Aldo on Audiobooks

My wife and I love listening to audiobooks on our iPods. Between us, we’ve used nine different iPods, three iPhones, iTunes on both Mac OS X and Windows XP, and we have purchased or borrowed more than 250 audiobooks as downloadable files from Audible.com, MP3 CDs from Amazon.com, and standard audio CDs from bookstores and the local library. In other words, we’ve tried a lot of things, and have developed a fair amount of expertise.

This site is an attempt to pass that knowledge along. My focus here is primarily on listening to audiobooks on an iPod or iPhone, but I’ve also included supplementary information about how to find and acquire good audiobooks, and other knowledge which took time, effort, or money to acquire. Here’s a quick rundown:

iPod and iTunes-specific Articles

  • iPods, iTunes, and Audiobooks — An overview of audiobooks on iPods (and iPhones), and how iTunes and iPods treat different kinds of audiobooks. It sounds remedial, but not understanding this can make you wonder why audiobooks don’t show up in certain places in iTunes or your iPod.
  • How to Import MP3 Audiobooks into iTunes — Step-by-step instructions, complete with screenshots, for importing the slightly less-common MP3 CD format audiobooks into iTunes, for transfer and use on an iPod.
  • Managing audiobooks on a small-capacity iPod — A collection of configuration tips, iTunes techniques, and playlist definitions to help you manage audiobooks on your iPod or iPhone, for people whose audiobook library size exceeds the capacity of their iPod.
  • Which iPod Should I Buy? — One of the most common questions I get. I think the answer is very simple, but I back it up with a ridiculous amount of information.

Additional Audiobook Information

  • Audiobook Recommendations — A few of my personal recommendations for good audiobooks, along with some links to other resources for getting recommendations.
  • Where to Get Audiobooks — An overview of the different sources for audiobooks, along with information about which sources are most convenient to listen to with iPods, cheapest, etc.
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