Audible

Migrating from Audible to Audiobookshelf

In the current day and age moving from Amazon is not unappealing. I wish that Audible.com had never been bought by Amazon because I love Audible but hate what Amazon represents. It represents a monopolisation of the way people shop and by content around the world. Luckily in Switzerland we have Galaxus as a practical alternative. For several months, by now, I have migrated all of my books from Audible.com to Audiobookshelf via Openaudible.

Audiobookshelf Two Hundred and Fourteen Days Later

Two or three days ago I noticed that I have spent at least sixteen thousand three hundred and fifty seven minutes listening to 320 items over 214 days via Audiobookshelf and I can honestly say that of my self hosted experiments this is my favourite. What I Like What I like about Audiobookshelf is that it gives me the opportunity to find podcasts I like, add them, download every episode and then slowly make my way through them.

Waiting

As I write this I am waiting for my Apple Laptop to complete two tasks. The first task is to convert all my audible books from AAX to MP3 format. This is taking days to complete because I have over 500 books and my mac book pro is slow, due to it being from 2016. Very Slow Time Machine I’m also waiting for my mac book pro to backup to a one terabyte external HD, before repurposing a one terabyte SSD.

OpenAudible and Your Book Library

For a while I had been thinking of getting a device to play audible books that was not an iphone. The reason for this is simple. A portable MP3 player costs the same, or less than an iphone battery, and can play audio books, or music for 17-19hrs in a row, if you want to listen for that many hours in a row. No Need For Constant Synching With podcasts you want a device that can sync while you’re walking and listening.

The Unedited Podcast

There was a time when I wanted to listen to hours of podcasts a day, and I did. I would listen on my walks, on my commutes to work, while driving and more. I would love listening to podcasts so much that I would wish I had more time to spend on listening to podcasts. That, unfortunately changed, as podcasts became livestreams, and thus unedited. Too Long For Casual Listening It’s not that I don’t like listening to people talk, but that when a podcast goes from being fourty five minutes to an hour long, to being one and a half to two hours long then it becomes too long for a walk, and too time consuming to listen to more than one podcast a day.

Audible For Dummies

Recently I noticed that Audible is great for dummies. To be more specific I noticed that if you are an Audible paying subscriber you have access to dozens of Audible For Dummies books available within the subscription. They have books on goat keeping, bee keeping, ham radio and more available for us to listen to for “free” within the subscriptions that we have. This is great, not because we ever finish For Dummies books, but because we can read them for cheaper than usual.

The 2023 Reading Challenge

We are one month into 2023 and so far I have read four books in four weeks. The aim of reading one book a week, so far is going well. I have read Last Book to Woodstock, A Man Called Trent and Riders of the Dawn as well as The Hunt for Red Octobre and The Cold Killer. I have a tendency to buy and collect books faster than I read them.

The DI Barton Series

Recently I have read three out of four DI Barton books and I enjoy them. One of the things that I enjoyed about these books is that I’m interested in both sides of the story, rather than reading about character A but being frustrated when reading about character B. With these books I like both. The first book is about a seasonal killer, and it moves on from there. I could give more information but I don’t want to spoil the books for you.

YouTube and the Million Follower type

I used to really like YouTube. It was a place where normal people could share videos of their normal lives, for normal people to enjoy, and to discover organically. Today YouTube is a way of forcing people to watch adverts before watching content that has been seen half a million to a million times by people with a million subscribers who keep saying “i have a million subscribers” and showing off.

The Walking Paradox

Today I noticed how quiet the world, or at least the area in which I was walking, was. I saw very few cars, very few people walking, and very little noise from other people. This doesn’t mean that people weren’t out and about. Although my route was for the most part deserted of people I did encounter crowds at two or three points. I think a man said “hello” but I ignored him for the cardinal sin of not walking single file, down a path, with his companion during the closing days of a pandemic.