Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Free Audio Content for Long Drives?

Posted by Cliff on from the pleasant-diversions-for-the-ears dept.

goatbar asks: "We are going to be driving across the country at the end of the week to a new job and wondered if there are good sources for free books/stories on tape that we could put on our iPod to make the long hours of freeway driving go much faster. What are your favorite stories for the road and where are good places to pickup content? Old radio shows, mysteries, etc are all good!"

11 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. This American Life by sneakers563 · · Score: 4, Informative

    My favorite "story" radio show is This American Life. You can download the shows from Audible for a fee, or, if you're using Linux, you could use something like VSound to get them for free.

  2. nothing's better.. by thefirelane · · Score: 2, Informative

    Anyone who's heard at least one episode knows the best answer:

    This American Life

    There are episodes available on iTunes (too expensive though), and free real episodes on their site which could be converted. Listen to some of their best, it is the greatest thing there is for long drives

  3. Project Gutenberg by Scuff · · Score: 5, Informative

    Project Gutenberg has a bunch of old books in audio formats.

  4. Well let's see by Hadlock · · Score: 3, Informative
    if you do a quick google search, you come up with

    • http://www.radiolovers.com/
    • http://www.related- pages.com/oldtimeradio/
    • http://users2.ev1.net/~ey /audio.html


    There's lots of stuff out there. I remember downloading 45 minute radio stories from the 30's and 40's as 10-15MB files in mp3 format @ a bitrate between 20-56 or so.
    --
    moox. for a new generation.
  5. Cracker Barrel by tscheez · · Score: 1, Informative

    While not free, Cracker Barrel restaurants allow you to buy a book on tape and return it at any location for the purchase price - $4 per week you have the tape.

    And there are Cracker Barrel's at about every exit ramp (well, not really, but it seems like it sometimes)

    --
    Supplies!
  6. Previously on Ask Slashdot by Noksagt · · Score: 3, Informative

    This year's Technical Audiobooks: Where are the good ones? and Sources of Intelligent Audio for Commute? both had a lot of good suggestions.

    Podcasts are good, but (mostly) non-fiction & current. Audible or iTunes or other sources for downloading audio work well, as do ripping CDs to your player.

    1. Re:Previously on Ask Slashdot by Stigmata669 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Check out the NPR Science Friday podcast off of iTunes... free and interesting.

      --
      Yawn.
  7. Library by cdrudge · · Score: 2, Informative

    Check your library. Most will have audio books on CD that you could easily space shift to use in your iPod for a week or two while it was checked out to you.

  8. Its not free, but by Omega1045 · · Score: 2, Informative
    A few audiobooks from Audible.com will last you a while (I do not work for them). I have the $20/month account which gets me 2 audio books to download and keep forever. You can pick up some long stuff. A couple of the Dark Tower books by King were well over 20 hours. They are downloaded as MP3, but it is a special DRM version. You must have a player that supports it. They also burn out to CD, but 27 hours of audio (one of the dark tower books) is a whole-lotta-cdrs.

    And $10/audio book is dirt cheap compared to what you will find anywhere else. My wife just got the new Harry Potter at the store (JK Rowling is not on Audible) and paid about $50.

    Hope my rambling helps!

    --

    Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

  9. Local Library by AdiBean · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most local libraries (at least here in CT) have a small selection of audio books on CD. I have recently "discovered" audio books myself and they have completely replaced radio and music during drive time. Borrowing them from the library and ripping them to my iPod work really well. The interesting thing is that I am listening to things that I would not consider sitting down to read, and really enjoying them.

    A few hints ... use 64kbit MP3 encoding, that is plently of fidelity for the narration of a book and you can fit twice as much audio as normal. Second, rip the CDs in order and build a play list of all the tracks for just that book, again watching the play order. (Don't forget to turn off song shuffling before playing the book ;-)

    BTW, in case there are any iTunes developers listening, there are a couple of things that would make iTunes and the iPod much better for audio books. First is a per playlist setting that lets me ALWAYS disable shuffling when that playlist is played. Second is the ability to set a 'bookmark' in the iPod so that I can return to the same spot in the playlist at some future time. Lastly would be a per track or per playlist setting that would keep the tracks from being included when 'all' songs on the iPod are played. These features would make it much easier to go between music and audio books.

    Getting back to obtaining audio books from libraries, I am not sure about the legalities of ripping them to an iPod. Seems like fair use, 'cuz that is simply the format I want to play it in, and I am not selling, giving, distributing or anything else. But, that is really a question only a lawyer can answer.

  10. SCIFI Channels Seeing Ear Theatre by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Im surprised no one mentioned Sci-Fi Channels site section called 'Seeing Ear Theatre' with Fantasy and SciFi stuff for listening, granted its online listening but you can rip it and have a LOT to listen to. Ranging from humour to serious, drama to horror, campy to chilling...

    http://www.scifi.com/set

    This being /. I thought SOMEONE would have mentioned this resource.