Words of Radiance - 5 Stars!

Having finished volume two of the Stormlight Archive I am even more impressed with Brandon Sanderson as an author.  This book drew me in from the beginning and held me in a state of concern or frustration depending upon the character and their decisions.   There are many things that change over the course of this book especially for Kaliden and Shalan, both are now closer than ever to becoming what they must become to become true Knights Radiant.   The whole story is one with many twists and turns.  That will bring you face to face with the past and the ramifications of the decisions that people make.  The changes are too many to break out into a list at this moment and given that the book hasn't been out for a month yet I will not toss spoilers out.  I will simply say you need to read this book!  It is absolutely worth the time you will put into getting through this tale of despair, triumph, agony, pleasure and discovery.

Listen Alaska

I was recently introduced to Listen Alaska which is the online audiobook check out system through out Alaskan Public Libraries. It requires the use of a piece of software called OverDrive which downloaded and installed without any difficulty. I then began browsing the selection. It certainly isn’t as robust as that found at Audible, but it did have a few titles that were on my wish list so I checked them out and the system worked slick. If you are looking for an additional source for audiobooks in between your monthly Audible fix this is indeed a viable option in Alaska. I am certain other states have similar programs so ask your librarian how you would go about accessing audiobooks online. I suspect they will have a program and if they don’t tell them to check out Listen Alaska’s website.

A New Year a New Look...

I just joined Goodreads.com and they have a simple cut and paste link for every review that I right. Therefore there will be more posts from me as this is a simpler system for me as I don't have to bounce between three different sites to create the post I am trying to structure. Enjoy your Audible listning! Happy New Year to you all!

The Virtues of Audible

I am an addicted Audible.com subscriber. Nearly 5 years ago I discovered Audible. I signed up for one of their older plans that granted me 2 audio titles every month for $19.95. Since that day I have purchased over, 500 titles. If you do the math on that you can see I have bought more than my average 2 titles a month (120 titles) you can see I have acquired over 400 additional titles in that time. Though that is usually due to one of their SMOKIN' HOT SALES, like the last one that had over 100 titles for $5.49!!! Considering the average price of these were over $20 at regular price you can see that that is a very good deal. Twenty-five percent off is usually considered a good deal, however, purchasing a great audio book for 25%, is just flat AWESOME!

They have a huge selection of fresh new titles and more importantly they are always adding classics. Search their site and if you don't find it, it likely isn't available online, save one very glaring exception, Harry Potter. Though I am sure that once the last movie comes out and the licensing has simmered down that it too will become available. Seriously though that is the ONLY new book I haven't been able to find at Audible, that I have looked to purchase. Older series they are "ACTIVELY" acquiring the rights for on a daily basis.

I would ask a favor if you try out their FREE Trial. Enter my user id: iceworm72. Audible is generous to its referring subscribers. They will give me a free audio book if you decide you like what you see. And I for one can always us another audio book! My wish list is over 300 books in length.

Seriously I love this service!

10 Quick Steps to Blogging - 4 Stars

I felt this an ironic choice for the first post to this new blog. It is a review of an audiobook on blogging, called 10 Quick Steps to Blogging by Bryan Hoff and read by David Lawrence the creator of the 10 Quick Steps series.

I enjoyed this production. It was straight forward and clearly presented. I am hopeful that by using the suggestions offered that there will be more than a few of you reading this and all future posts to this blog. In any event it was very educational in a simplified version and that in itself is golden. The narration was of superb quality with no gaffs to be noted. It is what you would expect from such a professional as David Lawrence. His 10 Quick Steps series is exactly what it purports to be 10 Quick Steps.

The only negative I have for this title at Audible was in finding the same title available for $9.95 at the iTunes Store when I uploaded the title to my iPod; considering I paid $20.00 for it at Audible.com. This is one of the rare times that I have not been happy with the pricing I have gotten from Audible. It appears to be the case with ALL of 10 Quick Steps series. I suspect there is a reason for that but I have not been able to discover it in my browsing today.

Regardless, it is a worthwhile title! Though I would likely buy future 10 Quick Steps series audiobooks from iTune rather than Audible.