Ebooks: the new reading + Audiobooks | The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/ebooks-the-new-reading+audiobooks Index en-gb Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2014 Mon, 29 Dec 2014 15:31:35 GMT 2014-12-29T15:31:35Z en-gb Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2014 The Guardian http://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.png http://www.theguardian.com Want to be seen as well read? Then listen to these shows… http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/20/new-reading-ebooks-silverblatt-lit There are several fine websites that save you the trouble of having to read books for yourself<p>Over the years I have managed to fool&nbsp;a&nbsp;number of people into thinking&nbsp;I&nbsp;am terribly well read. My secret – well, three secrets – are Radio&nbsp;4's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qftk" title=""><em>Book of the Week</em></a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtlx" title=""><em>Book at Bedtime</em></a> and the <em>Classic Serial</em>, whose&nbsp;episodes I save up to devour all at once on iPlayer. These fabulous&nbsp;free&nbsp;audiobooks used to be awkward to listen to, involving balancing acts with&nbsp;laptops in steamy&nbsp;bathrooms.</p><p>My iPad has been a liberation. Using a tablet as a portable radio is by far the best way to access the internet's vast archive of free literary audio.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/20/new-reading-ebooks-silverblatt-lit">Continue reading...</a> Ebooks Internet Podcasting Technology Books Culture Audiobooks Sun, 20 Oct 2013 11:00:00 GMT http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/20/new-reading-ebooks-silverblatt-lit PR Bookworm host Michael Silverblatt, whose archive of author interviews is 'incomparable'. PR Bookworm host Michael Silverblatt, whose archive of author interviews is 'incomparable'. Anna Baddeley 2013-10-20T11:00:00Z Will we suffer being read to by an automated voice? http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/31/audiobooks-ispeech-librivox-amazon iSpeech could dramatically cut the cost of audiobooks. Shame the reading voice sounds like a bus announcement<p>Last week <a href="http://www.ispeech.org/" title="">iSpeech</a>, a text-to-speech startup, announced that it had acquired its first publishing client: Pearson. Claiming &quot;the most natural-sounding TTS audio on the market&quot; and previously known for driving-direction applications and audio cues for the home, iSpeech wants to help publishers automate the creation of audiobooks. The default voice on iSpeech is pleasantly lilting, but it's still definitely not human, and more akin to a pre-recorded bus announcement in its odd pauses and stumbles. Pearson intends to use the service primarily with textbooks; the robotic voice is definitely not ready for the emotional range and styles of fiction yet.</p><p>Text-to-speech has been tried many times before, but it's technically very difficult to pull off, and legally complex. Amazon got into trouble in 2009 when it rolled out basic text-to-speech for the Kindle. Publishers said that Amazon was abusing its copyright and it withdrew, much to the chagrin of, among others, the blind and partially sighted community, reliant on audiobooks, who briefly gained access to Amazon's vast library. The problem is the cost of creating an audiobook. This involves studio hire and voice talent and can reach thousands of pounds, which is often difficult to justify in sales, while iSpeech offers automation costing just fractions of a penny per word.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/31/audiobooks-ispeech-librivox-amazon">Continue reading...</a> Audiobooks Ebooks Technology Books Culture Amazon.com Kindle Pearson Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:05:01 GMT http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/31/audiobooks-ispeech-librivox-amazon James Bridle 2013-03-31T00:05:01Z A Spotify equivalent for audiobooks? Bring it on… http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/05/bardowl-audiobooks-spotify Though it's currently limited to financial titles, a new streaming service could soon challenge Amazon's Audible<p>The best thing about <a href="http://bardowl.com/" title="">Bardowl</a>, touted as a Spotify for audiobooks, is its name. Partly because it lets them have a cute animal logo but mostly because the press pack reveals it was dreamt up by the founder's wife after a Specials reunion concert.</p><p>It works like this: users pay &pound;9.99 a month for unlimited access to Bardowl's library of audiobooks, which they stream via their iPhone or iPad. And, yes, you can listen offline. At the moment it's limited to business and self-help titles – <em>How to Get Rich</em> by Felix Dennis, <em>Overcoming Anxiety for Dummies</em>, that sort of thing – but later this year it will start to offer fiction and a wider selection of non-fiction.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/05/bardowl-audiobooks-spotify">Continue reading...</a> Audiobooks Ebooks Technology Books Culture Sat, 04 Aug 2012 23:05:10 GMT http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/05/bardowl-audiobooks-spotify PA Bardowl, which is being touted as a Spotify for audiobooks, is currently limited to business and self-help titles. Photograph: PA PA Bardowl, which is being touted as a Spotify for audiobooks, is currently limited to business and self-help titles. Photograph: PA Anna Baddeley 2012-08-04T23:05:10Z
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