Comments on: Hybrid book idea—e-books paired with audio books—is starting to spread

By: Evan Schnittman

Evan Schnittman — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:49:55 +0000

From everything I have learned about Audio books, and by no means am I an expert, but I think there is an inherent disconnect here. Audiobooks are not a book “format” in the same manner as ebooks are a format of a print book as they don’t share the same sensory experience when we digest the content. Audiobooks are listened to, books are read. The only voice one hears when reading is our own (one hopes). I have been told by experts in the area that audiobook readers or actors, have their own following and often audiobook buyer follow what the particular voice or actor is reading – more so than they content they are reading.

Furthermore, the digital audiobook, downloaded onto one’s iPod and listened to in a car or on a plane is just as easily accessed when at home, etc. I cannot imagine a circumstance where one would switch from the audio book to the ebook or vice versa. (Yes, it would be very cool to read TS Eliot’s poems and then click on a recording with him reading, but that is just embedded audio in an ebook. Audio and ebooks just don’t make any sense as packaged together.

See part 2 of “Do I Believe in ebooks?” on the OUP blog (blog.oup.com) next week when I go into some detail about the parallels and differences between the formats.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:52:00 +0000

Exactly, Adrian. I’d love to hear further on this topic from Jon Noring, who actually proposed something like this a year or so ago in an OpenReader context. I picked up his idea in a letter we sent to Audible. No reply. Glad to see Joe pushing for the concept. David

By: Fibber

Fibber — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:32:54 +0000

Loudlit does something similar in a browser.

http://loudlit.org/

By: Adrian Driscoll

Adrian Driscoll — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:13:10 +0000

There is a standard already that should do the trick – DAISY. It has all infrastructure that is needed to tag data so you can move between audio and text.