Speaking of Audiobooks: Tracking Our Listening
For years I’ve kept a Word document to track the many print books I read. It includes such details as title, author, date read, and grade as well as links to my personal reviews. My dear document has grown to 64 pages with hundreds of links. It’s unwieldy and most certainly not a perfect system, but it is overwhelming to even think about changing course at this stage of the game. But despite the fact that it remains a fairly reliable list, it’s not a place for tracking my audiobooks. Not only would they get lost among my hundreds of print books but additional tracking for items such as narrator, length, and version is required.
However, building a reliable audiobook list has proven to be a personal trial for years with more failures than successes. I sometimes make an attempt to track audiobooks through my Audible library but I don’t find it user friendly nor does it include all of my audiobooks. I’ve made many a half hearted attempt to track through iTunes only to feel confused and irritated. I’ve tried numerous times to keep track with a Word document (my most proven method from years gone by) only to see each one become ineffectual as I failed to keep it up.
Last fall when we launched our Speaking of Audiobooks Goodreads group, I started building a personal Goodreads audiobook shelf. I have approximately three-fourths of my audiobooks sitting on my shelf and I’m now slowly adding my thoughts or reviews on each book. It’s quite fulfilling since my Goodreads friends see my comments and grades (and I in turn see theirs) and we have the ability to chat about each book if we so desire. I can vent about a book and have an immediate audience or I can rave and do the same. It is a wonderful environment for a people-oriented talkative person like me and I’m not giving it up. However, if I use it for tracking my audiobooks, it once again relies on me. I must remember to update.
Since the gift of my first iPod five years ago, I’ve unwillingly learned about iTunes. More than anything, I’ve seen it as a necessary evil to be endured for iPod audiobook listening rather than seeing it as some sort of wonderful cataloging system. But lately my attitude towards iTunes has gradually changed for the better as a patient, computer savvy friend who understands the software has taken the time to teach me the basics. I keep all my audiobooks in a playlist in my Music folder and am actually quite pleased with the setup, although part of me still winces at the thought that iTunes may be my most reliable source for complete audio tracking. If I will only take the time to learn even more.
Fortuitously, last week Vic started a thread at our Speaking of Audiobooks Goodreads group named Tagging Quirks. The thread is long and involved, but ever so useful for those of us who want to use iTunes as our cataloguing system and do it with great detail and flair. Tagging Quirks starts with some rather complicated details and moves on to a number of user-friendly suggestions. Vic, a software engineer, explains tracking and categorization throughout the thread in a more technical manner but one I appreciated almost immediately.
“Essentially, most of our digital audio files have a metadata container embedded in them. This container allows us to tag the audio files with information such as artist, title, genre, composer, etc….You’ll have more/different tagging options available depending on what software you use to organize your audio books. iTunes adds a bunch of different tags that it tracks in the iTunes database…”
Although I’m not one to quickly pick up on all that Vic’s statements imply, I was startled to realize that I too was starting to really understand iTunes. The advantages of additional tagging called out to me. How many times had I wanted to know if I had listened to a particular narrator previously or the order of a series? I recognized the fact that the more details I add through tagging, the more information I have at my fingertips.
Brenda also shared with us some tidbits on how she utilizes iTunes as well as her format of choice:
“I use iTunes to keep all my audiobooks organized. I love the fact that I can name and number even my Audible book collection to whatever I choose with iTunes. I enjoy series of books and want them numbered in order etc.”
“Although Audible is now my main source of audiobooks I prefer to keep all CD or MP3CD audiobooks in MP3 format. Two main reasons:
I want to be able to put my audiobooks on any player I choose. MP3 format allows me to do that. I use an iPod the majority of the time but I always have at least one other type of MP3 player (right now a Sansa Clip+) on hand.
I want to be able to use an MP3 Splitter/Joiner program to join the multiple tracks from audio CD’s or multiple chapters from MP3CD’s into one tidy book file, like the Audible books come.”
This represents only a small portion of information available in the Tagging Quirks thread. If you’re looking for an effective method of tracking or grouping your audiobooks, I suggest that you take a look.
