often live with their parents are startling and not soon to be forgotten. Freakonomics will definitely change the way you look at the world. Even though the book lacks a cohesive theme and is a bit self-indulgent at times (Levitt is smart, we get it!) you’ll still find yourself challenged and enlightened by what Levitt and Dubner have to offer.

To find out more about Freakonomics, click here.




May 19, 2005

The Technology Fuels the Service

Read this short story about what’s happening at the Algonquin in New York and consider this: has there ever been a hotel in the history of ever that offered walkmen or a cd boombox in a similar manner? The Ipod’s information dispersal capabilities are becoming more apparent every day. So much so that the device’s popularity is actually INFORMING the way several industries are engineering new business models. I never would have thought about listening to audio books at a hotel, but the chance to try out an ipod and listen to books while I’m on vacation is a great idea. THe only problem is that ipods will get so affordable as the market gets flooded that the freshness seal on a service like this is limited. Then again, when EVERYONE has an ipod, I envision kiosks all over the place where you can jack yourself in and download information on almost every business or service imaginable.

Think about it, not only will you be able to hook up your ipod into the Algonquin terminal and hear a bunch of history on the place, you’ll also be able to go to a museum, mall, park or whatever, download information and use it for whatever purpose you need. Libraries may even be replaced by a huge room of terminals with which people can download their books (or ebooks if you still like reading) directly, and for free. You’ll go to an airport and get automatic downloads of any weather or flight updates you need (which is more convenient then nervously checking a screen every few minutes). We’re living the Will Gibson future more and more every minute of every day. Information will be so available and so portable that the sense of empowerment will be insane!




May 17, 2005

The Idea is Catching On

Looks as though Audible is figuring out what a learning resource spoken word audio can be. I just read this article on the deal they’ve recently struck Pearson Higher Education. The idea is that Audible will be releasing audio versions of their college text book curriculum. This is only the beginning of something that is going to explode on the internet, mark my words.




May 17, 2005

D.T. Suzuki and the Art of Zen

I’ve been very focused on Zen Buddhism this weekend. My tireless efforts have produced two quality entries to the growing list of LearnOutLoud.com awesomeness. The first page I want to mention is the new author entry for D.T. Suzuki. He’s one of the biggest popularizers of Buddhism in the west. Did your brother come back from college one time and drop words like Koan or Satori without explanation? He probably skimmed one of Suzuki’s introductory books and is trying to make you feel inferior. Don’t worry, we can help you bone up. Then again, it isn’t really Zen to learn something for the sole purpose of retaliating a slight to your ego. Food for thought.

Anyway, this entry ties in with the Zen Buddhism topic page I made yesterday as well. If you are wondering what Zen is about or already have read about it and still don’t know what the heck is going on, here’s my stab at it. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but I don’t know how easy it is to really write about zen anyway. It isn’t a religion that fits easy description. Nevertheless I will admit I’m personally intrigued and will be adding some of the audio books I found to my must-listen list.




May 11, 2005

New Topics at LOL

Are you in the position to start looking for a new house? Do you want to start renting out apartments? Well, I can’t even begin to fathom such decisions personally, but if you are finding yourself financially flush, you might want to think about investing in something worthwhile. Real Estate seems to be a real safe bet these days and we here at LOL HQ decided to give everyone the leg up with our Real Estate Topic Page. The Topic Pages are sort of like articles designed as a guide to whats available on audio for a given topic of general interest. We’re starting to think up new topics to write about for your listening pleasure and we’re open to requests. Do you have a hobby or topic that you want to know more about on audio or video? Let us do the research man. We’re happy to help and besides, we learn a ton when we make them. So yeah, tell us what you think of these topic pages. There’s only two so far but we’re going to be bringing in alot more this month. You’ll like what we’ve got cooking here, believe me.




May 4, 2005

Dr. Phil McGraw

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I just finished a page for one of those guys you hear about, but never take real notice of except for on TV every once in awhile. I don’t exactly know why Dr. Phil hasn’t hit my radar, but he is a big thing for many people and it looks as if he’s been a big help to them. Maybe I’ll have to give him a futher look in the future. He’s sort of physically imposing, I don’t know if I’d be able to be very forthright with him on a sofa. He’s sort of pushy from what I can tell based on one, admittedly distracted viewing of 10 minutes from his TV Show. All kidding aside, I welcome your comments on the author page.




April 26, 2005

A Challenger Arises to Fight Audible

Just did want to notify you all who’s going to be Audible’s main competition in the digital downloading of audio books sector. Media Bay is joining forces with MSN Music to create the largest downloadable audio book fleet this side of Audible‘s union with Apple iTunes.

Media Bay powers their Audio Book Club which is sort of like the clubs you get through Columbia House or BMG Music if you ever got suckered into those.




April 20, 2005

Publisher Pages

I’ve been working on some publisher pages recently and I felt compelled tonight to write my own meager thoughts on a few of the companies I’ve helped profile.

Sadly these publishers mentioned are out of business.

First I’ll talk about Airplay. These guys may not have much and yes, there is some trash fiction in the mix, but when they’re good, they’re really good. The Jamaica Kincaid books, Poetry selection and Shakespeare titles are all top notch and genuinely unique. There were only 19 titles currently listed on their page, but over half were of high quality and a proceed of the sales go to charity. Pretty cool way of working guys. I give you a thumbs up.

Oh but wait, there’s the best of the best of the publishers I’ve recently encountered. The winner of my personal best publisher of the week is Audio Scholar. I couldn’t believe the titles I was going through with them. Everything had something of value, from Gandhi’s biography to Carl Sagan’s essays; it was all too much to handle! I wanted to listen to every one. If you want to get an idea of their topic range, I think it skews more on the end of science-based books, but there are a few titles devoted to people with more spiritual leanings. I think science is a good niche to take on since there are ALOT of spiritual audio book vendors out there but not many for more… left brain listeners out there.

Check out the links, there’s alot of things in there that I’m sure you’ve never seen on audio before. At least it was new to me!