As mentioned in my previous post we have put together a page of our Christmas AudioBooks up at CreateTimeAudio . Christmas audio books are great for putting you and your family in the holiday spirit. We are making a special one time use coupon code available for your purchase. Type in the coupon code xmasrocks after adding all the Christmas titles that you want to your shopping basket and you will get 20% off that one order. You can be listening to them in minutes. Merry Christmas!
This is a quick post to inform you that our audio books discounts page has been updated for December 2008. We have included a couple more of James Patterson's best selling audio book titles.
6th Target, The (Unabridged)
London Bridges
This first is one of the Women's Murder Club series that I listened to this past summer. If it sounds like you are listening to a Law and Order episode is because Carolyn McCormick who has played a psychiatrist/psychologist in the series is doing the narrating and she does a great job.
The Amelia Bedelia collection and the Joel Osteen selection are also books that I and my children have enjoyed listening to. This month we are practically giving these 2 titles away.
This is a reminder to use the listening coupon code at CreateTimeAudio . This is the last month we will be offering this coupon in honor of the Get Caught Listening Campaign that allows you to save 20% off of any order upon check out.
We are preparing some offers on Christmas Audio Books as I type…
In my last post I mentioned that I would be recommending some gifts that you can get for audio book lovers. Increasing the battery life can be a major concern for those that buy and use digital media players. In this post we will talk about an accessory I recently found that not only increases the audio quality of your mp3 player but also extends the battery life.
Since audiobooks are longer than the typical music track many of us listen to our audiobooks for longer stretches of time. When discussing battery life I am talking both about the lifetime battery life and the battery life between charges for your digital media player. The charge life of an mp3 player varies but is usually very short. It honestly may also just depend on which one you are using. If you have an mp3 player that does not have a replaceable battery, the life of that device is determined by how good your battery is. This can be a big problem if you dish out lots of money for a digital player that you think will last for years.
A device called the Boostaroo Revolution Amplifier and Splitter can be used to extend the battery life of your audiobook player and also boosts the sound volume up to 400%. Here is an excerpt from the faqs:
Is it true that a Boostaroo can prolong the battery life of my portable player?
It's a fact. Let's consider how a typical MP3 player works. In a MP3 player, at least 70 percent of the battery power goes to running circuitry that produces the audio output for you to listen. As the battery power is drained. The audio signal is the first thing that diminishes. When this happens, you have to crank up the volume to make up for that loss, and then audio quality becomes more distorted. However, turning up the volume on your player also drains the batteries faster. It's a vicious cycle. Our Boostaroo products let you leave the volume lower on your audio player, so less battery power is needed from the player to drive your audio. Under the correct conditions, you almost double the battery life of your player by using a Boostaroo. Green Tip: The Boostaroo is a low power drain device. You can put used batteries from high power drain devices in the Boostaroo. There is plenty of life in them to run the Boostaroo. That's just another way you can save money and recycle with the Boostaroo.
I have found the Boostaroo useful not only for this but the sound amplification is great since many MP3 players have the volume controls set for listening to music which is usually lower since they don't want to hurt people's hearing. The disadvantage there is that it ends up making audio books harder to listen to. I also find that the splitter is useful for my kids since both of them can listen to an audiobook at the same time. If you remember I showed how listening to Childrens Audio Books was great for getting through a long flight.
The Boostaroo Revolution Amplifier and Splitter would be another great gift not only for the audio book lover but for students who listen to long lectures on their mp3 players. It is about as small as your player and you just attach it to your players headphone jack. Click on the picture below to get more information.
Next up will be our recommendations for audio book players…
Last year around this time I wrote how Audio Book Gifts can be given in many different ways. That post still applies this year. I still recommend the following ways to give audio books as gifts:
- Download and burn to CD, package them and give them as a physical gift.
- Download them onto a new digital/mp3 player that you buy as a gift. If you choose the IPod buy an ITunes gift certificate to add both audio books and music to your gift.
- Buy audio book gift memberships at places like Audible, BooksFree or Simply Audiobooks
This year I have decided to look at gifts that will enhance the way that audio book users manage their audio books and listen to their audio books. One tool that I have always found useful in managing my audio book burning is Roxio Creator. This is what I have used to burn the audio books that we download from CreateTimeAudio. As mentioned in last years post I burn the audio books for my husband and my mother in law and the Roxio Creator software makes it much more straightforward than even some of the free software like Window Media.
The reason I decided to mention it this year is that they came up with an upgrade that will make it even more useful for us audio book fans. As they state with the Roxio Creator 2009 you will be able to:
Convert audiobook CDs, complete with chapters and bookmarks, for easy playback on ITunes, iPod, iPhone and other portable players.
They even offer a small pdf tutorial on how you can convert not only your CDs but also any non-copy-protected audiobook downloads for free sites like Project Gutenberg. I can not emphasize how great this is for those that love to listen to audio!
This is a short post to let you know that our audio books discounts page has been updated for November. I would like to bring attention to one of the writers and to one of the books. I have written about my enjoyment of James Pattersons books. This month we have 2 on special offer.
This is part of the young adult series that is very popular with the younger set. If you have older children and you can't get them to read these audio books may get them to appreciate books.
The other James Patterson book on special offer is part of the Women's Murder Club series.
I will close with my recommendation for Words that Work. I plan to do a more thorough review of this book but since it is on special offer this month I want to emphasize that it is a good purchase for those interested in the area of influence and self help.
It should also be noted that it was the 2008 Winner at the Audies in the Business Information/Educational Category.
