Do You Read On A Kindle, Paper Books, Audiobooks?

[Sam Gamgee]

@fireground_piper

Would you care to elaborate on your job? Sounds very interesting!

 

[ADKPiper]

kindle
I carry an entire library in my pocket.
Love it

 

[fireground_piper]

That is a pretty interesting vocation Fireground!

@fireground_piper

Would you care to elaborate on your job? Sounds very interesting!

I have been very fortunate and lucky. A couple of early career choices, kind favors of old colleagues, some luck and a simple desire to work has afforded me my relatively long, stable career in an otherwise unstable industry (media).

I answered a random gig offer fresh out of college to master some audiobooks for someone which turned into a 4 year gig mastering audiobooks for the NLS Talking Book Program for the blind and disabled.

That opened a door eventually where I was engineering and mastering books for a different company for the same program as well as engineering projects for the commercial market at yet another company. If someone offered work, I’d take it and sometimes that would have me in studio from 9am to midnight at the extremes. I ingested a ton of material over the next few years doing that. I always made sure my work was as perfect as could be even as the 12th hour would roll around and then had the opportunity to transition out of being in the studio directly and into the greater production staff which had been my past 12 years or so.

So I still work with the creatives (authors, talent) daily but I don’t consume the content like I once did. Once in a while I will load up a few audiobooks though (if you have not listened to the re-recordings of the Silmarillion, the hobbit and the LOTR trilogy Andy Serkis did over the past few years, I would recommend! I relistened to the hobbit so far and it’s just fantastic. I plan to fit in the time for the others, his performance is so good).

 

[Sam Gamgee]

I have been very fortunate and lucky. A couple of early career choices, kind favors of old colleagues, some luck and a simple desire to work has afforded me my relatively long, stable career in an otherwise unstable industry (media).

I answered a random gig offer fresh out of college to master some audiobooks for someone which turned into a 4 year gig mastering audiobooks for the NLS Talking Book Program for the blind and disabled.

That opened a door eventually where I was engineering and mastering books for a different company for the same program as well as engineering projects for the commercial market at yet another company. If someone offered work, I’d take it and sometimes that would have me in studio from 9am to midnight at the extremes. I ingested a ton of material over the next few years doing that. I always made sure my work was as perfect as could be even as the 12th hour would roll around and then had the opportunity to transition out of being in the studio directly and into the greater production staff which had been my past 12 years or so.

So I still work with the creatives (authors, talent) daily but I don’t consume the content like I once did. Once in a while I will load up a few audiobooks though (if you have not listened to the re-recordings of the Silmarillion, the hobbit and the LOTR trilogy Andy Serkis did over the past few years, I would recommend! I relistened to the hobbit so far and it’s just fantastic. I plan to fit in the time for the others, his performance is so good).

I really enjoyed Serkis’s new reading of The Hobbit a lot.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I have been very fortunate and lucky. A couple of early career choices, kind favors of old colleagues, some luck and a simple desire to work has afforded me my relatively long, stable career in an otherwise unstable industry (media).

I answered a random gig offer fresh out of college to master some audiobooks for someone which turned into a 4 year gig mastering audiobooks for the NLS Talking Book Program for the blind and disabled.

That opened a door eventually where I was engineering and mastering books for a different company for the same program as well as engineering projects for the commercial market at yet another company. If someone offered work, I’d take it and sometimes that would have me in studio from 9am to midnight at the extremes. I ingested a ton of material over the next few years doing that. I always made sure my work was as perfect as could be even as the 12th hour would roll around and then had the opportunity to transition out of being in the studio directly and into the greater production staff which had been my past 12 years or so.

So I still work with the creatives (authors, talent) daily but I don’t consume the content like I once did. Once in a while I will load up a few audiobooks though (if you have not listened to the re-recordings of the Silmarillion, the hobbit and the LOTR trilogy Andy Serkis did over the past few years, I would recommend! I relistened to the hobbit so far and it’s just fantastic. I plan to fit in the time for the others, his performance is so good).

So, I guess it will be inevitable, but when will Tom Hanks read his version of The Hobbit?

 

[fireground_piper]

So, I guess it will be inevitable, but when will Tom Hanks read his version of The Hobbit?

I am curious if there is a specific title that you wanted, but then didn't based on your past comment.

 

[10piper]

I’ve been doing audiobooks for about twenty years (with a paper book thrown in now and again when time permits) and have enjoyed them a lot. I don’t plan on giving them up, but they don’t seem to scratch the literary itch like they once did.

I’ve been thinking of an old Victorian author I’ve been wanting to explore more and considered buying his books in nice hardback editions. Then it dawned on me that I have his entire catalog on Kindle (I think I gave $1.99 for all those books a long time ago).

So I dug out my Kindle Paperwhite. It’s been on dead battery mode for about ten years and it’s still working. It’s not the same as reading a paper book but it’s still pretty cool. I didn’t connect well with it years ago but I’m going to give it another try.

