kristinannie Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 I think I am going to join Audible.com. I really want to start listening to more books while we drive instead of just having the kids watch movies. So, what are your favorite audiobooks? I am wanting some classics for myself to listen to while I am driving to homeschool conferences by myself and I also want some that the whole family can enjoy! Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 Hunt around online for a deal to get two free audiobooks when you join and remember to cancel your paid membership within a month. Download a couple of things that look really great (I like biographies). Then do a search for free audible books with whispersync. These are Audible books you an acquire free if you first "buy" the Kindle book which is also free. You don't need a Kindle, just download the app to your pc or iPod or phone or whatever you have. Unfortunately, it looks like there are currently only 10 free books but they are all classics. There were 27 when the promo started last fall, so maybe the selection will rotate. Your Audible account doesn't need to be active to buy the free books. Those should keep you busy for a good long time. Audible is expensive so I'm happy to use the free books which should keep me busy for a few years :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted February 27, 2013 Author Share Posted February 27, 2013 Unfortunately, it looks like there are currently only 10 free books but they are all classics. There were 27 when the promo started last fall, so maybe the selection will rotate. Where do you find these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 Search on amazon for "free Kindle whispersync" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Michelle* Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 The SmartPass versions of the Shakespeare plays are great. They're like listening to a production and getting a lecture all in one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dahliarw Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 We just listened to "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis. My boys loved it. It was great since the book is still too difficult for my oldest to sit and read, but the story is fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Michelle* Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 We just listened to "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis. My boys loved it. It was great since the book is still too difficult for my oldest to sit and read, but the story is fantastic. The Magician's Nephew is very good, too. It's narrated by Kenneth Branagh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsmith Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Favorites here have been: The Hobbit Our Island Story D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths Adventure of Huckleberry Finn: A Signature Performance by Elijah Wood - this is amazing!!! Black Beauty narrated by Nathaniel Parker - he really makes the story come alive Mr. Midshipman Hornblower The Wonderful Wizard of Oz narrated by Ann Hathaway For myself, I've enjoyed many of the courses by The Modern Scholar, especially those by Michael Drout and: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking 1776 John Adams Washington A Life Dune Ethan Frome The End of the Affair narrated by Colin Firth The Iliad narrated by Derek Jacobi I love Audible and don't mind paying the monthly fee at all. I currently have 105 audiobooks. If you join but decide you need a break without quitting, you can go on hiatus for 3 months. I believe you can do that once a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 I got the Twelfth Night! Plus I got a huge collection of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales for my kids for $1.99. I am so excited to drive somewhere. :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nono Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Misty of Chincoteague and Trumpet of the Swan were big hits in our car/home! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Michelle* Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Based on your rec I got Julius Caesar. It's awesome! Thank you! You're welcome! Glad you like it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted March 1, 2013 Author Share Posted March 1, 2013 I got the Twelfth Night! Plus I got a huge collection of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales for my kids for $1.99. I am so excited to drive somewhere. :hurray: I just listened to the first 30 minutes of Twelfth Night. I love the Smart Pass recordings. It is great to listen to it with the commentary and then next time I can listen to it by itself. Thanks for the recommendation! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Michelle* Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 I just listened to the first 30 minutes of Twelfth Night. I love the Smart Pass recordings. It is great to listen to it with the commentary and then next time I can listen to it by itself. Thanks for the recommendation! You're welcome! I'm dedicating the rest of this year's credits to more of these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neige Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 I love the narration on the LOTR audiobooks - forget the narrator's name at the moment, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystie Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Here's the list I made just a couple weeks ago with the Amazon/Audible free/cheap deals: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2013/free-or-cheap-audible-audio-books And here's my lists of our favorites: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2013/reading-time-cop-out-audio-books-in-the-life-of-a-mother http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2013/read-aloud-cop-out-audio-books-in-the-homeschool I love our Audible membership. It can be a great deal if you pay attention to their promo emails, too. And if you try to cancel, they first run you through a few hoops where they ask you why you want to cancel and give you more deals to keep you. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Thanks for these lists! We love audio books here. My 10 year old and I light candles and listen in the living room in the evening. He feels very grown up and I can doze on the sofa! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 I got a few more that seemed to be good deals -Hans Brinker -Black Beauty -Legends of King Arthur -Sayings of Confucius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Younger ds's favorite is Rikki Tikki Tavi. He's listened to it over and over again. I'm loving Elijah Woods reading of Huck Finn. I don't think it's a book I could do as a read aloud, but he does a fantastic job. I get a lot of free audios at booksshouldbefree.