Audio Books easily account for 75-80% of my book reading in a given year. It’s gratifying to me that I see fewer and fewer people interested in arguing that listening to an audio book somehow “doesn’t count” as reading, but feel free to say so in the comments… on somebody else’s blog.
I subscribed to the leading purveyor of audio books in May of 2008 and have, at last count, 480 titles in my library. The size of this library was the primary reason I continued to subscribe to said purveyor even though I hated the Digital Rights Management (DRM) my books were saddled with.
Yesterday I discovered a utility that will let me convert my legally purchased but locked-up books into books I’m allowed to choose how and where to listen to! Imagine that! I actually get to do what I want with something I bought and paid for! No longer do I have to be chained up in this walled garden! (A friend recently pointed out that “walled garden” is a bad metaphor because it actually sounds like a nice place. I suggest the alternative “bottom of a well”).
Now I have a new project: Downloading and converting my entire library of audio books, backing them up, and then setting up a plex server on a raspberry pi to stream them to my phone and never shutting up about it! I love projects like this, which is good because this is going to take me a while to complete.
With the cancellation of my membership to said leading purveyor of audio books I’m down to only 2 recurring subscriptions! Netflix and Disney+. I’d be happy to cancel those also but I’ve been warned by The Bride that under no circumstances am I allowed to. *grumble, grumble*. It makes me feel GOOD not to be renting bits. I want to own the things I own. I love physical media, but there are practicalities to consider.
If I keep bringing armloads of books, blu-rays, comics and video games home The Bride is going to mutilate me in my sleep with one of those cigar snippers. I must be more selective about what physical objects I deem necessary to have on the shelf. Thankfully, I really LIKE the experience of reading eBooks and listening to audio books, but that doesn’t mean I should have to pay Jeff Bezos for the privilege (at least not beyond the initial vending).
I could go on at length about this issue, and no doubt will in future. (It’s not lost on me that I link to the amazon listings for eBooks in my currently reading footer. That’s the next thing I aim to fix in my life.) But, for now I’m going to go listen to a book.
Currently Playing: riverrun – “The Same Silent Hill”
Currently Reading: THE YELLOW DOG, Georges Simenon (CA) (US)
joezone 