I’ve been listening to the Suite Scarlett audiobook on my rides back and forth to work (review forthcoming).
On Audiobooks:
- I like listening to audiobooks! This was my first one. I don’t know why I haven’t been listening to audiobooks before (Oh.. .maybe because my car only has a CD player and I have no idea where my Ipod is).
- I can get into the story pretty well, but think my concentration on the story isn’t as good when I get it aurally versus visually. Maybe it’s because I don’t re-listen to a passage the way I reread passages. A problem when you’re driving and can’t rewind.
- The other problem I have is that the narrator really makes or breaks a story. Their inflections and emphasis can change the interpretation, especially when a character is speaking. I would have imagined how certain characters spoke differently. It also felt odd to have a female narrator do male voices. Why don’t they just bring in a male narrator for those parts? Do they? Since I’ve only listened to the one, I don’t know if what’s normal and what’s not.
On Audiobooks & the Nook:
- It’s very easy to put the audiobook into the nook. This audiobook is an MP3 CD and what I basically did was copy over the files from the CD onto the “my audiobooks” folder in the nook via my computer and the USB cable. I haven’t bought an audiobook from B&N yet so I don’t know how different that would be.
- The sound is much better in the car when you have headphones on, but it’s illegal to do this while driving. I tried this when my husband was driving and found it pretty good, as long as someone does not have the radio going at the same time.
- The sound is pretty good – not tinny like my netbook speakers, and the volume is a decent level. The nook has a good volume when you are indoors, but if you are driving, it should be at the highest level or it will be drowned out by the sound of the road. Even then it’s hard to hear. I also have to have it pretty close to me (like on my lap) to hear it. My husband isn’t a fan of this if I’m driving, so now it’s in the bin between the 2 front seats with the speakers pointed towards me (in other words. the nook is upside down).
- NEVER turn on the nook or do any adjusting while driving! I always do this parked and then when everything is playing at the volume I want from the point I want, I drive.
- I would be happier if I had some mini speakers or something that used the headphone jack from the nook and was a louder volume that what I can get from it, just for the car. I’ve been eying these $20 mini passive speakers from Sony, but I’ve been told they probably won’t be louder than the ones on the nook, so I’m looking for some speakers that can plug into the car’s AC socket.
- If I listen to the nook in the morning, then turn it on later in the day, it has saved my spot in the audiobook. I love this. However, if I am checking something else out in the nook or I wait long enough so the nook is truly powered off, it does NOT save my spot and I have to search for it. This would be a pain if I had a bad memory of what chapter I was on (so far I am pretty good about remembering what around what Chapter I was on).
- If I listen to audiobooks on the nook, the nook plays them and sort of goes into a standby state. So I have to hit the power button to be able to use it’s touchscreen again and pause the audiobook. This seems to save battery and I’ve listened to the audiobook for 4-5 hour stretches without recharging the nook.
Other nook related news:
- Nook now costs $199 (kindle is now at $189)
- There is a wireless only nook now available for $149 (no 3G)
- Nook version 1.4 firmware is now available (from engadget: “Version 1.4 includes a couple of pretty important fixes — including the much-need “go to page” feature, an extra large font size, and support for AT&T WiFi”)
specficromantic 
I definately agree on the lack of concentration thing. My mind always wanders off and then I can’t rewind the book. I don’t have an e-reader, but I would love to get one. They sound amazing.
If there was an easier way to rewind it in the car, I think it would be very helpful!
Audiobooks are hard for me too. I like the idea of them – that I can get books read while driving or exercising, but I find myself usually not picking books I really want to read because I too find myself wandering.
Yeah, every so often I miss a sentence and I don’t feel like rewinding and I guess the general gist. Plus when you’re driving you don’t WANT to be so focused on the book that you aren’t paying attention to the road.
I listen to my audio books all the time when doing house work, cooking and even driving. I get nothing done around the house if I sit and read.
I listen to audio books in the car on the car’s sound system via a connection device. My car has a tape deck so it’s easy to get a cord that plugs into the Nook and the other end into the tape player. But you can get a device that plug into the mp3 player (in this case a Nook) and then you tune to a certain frequency on your radio and it plays the audio file on the car’s speakers. It’s like listening to a book on cd in the car without having to change the disks:
http://www.tech-faq.com/how-to-connect-an-mp3-player-to-a-car-stereo.html
Hi Kelly! Yes, I know about this, my husband’s old car had a tape player and he had this device to listen to MP3s. Unfortunately both our cars now don’t have a tape deck. Also the device that transmits the music from an MP3 device to the car speakers on a certain radio frequency — I tried this with the one we have that works with our ipods, but it doesn’t seem to work with the nook. 😦
We are probably going to buy a new car soon so I think when that happens hopefully it will have the Aux connection that lets you plug an MP3 device directly to the car speakers.
You are talking about an FM Radio Transmitter. Nifty gadget one can get at Radioshak or Walmart.
Thank you. I have one and sadly, the one I have doesn’t work with the nook. 😦
I think the plan at the moment is to wait till we buy a new car (hopefully this year since the car we drive now is 10+ yrs old), which should have USB connectivity. *crosses fingers*.
How do i listen to a book that i bought for my nook?
Depends on three things: 1) What kind of nook do you own? 2) What form is the audiobook in (Mp3 or something else), 3) is the audiobook already on your nook (say if you bought it through the bookstore on the nook), or is it elsewhere (like on your computer)?
With my nook (version 1 shown here), I’ve usually had audiobooks on mp3 form on my computer which I copied over to my nook (using the nook usb cable) to the “my audiobooks” folder, and then on the nook, selected “audio” and found my audiobook in there and played it. Does that help?
I also have a nook color but haven’t tried it there yet. If that’s what you have, I can take a look and see for you if you want.