So what is my plan now? I’ll still keep up with the occasional Word list since it provides me with a comfortable hard copy. I’ll continue with Goodreads because I love the social aspect. But iTunes is the vehicle that drives all of my audio listening and therefore (I’ll finally admit it) the most reliable. It wins as my first and foremost list of choice.
Recent Listens
Marrying Daisy Bellamy – Susan Wiggs
Review by Melinda
Narrated by Joyce Bean
Daisy Bellamy has three men in her life: her young son Charlie, product of a teen indiscretion; Logan, Charlie’s father; and Julian, a summer friendship that turned into love over time. To say her life as a young, single mother is complicated would be a generous understatement. Living in the same small town, Logan and Daisy share child-raising duties while Julian is in the Air Force Academy’s officer school. Both men are in love with Daisy but she only has eyes for Julian although she senses it’s a relationship that can never be. He asks her to marry him when he returns on leave but Julian’s helicopter goes down in South America and Daisy is left with a broken heart and the need to go on with her life for her son’s sake.
I hadn’t read Susan Wiggs before, but narrator Joyce Bean is a seasoned star in romance audiobooks. Her warm delivery and distinctive character voices make Wiggs’ prose shine. Daisy’s life is filled with family and friends – this is the 8th book in the Lakeshore Chronicles and all of them are filled with Bellamys! The story is touching and heart-wrenching and sometimes frustrating as Daisy tries to make a life for herself and Charlie. After a few mediocre audiobook experiences in a row for me, I truly appreciate Bean’s professionalism – spot-on, never over the top. I highly recommend and plan to listen to the rest of the series as well.
Dreaming of You – Lisa Kleypas
Review by Brenda
Narrated by Rosalyn Landor
Never having read this Kleypas favorite, I came into it with open ears and high expectations. It’s a romance built around a self made man who had been born in the gutter, literally, and a country born miss with a hunger for facts and an understanding heart – a heart that sees the good in all people no matter their circumstances. Derek Craven is a unique hero, as is this story, which centers on a gaming club and the lower classes instead of the aristocracy. Rosalyn Landor is once again spot on with her excellent overall narration abilities, including her voice for Sara to which she adds a lovely lilt for both her and both her parents. For those who have had a hard time with Landor’s voicing of beloved heroes in the past, Dreaming of You is not going to be the longed for breakout performance in that area. What I wanted to hear (and should have heard) with Derek’s voice was a robust, lusty man in his prime, one that could seduce any woman he chose. What I heard was a fusty, humorless old man in a bad mood. There were so many lines that should have melted my heart, especially towards the end, but they just didn’t work in this fogeyish voice. I understand that many won’t agree with this opinion and I’m genuinely happy for you. But if Landor’s heroes haven’t worked for you yet, be prepared for another disappointment. I, for one, will be reading this fabulous book, when the hero’s voice has long faded from memory allowing me to create the real Derek in my head – the one I’ve heard so much about.
Mini Reviews – All in One Place
We now have a list of all our Mini Reviews from our Speaking of Audiobooks columns over at our Goodreads group. We’ll add the latest reviews after each column. You don’t have to be a Goodreads member to view this list so check it out. Thanks to Kelli and Vic for copying these reviews over to Goodreads for us.
Time for Your Thoughts
How do you track your audiobooks?
Do you find yourself manually tracking your audiobooks although you have software to do the job?
Do you tag your audiobooks?
What programs have you found user-friendly if you don’t use iTunes?
Do you have an update on your 2011 Listening Challenge? If you have posted an update elsewhere, will you please share your update here as well?
Have you recently decided to join our 2011 Listening Challenge?
And as always, do you have any recent audiobook successes or failures to share with us?
Ending Notes
If you’re considering joining our 2011 Listening Challenge, we have a quick start up guide for you. It’s not too late.
Our Speaking of Audiobooks Goodreads group keeps growing and we now have 50 members. Come sign up and share your audiobook shelf with us.