Do you all use a Kindle or the like? How do you do your reading?

I dis!ike kindle and it's ilk. For me, nothing will replace the physical book.

 

[warren]

The ability to travel and have thousands of books available, in my Kindle, no matter where I am makes the Kindle invaluable.

 

[Sam Gamgee]

Most of you are probably smarter than me, but I personally love that the Kindle has a dictionary feature. I read a lot of old books and use it constantly.

 

[ssjones]

Most of you are probably smarter than me, but I personally love that the Kindle has a dictionary feature. I read a lot of old books and use it constantly.

Most of the folks I encounter who say they don't like them have never owned one.... (like me a few years back)
I do constantly look up words, I forgot about that convenience feature.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Paper books only

 

[Buffalo]

I dis!ike kindle and it's ilk. For me, nothing will replace the physical book.

Paper books only

I was the same way, until I actually used one. Still love my physical books, but being able to take a library with me when I travel is priceless. Different tools for different jobs, never say never.

 

[Searock Fan]

I used to read a lot, but in later years I find my eyes get tired easier, so not so much anymore. Besides a ton of audio books out there, there are a lot of radio shows, some oldies and some new, that can be listened to or saved, and they're free. Here's a few links to try, and if you like them, you can find many more.

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

OTR.Network Library (The Old Time Radio Network)

Over 12,000 old time radio shows you can listen to for free. We add about 100 more every week.

www.otr.net

RadioEchoes.com

www.radioechoes.com

Chet Chetter's Tales from the Morgue - Single Episodes : Old Time Radio Researchers Group : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Chet_Chetters_Tales_from_the_Morgue_Singles (not what you think!)

 

[Peter Turbo]

Books and Audiobooks, not opposed to a kindle or any digital reader just haven't got one yet. I've read a book or two on my desktop putting one of my monitors in portrait mode, I guess that sort of counts as a kindle?

 

[Sam Gamgee]

Books and Audiobooks, not opposed to a kindle or any digital reader just haven't got one yet. I've read a book or two on my desktop putting one of my monitors in portrait mode, I guess that sort of counts as a kindle?

Back when I had a desk job, I’d get ebooks and put them in Word and make them look like my work screen. Read a ton of books like that under the boss’s nose. Union life!

 

[Kobold]

Back when I had a desk job, I’d get ebooks and put them in Word and make them look like my work screen. Read a ton of books like that under the boss’s nose. Union life!

I used to hide books down my pants and take them in the bathroom. I read a lot of books on the company dime.

 

[mingc]

Yeh, low quality, homemade, just doesn't work with the subject matter that I usually select. I don't want some goon living in his mother's basement's opinions on History, Art, or Curation. I tend to follow ones made by the Smithsonian, or one of the college lecture or discussion series. They tend to be better produced with easier to verify information.

Any podcasts you can recommend? Informed ones that don't insult the intelligence of the listener and which have stood out to you?

In exchange, I'll disclose that I recently discovered In Our Time by the BBC. It has over 1000 episodes now, all interviews of academics on topics of all kinds. The host, Melvyn Bragg, is a Labour life peer so he is, formally, Lord Bragg. I just listened to episodes on the Ramayana, Tang Dynasty Poetry and most recently, the Barbary Pirates (many of whom were Europeans). Just wonderful.

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

Oh I forgot to add to this conversation a few days ago lol. I tried kindle ten years ago and it wasn’t for me. I all about the paper baby. My MLIS is focused on archives and records management so I love the tactile feel and smell of a good book. I love feeling the cover, flipping through the oars, if it’s a piece of scholarship for history I lover perusing the works cited pages to explore other readings.

I also have my library card and use it often. Libraries are more than just repositories of books, they provide many critical services to the public so go out and support them!

Ok I’m off my soapbox lol

*note: this author suffers from sausage fingers and hasty responses and as such should any of his posts look crazy with typos rest assured he isn’t having a stroke

 

[Sam Gamgee]

Big fan of the public library system here. A good library is a treasure to have nearby.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Any podcasts you can recommend? Informed ones that don't insult the intelligence of the listener and which have stood out to you?

In exchange, I'll disclose that I recently discovered In Our Time by the BBC. It has over 1000 episodes now, all interviews of academics on topics of all kinds. The host, Melvyn Bragg, is a Labour life peer so he is, formally, Lord Bragg. I just listened to episodes on the Ramayana, Tang Dynasty Poetry and most recently, the Barbary Pirates (many of whom were Europeans). Just wonderful.

It just depends on what you are interested in. I don’t specifically look for where a podcast is coming from. I just do searches for lecture series on Youtube on our Roku for things like printmaking, aesthetics, art history, or contemporary graphic arts.
Printmakers and graphic artists tend to exist in communities that share ideas that feed larger communities like Harvard or the Smithsonian. I’ve been out of the loop for a few decades, so I’ve been trying to catch up. We didn’t have podcasts or video lectures when I was in grad school.

I’m not sure if fine art printmaking or graphic arts would be your gig.