Books On Tape

If you look on Amazon, Indigo or a UK site called "Audio Book Download" you'll find thousands available in every possible genre. Use the search term "audio book."

It's difficult to suggest titles without knowing what genres interest him. I like Star Trek and find both William Shatner and Gates McFadden very good readers. I'm also just starting to listen through the Harry Potter series.

I'd recommend an Audible.com subscription. They have a huge inventory, and you can download their audiobooks to your computer or iPod. (You can also burn them to CD with iTunes.)

... when it comes to audio books it's important to get ones read by good speakers. A good portion of them aren't, making for truly awful listening experiences no matter how good and interesting the original story is. Ones read by actors are better bets, particularly acclaimed actors. Keep nonfiction in mind too. There are many good nonfiction titles available which your relative may be interested in, making for an easier selection. Kudos for your concern and luck with the purchase

What's a tape?

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I would suggest just checking Amazon lists, as someone else mentioned above. I mostly read/listen to MG and YA, which may not interest your relative.

A lot of Agatha Christie stuff is available on either CDs or as digital downloads, or well as many of the classics (Huckleberry Finn, The Stranger, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc.). Some of Stephen King's stuff might be worth considering, such as The Body or The Shawshank Redemption.

The narrator can make all the difference on a recorded book. Some of the best are George Guidall, Frank Muller, Scott Brick, and Robin Bailey.

If he has a computer, check to see if his local library has NetLibrary or OverDrive. You can download a lot of books these days.

Also, he might think about Kindle for PC. It lets you change the text size (to huge), so even he might be able to read.

regdog said:

Anyone have any suggestions for books on tape? I have a relative who is visually impaired and he has been listening to books on tape. I'd like to be able
to suggest some more titles to him. But no war stories, or heavy romance please.

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Try the local public library; it has Federally funded support for books on tape/cd, and can order titles for your relative.

Find out what he likes, in the way of specific authors or books, and that will help.

Also try Podiobooks.com - there's a few hundred free books there.

Amadan said:

I'd recommend an Audible.com subscription. They have a huge inventory, and you can download their audiobooks to your computer or iPod. (You can also burn them to CD with iTunes.)

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I was just about to suggest Audible too. It's a great site, and I get alot of stuff off there for long car journeys.


To the OP - can you give us an idea of some of the writers/books they've really liked

Can you do a search for just audio books at your local library website? At my library you can set the search for audio book, or digital downloadable books, and search that way. This would help you look for what's available. Generally the narrator is also listed as "author" so you can search for particularly good narrators, such as Frank Muller. Again, a good narrator can make all the difference. If you don't have this available locally, you can use the Nashville Public Library website just to search for audio books (you don't need a NPL card to do that), then see if you can find them locally.

regdog said:

Thanks everyone. I'll check these sites out and write a list for his daughter.

I did ask what genres he'd prefer and he said he'd listen to just about anything.

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If he has any sort of official documentation of his vision problems he can request audio books be shipped to him for free from the LOC NLS For the Blind.

I love listening to audiobooks as I do A LOT of travel. Some of the readers that I enjoy (and actually know their names...) are:

Loreli King
CJ Critt
Jim Dale
Justine Eyre (yes, I realize this list is mostly female)..

Books that I've listened to and enjoyed:
Liberty Falling (part of the Anna Pigeon series by Nevada Barr)
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Meg Cabot's Books -- ok, not for a "he"
The Historian
Amatuer Spy
Promise of the Wolves
and a couple of other's whose names are slipping me.

Hope this helps.

Medievalist said:

If he has any sort of official documentation of his vision problems he can request audio books be shipped to him for free from the LOC NLS For the Blind.

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Our version of the organization, the CNIB, has several books listed on their site that I would love to get, but they don't seem to be available anywhere else.

Somewhat frustrating, that.

Medievalist said:

If he has any sort of official documentation of his vision problems he can request audio books be shipped to him for free from the LOC NLS For the Blind.

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My understanding is that the inventory of books recorded specfically for the visually impaired far outreaches what we can now buy. A favourite author's audiobooks have been coming out over the past year...but were available as recorded books for the visually impaired almost as soon as they were published over a decade ago.

The huge explosion right now of audiobooks just means there's more than ever, and by increasingly good readers. I think your relative is going to be pleasantly surprised at the wide choice available. (Personally, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Audible subscriber, but why pay for what he can get free?)

regdog said:

Anyone have any suggestions for books on tape? I have a relative who is visually impaired and he has been listening to books on tape. I'd like to be able
to suggest some more titles to him. But no war stories, or heavy romance please.

