I visited HCPL's OverDrive site and explored the eBooks, the audio eAudioBooks and the movies. Then I went browsing for an audio that I could burn to a CD so the family could listen to it as we went over the river and through the woods for Thanksgiving. There were plenty of golden oldies classics available, but darn few mysteries. Not only were there very few mysteries that could be copied to a CD, but most of the titles had holds on them already. Obviously, the library must be giving the customers what they want.
From Wowio I downloaded On the Immortality of the Soul by David Hume.
12 pages (2007/1777)
WOWIO Books; ISBN: WOWIO-00183
List Price: $3.00 WOWIO Price: Free
The Wowio's business model is to make money from advertising rather than bookselling. So, the free essay in PDF format came with telephone company advertisement at the front and end of the document. Free also means a “Limited Nonexclusive License. WOWIO grants to you, and you accept, a nonexclusive, nontransferable license to use this eText.”
The site for audio freebees, LibriVox, has a very, how shall I put it, interesting mode of operation. “LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. “ Knowing from experience how much a good reader means to a book and how a bad reader can obliterate the impact of a good book, I wonder how consistent a reading that has a different volunteer reader for each chapter can be.
Consider this example from their catalog:
Chapter 01 - 00:15:06 Read by: Denny Sayers
Chapter 02 - 00:28:32 Read by: miette
Chapter 03 - 00:23:15 Read by: Nocturna
Chapter 04 - 00:31:22 Read by: Nocturna
Chapter 05 - 00:41:14 Read by: Jemma Blythe
Just before Thanksgiving, I didn’t have the courage to experiment with what appears to be the literary equivalent of a recipe for lumpy gravy. Maybe after the holiday I'll feel braver about a download from LibriVox.
I selected Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters, read by Susan O’Malley. I also downloaded Kidnapped and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. All three were narrated by Fredrick Davidson. As soon as I played the first track of David Copperfield I recognized Mr. Davidson’s voice: a dry bored upper class English that should be a delightful for Dickens, but a disaster for Scots adventure stories. I deleted the Stevenson titles right away. I wonder, should I have turned them back in to the library?
The science fiction selection was quirky but interesting, but then science fiction is quirky but interesting. No disrespect intended. I’m a fan. The children’s selection was so-so, but the romance selection was good.
The catalog browse by title only was odd. I can’t help but wonder how many people want to browse by the title of a book?
The science fiction selection was quirky but interesting, but then science fiction is quirky but interesting. No disrespect intended. I’m a fan. The children’s selection was so-so, but the romance selection was good.
The catalog browse by title only was odd. I can’t help but wonder how many people want to browse by the title of a book?
From Wowio I downloaded On the Immortality of the Soul by David Hume.
12 pages (2007/1777)
WOWIO Books; ISBN: WOWIO-00183
List Price: $3.00 WOWIO Price: Free
The Wowio's business model is to make money from advertising rather than bookselling. So, the free essay in PDF format came with telephone company advertisement at the front and end of the document. Free also means a “Limited Nonexclusive License. WOWIO grants to you, and you accept, a nonexclusive, nontransferable license to use this eText.”
The site for audio freebees, LibriVox, has a very, how shall I put it, interesting mode of operation. “LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. “ Knowing from experience how much a good reader means to a book and how a bad reader can obliterate the impact of a good book, I wonder how consistent a reading that has a different volunteer reader for each chapter can be.
Consider this example from their catalog:
Chapter 01 - 00:15:06 Read by: Denny Sayers
Chapter 02 - 00:28:32 Read by: miette
Chapter 03 - 00:23:15 Read by: Nocturna
Chapter 04 - 00:31:22 Read by: Nocturna
Chapter 05 - 00:41:14 Read by: Jemma Blythe
Just before Thanksgiving, I didn’t have the courage to experiment with what appears to be the literary equivalent of a recipe for lumpy gravy. Maybe after the holiday I'll feel braver about a download from LibriVox.
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