I’m announcing new romance audiobook releases and other audio tidbits on Twitter – look for LeaAAR.
For those new to our Speaking of Audiobooks column, be sure to check out our audio archives for further recommendations and discussions.
I’ll be back later this month when we talk about March releases.
Enjoy your listening!
– Lea Hensley
Hi Kaetrin
Thanks for your comments. I will listen to the series as soon as I get them from the library. I’m a pretty impatient person so waiting in the library queue for my turn will be difficult but I’m saving my audible credits for things I can’t get for free. Looking forward to Treachery in Death and This Side of the Grave next week.
Hi Nina.
I’m another who’s a major Mercy Thompson fan. Like you, I’m not big on books which don’t have a strong romantic element. This series does develop a very strong romantic thread even though it is all about Mercy. The love triangle you are concerned about is quickly resolved (in bk3) and in my view, it was always pretty clear which way things were headed anyway. There is much for the romance lover in this series so I’d definitely recommend you stick with it!
I’ve just started Magic Bites on audio too – Brenda tells me that, like Mercy Thompson, the romance develops – she was spot on about Mercy so I’ll trust her for this one too!
BTW, If you like Patricia Briggs’ style and want even more romance, try the Alpha & Omega series – Cry Wolf and Hunting Ground. There is a novella which starts the series called Alpha & Omega which is available as a separate ebook quite cheap but no audio sadly. Or, you can get the anthology the novella is in – I think it might be called On The Prowl but the author’s website will have more details. I bought the ebook novella only. It really is essential reading to start the series. Without reading the novella first, it’s like missing the first half of a movie and it really does set up the CW. I’ve read all 3 and have CW and HG on audio in my TBL. It is the story of Charles (Sam’s brother, Marrok’s son) and Anna and has a tie in (loosely) to the events in Moon Called. Charles is pretty special.
Hi Lea
I would definitely recommend the Night Huntress series for those who have to have romance in their books – like me! I won’t repeat my hardship with listening to Bones’ interpretation by Tavia Gilbert just that it has grown on me and I now accept her rendition. Still wish for a richer male voice for him, though. However, the series has grabbed me – absolutely.
A series that I started in the fall that I’ve really liked was Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed series. I’ve listened to all of them now and I’m looking forward to her next release at the end of June.
I have had a hard time getting into First Grave on the Right and I’m not sure why. I thought it was because of Lorelei King’s narrating and my continual thoughts of Stephanie Plum but I’m not sure. I gave up (at least for now) and decided to listen to another of the “first in a series” that I bought from audible in their sale. I listened to Moon Called by Patricia Briggs which may be my “recommended by others” selection on the listening challenge (TSTBren and Vic both loved this series). Believe it or not it was also narrated by Lorelei King! I liked it, but with no romance between the characters I’m not compelled to keep listening to the series right now. I noticed that my library has all of the rest of the series so I’ve ordered them. It seemed to me that the author has set-up a triangle between the three main characters and I’m not sure I can live through a Stephanie Plum-like scenario. I have to say that the SP story line (which I enjoyed for years but has been a snore for me over the last few books). I’d be interested to hear from others who listen/read the Mercy Thompson series. Should I stick with it? I need more than a kiss on the door step to keep my interest. At the audible sale I also bought Magic Bites which was highly regarded by Vic and some others here. Haven’t started that yet and I remember them saying there isn’t romance in this series either – at least at the beginning. I’m keeping this on my iPod for now so when the mood strikes I’m ready.
Just wanted to let folks know of a software opportunity that I got from cnet.com (GREAT tech blog). Back up or transfer your iTunes library–free! ( http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20030873-233.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheCheapskate ) This lasts until March 15 2011.
I have NOT tried this software but I trust cnet.
Also, there was talk of organizing physical books / ebooks… I use freeware by Calibre ( http://calibre-ebook.com/ ) which is AWESOME. I organize all my books through this program. Even if you don’t have an ebook version you can create an entry.
BevL(QB) – your system has to be one of the more creative ones I’ve encountered and I must say, one that speaks to me! I’m now going to have to figure out someway creatively to use Amazon wish lists.