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In the U.S.? He's eligible for free audiobook services through the Federal government, a service usually offered and managed locally by centers for the blind. (Braille Center, etc.)

http://www.loc.gov/nls/

If you're in search of individual book titles and suggestions, here are a few.

American Lightning - Howard Blum. This is a true story about the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building in downtown Los Angeles, and the divergent personalities - including Clarence Darrow, who became part of the story. The narrator does an excellent job in the audio edition of the book.

Brother Ray - Ray Charles' autobiography is wonderfully retold in the audio version. However, the book may be offensive to a listener who isn't comfortable with an open discussion of male sexuality.

Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck. The only audio version worth obtaining is the unabridged edition.

Making Jack Falcone - Joaquin Garcia. The true story of an undercover Cuban-American FBI agent. Especially good in audio.

Just thought I'd pop in to say I just placed my first order with Talkingbooks UK. Seemed like a good idea at the time, mainly because they don't require a monthly subscription.

1 out of 3 books bought can actually be burned to cd so far. And it's the cheapest of the three, naturally. The second, the file is too big to fit on a regular cd. The third, the most expensive, refuses to acknowledge the license because of a "script error" of some type.

I've got an e-mail in to their customer service. Not a good way to start a business relationship, especially when they reply with an automated message saying they received the e-mail and it's now an open case with "low priority." Well, yeah, of course it's "low priority" to you. You've already got your money.

/rant

BardSkye said:

Just thought I'd pop in to say I just placed my first order with Talkingbooks UK. Seemed like a good idea at the time, mainly because they don't require a monthly subscription.

1 out of 3 books bought can actually be burned to cd so far. And it's the cheapest of the three, naturally. The second, the file is too big to fit on a regular cd. The third, the most expensive, refuses to acknowledge the license because of a "script error" of some type.

I've got an e-mail in to their customer service. Not a good way to start a business relationship, especially when they reply with an automated message saying they received the e-mail and it's now an open case with "low priority." Well, yeah, of course it's "low priority" to you. You've already got your money.

/rant

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If buying is what you're looking to do, I still recommend you check out Audible (.com if you're in the US, .co.uk if you're in the UK, .de if you're in Germany, and so on). I've been a member for three years and will subscribe again for a fourth year next month. Service has been outstanding...the few issues I've had have been resolved in a matter of 24 hours or (usually) less (except for one time when the technician made a small mistake, and he fixed that within the next 24 hours and apologised far more than necessary for the scope of the mistake).

Once you've purchased an audiobook, you download the .aa file. This will play on many MP3 devices (including all iPods...I have a Creative Zen that plays the .aa files).

The .aa files cannot be played on CD players, but the software you get free with your Audible account also lets you convert the .aa files to another format (.wav, I think, but don't quote me on that ) and burn them to CD.

Bear in mind that a typical CD can hold only 700 Mb of data, and this is about 75 minutes of audio, so very few unabridged audiobooks will fit on a single CD.

Anyway, you can get one free audiobook by joining Audible, which gives you a chance to see how the whole system works before spending any money. You can't go wrong with something that's free to try! Your account will always remain active so that you can access the audiobooks you've purchased in the future. For example, if your computer were stolen and you wanted to redownload your library to your new computer, you can. (Okay, I'm not foolish enough to think Audible will exist forever, so my entire library is downloaded, and I've burned all my .aa files to CD. But you get my point here: you don't get cut off from your library.)

Audible offers a good discount on one-off purchases by members and monthly subscriptions that give an even better discount.

And no, I don't work for Audible! I just have to say that they're probably the best online vendor I've ever given my custom.

I agree, Audible rocks.

Also, they get a lot of new bestsellers released as audiobooks at the same time that the book is coming out in hardback.

The only problem I have with Audible is they want a monthly subscription and I'm trying to avoid monthly charges on my credit card. I sometimes buy six books at a time then don't buy any for 3 months, depending on finances.

Talkingbook got back to me within two hours according to the e-mail's time stamp with the priority changed to "urgent" and resolved the issue within an hour of my replying. It was just an add-on and upgrade missing that I was able to get from their link they gave me to Microsoft. The too-big file is a matter of formatting a cd to "data" for mp3 files instead of "music."

All told, they were quick and professional and I'll use their service again.

Mystic River went well to tape. As did most of Stephen King's novels.