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted March 17, 2013 Author Share Posted March 17, 2013 I just wanted to let you guys know that all audible.com items are 25% off until Monday at midnight! The Smartpass Shakespeare are actually only $12.15 so it isn't worth using a credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briansmama Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Not a classic, but I use my credits to buy Hakim's Story of US. Regularly these run closer to $25 so using my $15/month credit really saves us money :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Younger ds's favorite is Rikki Tikki Tavi. He's listened to it over and over again. Which version/narrator do you have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rieshy Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 We have tons of books from Audible that are listed in Ambleside online's reading lists as well as the WTM. I looked at the ages of your children. I also have a 6 yo and we have quite a few selections that are just for fun... About 3 months ago you could get all the Ramona series books for one credit. My 6 yo also love the Great Brain books and The Wizard of Oz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsheresomewhere Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 How to train your dragon series is great. The Railway Children is pretty good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Kate Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 For those of you who enjoy the Hobbit, which version do you have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsmith Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Rob Inglis is the narrator on ours. He does a great job of bringing the characters to life. Ds has been listening to this every night for the past few months. He really loves it! For those of you who enjoy the Hobbit, which version do you have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 My dd is absolutely obsessed with the Alice in Wonderland audio book, she's listened to it dozens of times (on her own kindle). I got it through the whispersync thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 [/size] Which version/narrator do you have? IDK, it's the free Librivox recording. Ds likes it because he can listen to the entire book in one sitting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 They are offering The Picture of Dorian Gray for free this weekend. http://www.audible.c...IGB9062WS030513 Thank you! eta: Alice in Wonderland and The Secret Garden are listed at 49 cents each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 McGuffey's Readers Word of Promise NKJV Bible (with free new member credit) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I love our Audible membership. It can be a great deal if you pay attention to their promo emails, too. And if you try to cancel, they first run you through a few hoops where they ask you why you want to cancel and give you more deals to keep you. :) I love being run through the hoops. Then I cancel for awhile. Then after awhile I ask about any deals I might be eligible for. Most of my books were from credits that I paid less than $8.00 for. And the free whispersync deals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Michelle* Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I love being run through the hoops. Then I cancel for awhile. Then after awhile I ask about any deals I might be eligible for. Most of my books were from credits that I paid less than $8.00 for. And the free whispersync deals. I just went through the cancellation screens to see what would happen. I got offered a $9.95 annual membership fee. No credits, but I still get the member discounts and deals. Works for me, especially since most of the books on my wish list cost less than the monthly fee! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 If you cancel after the free month, they offer you 2 or 3 months at less than $8.00 each, which include free credits. This time when I resigned up, they gave me 3 months at $7.48 each and these include free credits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I think I saw that Gutenburg had some audio books. My favorite from Audible was the Ender's Game series. The voices changed just often enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I have started, but not finished, The Old Man and the Sea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I use Librivox instead because it is free. Every year the recordings improve, and I have not had a bad reader in at least 2 years. I have listened to over 50 books in the past 4 years. They can only record books in the public domain, so they don't have any books more modern than about 1935. Ruth in NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 My dd is absolutely obsessed with the Alice in Wonderland audio book, she's listened to it dozens of times (on her own kindle). I got it through the whispersync thing. Younger ds listened to about half of it today while waiting at the eye doctor then the drive home. He says thank you, it's excellent. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Younger ds listened to about half of it today while waiting at the eye doctor then the drive home. He says thank you, it's excellent. :) :D Lovely to hear! I'll tell DD she has a convert! She is seriously quite obsessed with Alice at the moment... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 My audible faves so far: The Hobbit and LOTR trilogy The Oresteia Dune Doctor Who dramas Ready Player One The Histories Our Island Story The Magic Tree House Collections are great deals and Mary Pope Osborne is an excellent narrator. Any links to the Histories? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmccumbers Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 I love our Audible membership. It can be a great deal if you pay attention to their promo emails, too. And if you try to cancel, they first run you through a few hoops where they ask you why you want to cancel and give you more deals to keep you. :) I have a membership where I get one credit a month. I saw a few weeks ago where they had a bogo special. Would that work with the credit a month membership or only if ou purchase an extra credit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Not a classic, but I use my credits to buy Hakim's Story of US. Regularly these run closer to $25 so using my $15/month credit really saves us money :) If you get the platinum membership, they cost about $11 for each credit. That is how I got the hakim series which is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystie Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I have a membership where I get one credit a month. I saw a few weeks ago where they had a bogo special. Would that work with the credit a month membership or only if ou purchase an extra credit? Yes! It has worked that way for me before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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