Nina – yea for Heaven, Texas! And Shadowfever as well. Would you recommend the Night Huntress series for someone who must have a dose of romance in her books?
Lulu – I didn’t know about the Recorded Books Unlimited Plan. Do you rent CDs or cassettes on some sort of discount by paying an annual fee?
Ev – totally sympathize on the CD to iTunes to major confusion. Maybe one of these days, we can include a basic A, B, C guide on ripping CDs to iTunes if we have enough interest. Trouble is – there are so many quirks that I don’t know if we could get it generic enough. But it might be worth a try. Now that I have learned how to rip CDs to iTunes, my iPod listening selection is increasing quite a bit.
Maryfranc – Notorious Pleasures is on my iPod and I’m really looking forward to it. I loved Wicked Intentions in audio and I see Ashford MacNab narrates both. Did you listen to Wicked Intentions?
Kaetrin – Phil Gigante fan now? It’s hard to disconnect from his male characters and move on but I had to…
I’ve been tracking things in Goodreads – I’m being very good about updating new purchases and books I’ve just read/listened to but I have a ways to go to get all of my collection on there. Small bites needed there I think!
I use iTunes when it’s an MP3 not from Audible (their download manager seems to work fine for me), I use a free programme called Chapter & Verse. It will first convert an MP3 file into MP4 and then you can “”build your audiobook”” including moving chapters (if they went into iTunes wonky frex), splitting them into 2 parts, combining them into just 1 part etc and then it automatically imports the book into iTunes for you.
Listening Challenge Update.
Start a new series and see if it hooks you – Darkfever. and Yes it did.
Listen to a romance released in 2011 – Shadowfever. I did think some of the inner monologue a bit interminable – I just wanted to know what happened!!! and overall, I think I enjoyed Joyce Bean’s narration for the female parts. I did like her male characters too, but you just can’t beat Gigante’s Barrons IMO! :)
Listen to an audiobook recommended in a previous SOA column – Kiss of the Highlander. After finishing the fever series, I just couldn’t bring myself to move away from the world of the fae yet so I started listening to some more Phil Gigante! (I’m listening to Dark Highlander now).
So far, all of my listening challenge books have been winners.
I’m sure people thought I was an escapee from the nut house driving down the road listening to Fool.
I love to listen to audios while I drive- I tend to drive slower and take my time so I have more time to listen. This is a good thing- signed Lead Foot.
Despite the subject matter consider that LAMB is told from the pov of his childhood BFF, Bif. I listened to this at work and about fell out of my chair laughing so hard people wondered what was going on. :) It does have its serious moments though.
Although I do have to admit, that the topic itself of Lamb, might have just put me off if you hadn’t told me how funny you thought it was. Thanks!
Diane- Not yet, I am doing them in the order they were written. I find I like seeing how an author has changed and improved over time. And if Lamb is as funny as Fool was (nefarious fuckery notwithstanding) then I can’t wait to get to it.
ev, have you tried LAMB yet? Fisher Stevens is narrator and he does a marvelous job. I liked FOOL, but LAMB is at the top of my Christopher Moore list. :)
I have been keeping a manual book list since 2001, noting date read, author, title, year published, # in series (if any) setting, and very short (5-10 word) synopsis. I also make a notation if it was an audiobook.
Just finished listening to Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt and loved it. I can hardly wait until November for Silence’s story.
Also enjoyed listening to The Lady Most Likely and the novella Storming the Castle.
Now I am going to Audible to look for Ruthless by Anne Stuart. Last time I checked, it wasn’t there yet.
I haven’t touched my goodreads account in a long time- was shocked I even remembered the password. Now I have something else to go play with again. I’m always looking for new audios.
I love to listen to audio books while driving, but find myself shying away from many of the romance novels as opposed to sci-fi/fantasy or mysteries. I have no idea why.
I love to listen to Lorelei King do the Stephanie Plum novels. Others have done some of them and I really didn’t enjoy them.
