Oh noes Pod People!

Ah, podcasting. The name always brings to my mind the image of a person in some space age egg-shaped thing. Subscribing to a podcast is very easy. I subbed to NPR's All Music Considered, Live Concerts and Second Stage using My Yahoo and the Pittsburgh Hear and Now: On Stage, Rated PG, Tuned In and The Steelers Report using XML. And I did it all in less time than it took to listen to my copy of Queensryche's "Rage For Order". Not bad at all. Now the question is will I be able to keep up with all these subscriptions. Time will tell...

As Ewe Lick It

So, I'd d/led some audio books a while ago for the Week 5 of the 23 Things, but I forgot to post about it. Ooops. So anyway, I checked out Net Library's offerings, and after perusing my choices, I finally settled on downloading "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. Yeah, I'm overly ambitious. Also, I was hoping that the audio book was recorded by Hawking himself. I was wrong. I did like the voice of the narrator but a scientific work might be too deep for audio books. As I mentioned in my language post, I'm rather visual, so I need to read something that's deep.

I also used Overdrive to download an audio performance of "As You Like It" as performed by David Tennant and the movie "Dementia 13", a very old movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. These were more accessible to me. Shakespeare is always meant to be read aloud, so it's perfect for an audio book. I've watched movies online in streaming mode, so watching Coppola's work wasn't very new to me. I also watch any DVD's I own on my computer as well. Of course, I have a lovely large flat screen monitor. I imagine it would be less enjoyable on an older, smaller screen.

Overall, I'd say I would use e-audio books for poetry or prose meant to be read aloud. It's not as useful for non-fiction for me because I had to concentrate very hard to get it due to my visual learning. I figure, if I'm gonna have to work, I may as well get the actual book and read it. Being able to view videos on the computer is always fun, especially since my taste in movies and TV shows is very different from my mom's.

The downside is that you have to install software, though Net Library does have a link for direct downloading. I'm not a fan of downloading something unless I'm sure I really want to use it because even if you uninstall, little bits of the program can remain and muck up the registry. Also, the selection is very Spartan, in my opinion. I'm guessing there's some problems with getting ebooks for loaning as opposed to having them available for purchase, as on Amazon's site. And finally, it's hard to fall asleep with a laptop on your chest.