finally for ipod! (#9)

okay, so i'm going to skip around anyway, even though i thought i'd go in order from now on. indu and i worked on downloading audiobooks (#9) a couple of weeks ago, and i just haven't had a chance (if only i had a nickel for every time i heard/said that...) to blog about it.

first off, i was really happy that netlibrary finally has a selection that is ipod compatible! i do like to listen to audiobooks when i'm driving, walking or even doing housework, and it's nice to not have to tote around yet another gadget (different mp3 player) or change discs (books on cd). however, the selection is very limited, and that was a bit of a let-down. also, browsing by subject doesn't show you the format for the titles -- it seems you have to click on one of their links (subject heading, author, reader, etc.) to get a list which displays which formats are available for those titles. roundabout, but better than having to "show details" for each individual item. however, this is just what worked for me, but maybe someone else had more luck? the search engine also seems temperamental. i forget exactly what i was doing, but one time i put in an author's name for a title that i MADE SURE they had, and my search found no results.

downloading the selection i finally made was easy. i attached my ipod to the computer, then selected "my portable device" on the One Click Download page. there was a small glitch during the download where i got a message saying "your portable player is working on another request, please allow it to complete its current task and select transfer to portable player again" when all i was doing was downloading the audiobook. hrm... a little annoying, but not insurmountable. i downloaded The age of fable, by Thomas Bulfinch and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court, by Mark Twain. i also downloaded Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey to my computer because this was one of my favorite books when i was in junior high school (that's a picture of the cover it had when i first bought it in a used bookstore on my way home from school) and i've read it many times, so i wanted to see what the audiobook was like.