I have every Harry Dresden novel on audio (and print). James Marsters does a hell of a job on them and I can’t wait for the next.
I recently picked up Fool by Christopher Moore. I could not get into reading his books, but this was one of the funniest things I have listened to in a while- the language, the story- all of it was fantastic. I couldn’t wait to get in the truck and drive slowly so I could listen. Then I went to the beginning of his books and got Practical Demonkeeping, which I had tried to read. It was ok. Not as good as Fool, but I finished it. I am only hoping his books improve for me as I go along.
Next up are the In Death books. Hopefully my library system will have them all.
Finding a good narrator is as important as finding an author you love to read. I look forward to seeing what is on the site and finding new books to listen to.
As for iTunes and Audible, the one time I downlloaded a book to my itunes from Audible, it was awful. All over the place and no it wasn’t on shuffle, which is what I thought it had done. I can never get audios to work right. Half the time,when done from cd’s, they tags are never uniform. They go directly into the music instead of the audio book tab that is on itunes. Maybe because I still have a 1st gen itouch, and I’m hoping to change that soon. Unless someone sits down with me and walks me through things, I am usually hopeless at figuring out how to get things to work right on itunes. Either that or it hates me. Or both.
I hope you all will take a look at the full list of Mini Review from the Speaking of Audiobooks columns over at Goodreads. However, I should point out one thing about the functionality of the list. At this time, you cannot sort by author or title. Goodreads is looking into the problem – this hasn’t always been the case nor will it continue to be so. Still, the bookshelf is easy to view complete with covers of the books.
http://www.goodreads.com/group/bookshelf/39149?order=d&per_page=20&shelf=1-mini-review&sort=author&view=main
Lulu
How can you color code in iTunes?
For some reason I never felt the need to keep a listing of the books I read. A couple of years ago I tentatively started cataloging all of my books in LibraryThing, including audio and ebooks My original ambition was noble, but soon proved exhausting. This goal is now on my – “”someday when I have the time”” list.
However, I felt the need to keep track of my audio books shortly after I became addicted to them – about 5 years ago. For a long time I wasn’t sure why I started to keep a running account of my audio books but not regular books. I think I finally figured it out. I can walk into any room in my house and physically see the books collected there. Through the years, seeing books pile up on my shelves, the floor, tables, etc. would remind me to periodically cull through them and share them with friends. I have a mental tally in my mind of how many books a reasonable person “”should”” have in their keeping at any given time. And when I go over that limit, I give or donate the ones I can live without to someone else who will appreciate them.
That is harder to do with audio books. My husband and I both use our Audible and Recorded Books Unlimited accounts and have for several years. I should not have been shocked when I recently realized the total # of books in those libraries. But I was. Over 1,000 books total – many of which I have yet to read. (Which is why the Recorded Books Unlimited Plan is a great bargain.) There is no easy way to eyeball the stack of audio books and realize when it is getting out of hand.
So I do a much better job of record keeping on my audio books. It is an easy way for me to spot books not yet read, and books I want to share with someone. Managing them in iTunes and my Music folder makes it fairly easy. I enter the data asked for in iTunes, that isn’t already supplied, then sort them by genre and color coded by books read (olive green) books to read (lavender) and books that sucked (red). I would point out that I am not a particularly “”anal”” person. I am typically very lax in my organizational efforts. Rereading this paragraph though, makes me wonder.
Finally, I can pick up any book in my house, open the front cover or scan the first page to remind myself what the book is about or to let me know if I have read it before. That is also more difficult with audio books. There are certain authors of which I tend to read every book recorded in audio. The books by those authors are the ones I am most likely to re-read. So when I start collecting multiple books by the same author, I keep a list of their books with a brief synopsis – usually cut and pasted verbatim from Barnes and Noble, Audible, etc. of each book.
I must stop now. I am having flashbacks of Phil Hartman on Saturday Night Live in his “”Cooking with the Anal Retentive Chef”” skits.
