Is the Audio books any good?

[nosscire]

Hey guys!

 

I've begun walking and running quite a bit, and though that Audio Books might be a good way to make it a bit more fun. However, i've had bad experiences with audio books before, so before I go out and buy WoT as audio books, I thought I would ask you guys about it.

 

Do anyone have them or have listened to them, and could tell me if they are any good? As english aint my first language, I need the voices to be very clear, as it's easy to miss things otherwise.

 

I've tried looking for a sample, but couldn't find any. I've also been to the library, but they only have the swedish audio books, and this series is just way way better in English.

 

Thanks :)

[The Lost One]

I think they are excellent and very well done.  As long as you listen to the unabridged versions only!  The few abridged versions that I have listed too are horrible.  You might want to do a trial at audible.com, so you can get the first book at a discount and see how you like them.  Audible.com has all of them now. 

[bjclinton]

i downloaded mine as a torrent file for free. they're awesome. ive read the series about 5-6x, and its amazing that i can still pick up more details by listening than i did while reading (reason being, sometimes during exciting scenes, i read so fast that I can miss some small details!!)

 

my only complaint- albeit a VERY small one- is that there are a few parts that get distorted. once or twice a book, there are periods of time that last about 30-45 seconds where it gets distored. doesn't happen often, but beware.

[nosscire]

I'm pretty sure they ain't distorted if you, you know, like, BUY THEM....

 

Well, two good reviews, I think I dare to buy the first book anyway. Don't cost that much when they are bought in digital format.

 

Thanks guys!

[Shendare]

I bought New Spring and books 1-3 recently on Audio CD.

 

Instead of having to deal with the 20+ CDs for each book, I took to ripping the discs into MP3 files so I could compress everything down to 2-3 discs per book (except New Spring, which fit on 1 MP3 CD).

 

I have the distortion problems, too. I don't know whether it's some sort of copy protection, or whether it's just a side effect of whatever method they used when manufacturing the CDs, but attempting any high-speed transcoding of the audio tracks results in periodic distortions in the MP3 files, from skips and stutters to static to silence.

 

I've been trying to note the actual distorted tracks as I go so I can go back and re-rip those problem tracks, but because you're not going to listen to the same part of the same chapter of a particular book over and over, re-recording to fix the errors sort of falls by the wayside.

[dyehead]

I joined audible years ago, and pay 19.95/month for 2 audio credits.

 

This allowed me to get all the books for $10 each, instead of $40+

 

I think they may still have that program, but at a little higher cost.

 

I think the books are great.  Michael Kramer and Kate Reading do a great job.  Kate gets better as the series goes on (starts off not so great) but Michael is good from the start.

 

Sebastian

[Dragon21]

I own all of them, and agree with everybody who said they are very well done.

[slayerA]

Listening to the audio books is like watching a movie with your eyes closed. They, the readers, make it sound more like play voiced by one person(their respective parts of course). Also RJ, never read his own books, but listened to them on audio. Sometimes I would follow along with the book, it's kinda like close caption tv.

[Guest leebarr]

They are very good to listen too. When you go to the libary ask them to order the audio books in english. Then you can download them to your cumputer and save some money.

[Barracuda]

8) i use them a lot when im in the car :) there great. only problem is that the volume changes alot.

[oosquaiaddict]

Ive started listening to them via audible.com in the last 2 months for exactly the same reason, somthing to listen to and hopefully motivate me to exercise some more, and Ive really liked them so far. I actually do look forward to the evening walk, so I can listen to a chapter or two. Good thing the are long too, I wind up "reading" one book a month, as these books are betweeen 30 and 40 hours each.