Steve's Articles in Audio

[Mounds]

I started a new project a couple of weeks ago, which is recording Steve's blog posts in audio. I started an eJunkie store, which can be found here. I know it looks rather hideous at the moment but it will improve.

I'm really fond of the idea of recording all of the posts into audio. I think it makes them that much more accessible to be able to listen to them. I find that when I listen and read at the same time, I gain a deeper understanding of the material.
It's also not everyone's preference to read. I think by recording all of these into audio, I'm bringing more value to the auditory people of this website.

I know it's common to create a website and give everything away. Often times, the site get's filled with ads and Donate buttons, in order to build revenue. I'm going to try taking a different route, $0.99/MP3. That's regardless of length so a 25 minute MP3 would cost the same as a 10 minute MP3. When this project does start generating revenue, Steve will get a royalty in the form of a regular donation.

Lastly, I'm planning on releasing five articles per week. The idea is to release two of them on Wednesday and three on Sunday. I'm going to aim for a specific time (like 5:00PM CST) and once I figure out exactly what that time will be, I'll make it known. I love consistency and I'm going to aim to have consistency in this project. If all goes well, I might have most articles converted within a year.

So ya. I hope you guys enjoy. The store page will get a facelift soon enough.

-Tim

[openeyes]

That sounds like a good practice for you.

I also like being able to listen and read. With my kindle I can simply create a .txt file, upload it to the kindle, and have it read whatever text I've sent it. I didn't realize how much I'd appreciate having the text nearby when listening, or how much I'd appreciate being able to listen when I have the text nearby, making me like kindle books more than regular books or audiobooks, since audiobooks typically don't turn the page for me or let me search via word or table of contents.

A friend prefers listening to reading so much that he built a book scanner (inspired by this: DIY High-Speed Book Scanner from Trash and Cheap Cameras), used optical character recognition software to convert images to text, and now can make his own audio books, scanning a couple pages per second and letting software do the rest.

[Mounds]

I haven't tried that yet on my Kindle. Is that the Text-to-Speech feature?

It's surprising how much more I pick up when I listen and read at the same time. In all honesty, I had a hard time getting through one of Steve's articles until I started recording them.

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by Mounds

Is that the Text-to-Speech feature?

Yes. Not all kindle books have it enabled since it competes with audio books, but most that I have do, and any file you create that is the correct format (such as .txt or mobi) can also be read.

I imagine the practice of reading it out loud to make the recording could be useful, and then hearing it played back while you can also see the text. In my mid-teens I was very into reading a book that went along with a meditation practice I was following, and in addition to reading the book I would copy sections by hand, read it out loud to other people or an audio recorder, and work on memorizing it, all of which helped me internalize it better.

[LloydFraser]

A very popular use for that is by people who are learning English. It's one thing to read the book but it's much more helpful to be able to head how everything is pronounced in the same time.