I track my books on a data base that I made for myself using FileMakerPro. I set up the following fields: title; author; year published; my rating system; sensuality rating; series name and number in the series (i.e. Black Dagger Brotherhood and which number in the series it is); genre (historical, mystery, fantasy, crime, vampire, etc.); Book and/or Audio(i.e. book, kindle, audible, cd, book & audible, etc); a synopsis of the book; an image of the cover; and, a notes section so that if I loan it out I can make a note of that. I can do a search by any of the fields I’ve listed and can sort them in various ways. For example – do a search for all books that are a vampire classification and then sort those by author or series, etc. If a book is a compilation of several stories by various authors I can denote that as well. This system works very well for me and I currently have about 1300+books in it.
For audio books I use iTunes. I have a playlist folder for each author and within the folder there is a playlist for each book. I divide the playlists by series. For example under the playlist folder Feehan, Christine I would have 1.1 Dark Prince, 1.2 Dark Desire – 1.21 Dark Peril, etc.; 2.1 Shadow Game – 2.9 Ruthless Game; 3.1 Magic in the Wind – 3.7 Hidden Currents, 4.1 The Awakening – 4.4 Wild Fire. I have found this to be very efficient. The only thing I wish I could do is change the color of a title to denote that I’ve read it. All ears if someone knows how to do that! I also keep a playlist folder called “books”. I use this folder if I only have one by that author. I just make a playlist it by the title of the book (I have about 50 books in this folder). I currently have about 75 authors and with 700+/- titles between them.
LISTENING CHALLENGE UPDATE:
Audio Book that Received DIK : Heaven Texas by SEP. What a wonderful book! Loved the story and the narration by the incomparable Anna Fields was spot-on. I think the ending is one of the top 10 endings of any book I’ve read.
Find a Series – Night Huntress Series (Halfway To The Grave)by Jeaniene frost. I’ve listened to all of them since the first of the year except Eternal Kiss of Darkness which is currently on my iPod. I would like to finish that before This Side of the Grave comes out on the 22nd of this month.
2011 Romance Book – Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning. Although some people didn’t like parts of it I wasn’t disappointed in the least. I thought it was a fantastic end to the series and the narration was superb.
Give a narrator a second chance – Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas and narrated by Rosalyn Landor. I agree with the review above. I had read this book eons ago and had forgotten some of the story – and it is a good one. I think Ms. Landor does a very good job with the female voices but poor Derek Craven. I kept wishing for Simon Prebble or someone else with a masculine British voice. I also purchased Then Came You on audible and can’t make myself listen to it. Such a shame. I have Suddenly You as well which is narrated by Jill Tanner and she’s almost as bad. I know Amanda is an almost 30 “spinster” but she sounds far older than that and Jack doesn’t sound masculine at all. It’s as if no attempt was made to make him sound like a different character let alone a man. She reads “His deep masculine voice said “There’s no charge for services…”. I was like – Huh? What deep masculine voice? The timbre of her voice doesn’t change between Jack and Amanda.
Listen to a new author – First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones. I just started it this morning on the treadmill and since it’s narrated by Lorelei King it’s taking me a while to not think of Stephanie Plum.
Oh, and I recently picked up Archangel: Samaria, Book 1 by Sharon Shinn on audible’s recent sale on 1st in series after it was mentioned in a column here at AAR. Haven’t listened to it yet.
Anne Stuart’s Ruthless is now available at Audible. Impatient for it’s release, I had ordered the CDs from Amazon but I’m going with the download NOW. CDs can be returned once they arrive.
I’m grabbing it too! Love S Ericksen but I won’t be able to listen to it right after a JD Robb book and YAY.. we get a new one in just a couple of weeks!
Looking forward to following coming out soon in audio:
* Pale Demon – Kim Harrison (UF) – 2/22
* Moon Sworn – Keri Arthur (PNR) – 2/14 by Tantor who knows from audible
* Treachery in Death – JD Robb – 2/22
* Late Eclipse – Seanan McGuire (UF) – 3/1
* This Side of the Grave – Jeaniene Frost (PNR) – 2/22 – maybe just get book haven’t decided
Lea – you condensed all the confusing talk of that thread nicely!
