We like to listen to mystery novels while traveling. It makes the trip seem so much shorter. Especially like Mary Higgins Clark. We get them at Cracker Barrel (rental).

I feel silly asking, but.....do you buy it or do you download it ? I have never listened to any audio books but I think I might like them. I read the link, and it sounds really interesting.
I have been toying with the idea of getting a kindle, I have not read any books in years, I know, isn't that awful !

No - I don't like anyone reading to me.

I enjoyed them when I traveled to DS home when he lived in NC.

Enjoy being read to, cause my mother read to me.

Audio books have become very important to us. Before DH retired he had a long commute so listened to a lot of them. Since reading was so important to our son, and he now has lost much of his site, this is a way he can keep up. A couple of my online friends have really helped out, by sending ones the pick up at library sales or garage sales. We have set up a lending libray in his room, so other residents can share. Having that library has helped with not only allowing people to take advantage of the books, the social activity has really picked up. LOL It gets around real fast when they hear we have some new selections available.

I listen to them all the time. I pick up the titles from the fairly large selection at the local library. I also request them when the waiting list for a new must read novel is too long.......some lists are up in the hundreds for a book but sit at 7 or ll for the same book on audio disc. I listen when I do housework, dishes whatever. I enjoy them as much as I do a good read with a book in hand.

I get mine from the public library or the paperback swap, or even yard sales. Sometimes I'll buy them on ebay. I listen to them everytime I drive anywhere.

Though I do like story tellers I do not so much like being read to. I know my foster son truck driver uses audio books and is very glad he can use them. I also know a few people with physical disabilities who cannot hold a book so the audio books are blessings to them also. My DFS has given me a box of over 200, many series type, mostly in the SCI-Fi, Action hero, fantasy genre to sell for him. My friends who use them do not care for that genre. I just have no clue what to ask for these things. I listed a set on E-bay for beginning bid $5.99 & free shipping after all the costs and fees I lost $.35 on the deal. I don't think that was a great transaction for my son but the buyer sure was hap-hap-happy. :)
He buys them new for $20.00 each case (with multiple discs often in a case), listens to them once and back into the case they go.
Would anyone mind giving me an idea what $ I should ask for them. Some are as many as 20 Stories in a series and there are 2 and 3 or more discs sets.
Thanks for any info you can give me.

LIL

I always have an audio book in the car stereo. They make my annoying commute less annoying. :-)

I've downloaded them from my state library system, I've bought them used from eBay and Amazon (and resold them), and I've borrowed them from my public library. But lately I've been getting them through my job, from the university library system.

Lil, what I would suggest is searching eBay's completed listings to see what other copies of a given audio book have sold for. This will give you an idea of what yours is worth.

liljunkr, go to ebay or half.com, type in the title and see what they are selling for. You won't get anymore then that price.

Even though I have a pretty short commute, I pretty much always have an audio book going in my car. I love being read to, especially if the reader is good. Most of the books I've listened to have good readers, although a few have not so great readers and I generally don't finish those. And one exceptionally good reader: Jim Dale who read the Harry Potter series. It was totally due to his talents that I went beyond book one (and ended up listening to all of the series).

I get all my audio books at the library. I have access to two different library systems (city and county) and both of them allow you to go on line, request items from any branch, and they transfer them to your branch. All for FREE. Those audio books are expensive and if I had to buy them I'd be broke!!

I'd list the used ones on half.com. It's easy to see what other sellers are asking, how many other sellers there are for that book, and if that particular book is even selling. If a book is too common (there are many books out there with hundreds, even thousands of copies for sale on half.com) I don't bother.

Once you click "sell my copy" and choose condition, it tells you last sell price & average sell price. If those spots are blank, that means that particular book has not sold since they started showing those stats -- years ago. Again, at that point, I don't bother. Books which I don't list on half.com go in the charity box for donation.

Yes I borrow them from the library.

I tried audiobooks, but I find that I don't have good listening skills. My mind goes off on tangents and I discover that I've blocked out the audiobook. I guess I'm not much of a multi-tasker. LOL!

I used to listen to them all the time. My BF had a 50 mile commute and I'd get them for him, from the library, too. I had a walkman and listened to them while I worked at the greenhouse, planting plugs of flowers into 6 packs. I agree their the best for long car trips.

Yes, and I listen to them all the time. I borrow them from the library. I have found a few at thrift shops cheap or the clearance rack at the library and buy those. I have an off brand mp3 player but haven't figured out how to set it up with the library to download books. The one time I tried, I was so frustrated, I closed it all down. That was a year ago, and I really need to try again. If I can do skype, I should be able to do this!!

I love audio books. I have a round-trip commute of at least an hour and a half each day. I am able to access the digital lending library of most of Northern California and that is my preferred source, since I don't have to do anything except download. But our county library system has more title available on CD. I have only a cassette player in my car and they are phasing out cassettes in favor of CDs. But I can check them out and use ITunes to convert them to MP3 and load them on my 30GB ZEN and listen to them via my cassette player anyway. I bought a thing that looks like a cassette, but has a plug to put into the MP3 player and I'm good to go.

This weekend DH and I took a car trip that was about 6 hours round-trip and we enjoyed a mystery together.

I honestly would hate my commute if it weren't for audio books.

I also use paperbackswap occasionally, when the library doesn't have a title I'm looking for. Only rarely will I purchase one, and never new. Way too much money for something I will listen to only once.

As a kid, nothing I loved more than to be read to so I figured an audio book would be for me as an adult. Nope. I tend to multi-task throughout the day and found I couldn't focus on the story with everything else I do all day. My commute to work is only 6.5. miles and I found I sorely missed my music when I tried to listen to a book. Might try it on our next six hour drive to Northern CA though. Hadn't thought about doing that before.

Jodi-

I love them except for 2 reasons:

I miss my turn off if I am listening to them (too intently, obviously) while driving long distance in the car.

And...when I am trying to relax and I fall asleep before they end!

nola anne

I live with my audio books and little CD player at my side! My days are filled with blocks of "mindless chores" time and that's when the books really shine.

At first I did have to "train my brain" to let the audio book be the foreground and the focus, and the folding laundry/food prep/cleaning/dusting/putting away tasks became the background 'noise.'

Once I made that change in my "mental wiring" I totally enjoy the books. One day I folded and put away three loads of laundry, changed the bed linens, and damp mopped three floors...without realizing it. I had been so focused on the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) book I was "reading" I hadn't noticed my "must do" list had shrunk.

Just this past weekend I bought unabridged copies of The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo; The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I can't wait to start listening to them. Getting the fall cleaning and season switching done will be a breeze this year!

Right now I'm lisening to Spencer Quinn's third "Chet and Bernie" book To Fetch a Thief.

Caroline - I think you will enjoy the thread of those books but you really have to get past some of the drier parts, the main story thread is quite gripping. Budster who finished the first two (dragon tattoo and fire) and is half way done the third -- but I'm reading them vice listening. Hope you enjoy them. Budster

I love to read but do not enjoy being read to. I tried one audio book and couldn't bare it.
Enjoy "The Walk" JoAnn!

I love listening to audio books.

Right now I'm listening to Harry Potter 7 in preparation for the movie coming out.

I don't feel like Jim Dale is reading to me - his is really quite a dramatic performance. He has two Grammys for Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows and holds the Guiness Record for most recorded voices in a single piece of work (146 for Deathly Hallows!)

Nope, I surely don't feel like I'm being read to. It's an awesome performance.