I have never listened to an audio book before. Are they usually read by the author? Are there, for example, books written Sagan read by him?

Hmm, audible.com won’t let me to browse through their site unless I pay. This is a funny way of doing business. How am I to know what I am paying for?

George - 14 January 2008 08:00 AM

Hmm, audible.com won’t let me to browse through their site unless I pay. This is a funny way of doing business. How am I to know what I am paying for?

Did you try searching for what interests you? At least the search function works for me.

I didn’t see the search window! Oops! Thanks, Doug.

Thomas Donnelly - 13 January 2008 09:26 PM

Schmick,

There may be an audible in Australia like there is in the UK which is different than the U.S. audible. The one in the U.S. seems rather expansive, with enough titles available to make your head reel. I’ll get more info and get back to you.  It may be less attractive to our listeners in Australia than it is to those in the U.S. or the UK or Canada.

Cheers, Thomas

I’m already a member of audible.com (so no free download for me ).  In a fairly extensive search I did about a month ago (U.S. site), I also found that many of the authors featured on POI do not have audiobooks on audible.com, though I think in the cases I checked, there exists no audio version of the book, so it seems it’s really not so much a problem with audible.com as it is a problem with audio title availability.  Perhaps some of the publishers don’t think that enough of a market exists for the audiobooks by these authors?

UPDATE: I’m editing this post to add the titles for POI-featured authors that I did find in my late-December search.  (I might have missed one or two.  I didn’t write them down at the time…):

Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion
Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation
Steven Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought (an abridged version of the book)
Francis Collins’ The Language of God
Christopher Hitchens’ god is not Great (this audiobook is currently not available due to some contract difficulties between Audible.com and the publisher) and a couple of his other titles

I do really enjoy my Audible.com subscription.  I especially enjoyed listing to Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward in the reading of The God Delusion.  It’s good to hear the text as Dawkins intended it.

I live with my dear friend who needs frequent dialysis at a clinic.  Audio books (specifically from Audible) have saved him from suicidal boredom, since he, like me, detests most television - which is the only entertainment offered at the clinic.

I also recently found that my local library is part of a program whereby patrons can download audio books via their home computers.  SWEET!

As for good audio books, my tastes are rather different that my friend’s.

For my own part, I’ve greatly enjoyed the biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, Freakenomics, and Sagan’s Contact ready by Jodi Foster.

Something I didn’t find on Audible: Pale Blue Dot by Sagan (and partly read by him).  If you can find it, it’s worth the listen.

Speaking of Sagan, there’s a nice Shermer book on Audible.

I’m sure there are others that are nice too.  I think the recent biography of Einstein is there, fro example.

I had considered signing up to Audible.com.  But I’m uncomfortable with their business practices.

There are many complaints about Audible.com on the web, including recent ones (last 6 months).  So this is not an old problem.

My biggest complaint is that I can’t get their “free” trail period unless I give them my credit card information.

From what I have read on the web, once your ‘free’ trial period is up, the ‘cancel my account’ button on the web page DISAPPEARS.  You need to call on the phone to cancel your account.  And the wait times are apparently horrendous.

This seems like a unethical revenue-generating scam, since the company surely knows that people will forget to cancel.  And if they do want to cancel, they won’t be able to do it easily, while racking up charges all the while.  And once they do cancel, they will likely not go to the trouble to try and get a refund.

This seems to me like the practice of a company operating on the edge of profitability.  They may be trying desperately to enhance revenue in any way they can, including questionable practices such as these.

Point of Inquiry may want to rethink if they want Audible company as a sponsor.

FWIW, after trying a free audio book from Audible.com and realizing it wasn’t my cup of tea, I hadn’t any problem canceling my membership.

Thanks for the info.  I guess this is a case of “your mileage may vary”.

It still annoys me that I have to give out credit card information for a “free” trial though.

Screaminscott, if you have an iPod or some sort of MP3 player, you can go to iTunes for iPod and get the shows there and for an MP3 player, I think you can download them from the CFI site.  You don’t need a credit card for either.  I use iTunes to get all the PoI podcasts, but I do have a debit card if I want to buy something from iTunes though.  My sons don’t have a credit card or debit card and they use iTunes on their screen without using my account.

Actually, I was referring to audio books, not the CFI podcast.  I download the podcast through my MP3 player software.

To try out Audible.com for audio books, even for a free trial, you have to sign up with your credit card information.

http://www.audiblepodcast.com/point

That link does not work.

The announcement at the start of the June 21 show says the same thing.

Anyone know the correct url?

Thanks

What happens when you try the link? It’s true that you get forwarded to another Audible page, but that doesn’t imply that the link is broken. I believe the first link basically works as a counter.

Thanks for your reply.
My problem must have to do with something on my end if the link works for you.
(I tend to do things to block ads and pop-ups for example.)

The corresponding link from Scientific American does the same thing for me.
I assume CFI gets some sort of credit from audible if I use the ‘point’ link so I’d like to do it but I assume the deal I get is the same as if I come in off the street.
(A free download and my subscription can be canceled anytime in the first 14 days.)

In IE the page I get says:

  Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
 
  Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.
  What you can try:
    Check your Internet connection. Try visiting another website to make sure you are connected. 
    Retype the address. 
    Go back to the previous page.
    More information (a link)
In Firefox, I get taken to a different url:

http://ad.adlegend.com/click?spacedesc=1162449_1083416_1x1_1090348_1162449

...and the page displayed says…

Failed to Connect
Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at ad.adlegend.com.

Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a connection.

  * Could the site be temporarily unavailable? Try again later.
  * Are you unable to browse other sites?  Check the computer’s network connection.
  * Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect settings can interfere with Web browsing.

Not sure ... the page seems to work for me. Others having problems?