First and foremost, I believe that the best process is one that works for YOU and allows you to keep up with it. I’m a little crazy with wanting my metadata a certain way and started the thread to find out how others handle the challenge.
Like I mentioned in that thread, I tag things so I know author, book title (to include series and series index), narrator, year book was first published, my rating of the listening experience (if not rated, I haven’t listened), genre (specific to books: Romance, Historical Romance, Urban Fantasy) and the cover art. I usually use the cover art I like best for the book though and not necessarily the audio version. I mean who’d rather use audio cover art for Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series over the book covers? :) I do some other insane tagging specific to iTunes but won’t bore anyone here when you can follow the link if you’re interested.
Is iTunes the best audio organizational tool out there? I don’t really think so but then I’m already committed and probably won’t change unless I’m forced to.
Also wanted to give a shout out to our group bookshelf on the Good Reads group. We have all the audiobooks reviewed in this column’s archived up on the bookshelf with the reviews and a link back to the column it appeared in.
I’ve recently finished listening to the Jane Jameson series (1-3) by Molly Harper. I’d been struggling to find my audio footing since Shadowfever and this was a fun, light listen. I really enjoyed Amanda Ronconi’s reading in the series and would be happy to listen to other books read by her. (Thankfully there wasn’t THAT much from the 2 pack a day smoker in book 2) I then moved on to Soulless by Gail Carriger and read by Emily Gray. This started a little slow for me but I did enjoy it a lot and found Emily’s reading very well done. I’m listening to book 2 of that series Changeless that I was lucky enough to find at the library now.
Listening Challenge Update:
* Pick an audiobook that received a DIK grade at AAR in print format
COMPLETED: Nalini Singh – Archangel’s Kiss
* Tempt yourself to find a series that grabs hold and won’t let go by listening to the first in a series
* Listen to another listener’s romance favorite
* Listen to a book recommended in a previous Speaking of Audiobooks column
* Listen to a new-to-you author
COMPLETED: Gail Carriger’s Soulless – Emily Gray
* Listen to a romance book released in 2011
* Listen to an audiobook that has been languishing in your to-be-listened (TBL) pile
* Relisten to a favorite book
COMPLETED: Patricia Briggs – Hunting Ground
* Listen to a new-to-you narrator
COMPLETED: Molly Harper’s Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs – Amanda Ronconi
Lea, I accepted long ago that I would only keep up with the absolute most passive (aka lazy) organization system for both my print and audio books. So I let Amazon Wish Lists do most of the work for me.
Basically, I created 3 wish lists for audio books, but the key to making it work is that I installed the Amazon Wish List button to my toolbar because it allows me to add books from ANY site to my Amazon wish lists.
Wish List 1. a true wish list of books I want to listen to in audio, even if I don’t know if they WILL be released in audio. I add the release date to the comments, either the audio or, more commonly known, the print release date. I often include what book number if it’s part of a series and then copy/paste a few lines from the Amazon summary or from one of the reviews. That way I can browse the list and know with just a glance whether it’s a book I’m in the mood for.
Wish List 2. this is my To Be Listened to list. Once I’ve acquired an audio book (from any source) it goes in here. If it’s already in list #1, I just hit the *move to another list* button, otherwise I either add it to this list using my Add to Amazon Wish List button from Audible, or NetLibrary or Clevenet. Sometimes, if I’m feeling motivated, I’ll put the actual Amazon listing here.
Wish List 3. This is my list of audio books I’ve finished (I have a list per year for print books). I edit the comments section to include the month/year I finished and move it to this list from list 2. Sometimes I actually remember to include a few comments about my opinion of it.
Now, is this the most useful way of organizing book lists? Nah, not really because sorting and searching is fairly limited. But since it’s the only one that I’ve managed to keep up with, it’s the most useful to ME. And who knows? Maybe I’ll finally meet up with that ever elusive SOMEDAY and I’ll already have a decent collection of data to create a REALLY organized list.