Have I read my last book? Probably not. I'm an old-fashioned guy who loves the printed page. But forces are massing that are changing the way I gather information. Today I subscribed to Audible.com. I think this all started on Tuesday. It happened this way.

I was having a conversation with my good friend Mark. I asked his opinion on the politics emerging from the Katrina disaster. He was out of touch. In fact, he hadn't been paying any much attention to current events since he'd been reading several books on the founding fathers. Hmmmm.

Well, he really hadn't been reading at all. He had been listening to audiobooks while driving. No time for the radio, not since he was using audible. He recommended a couple of books. We had to consult his iPod for more details about the authors, titles and such.

Last night at dinner, among other interesting topics, the group I was with started talking about the next killer app being software converting text to speech. What? The World is Flat, published earlier this year, was released simultaneously on audiobook and in print. No need to wait months for an opportunity to listen to the book. One colleague is converting e-mail into audio files and listening to them in her car. And my dinner companions had both recently subscribed to Audible.com, too.

How is it that some things don't exist until, boom, there they are?

Audible.com is having a September sale, $10.95 for each audiobook. Sign up for six months and get an iShuffle. That's what I did. And today I've downloaded my first three books. Now I just need to add a listening shelf to my blog. I"ve already started to listen...........
10:54:47 PM    comment []