Audio Books for the Commute

Off Topic
1

Not wanting to derail SteelyDs thread I have set this one up based on Cortes’ post:

I think this is a great idea. Something I’d like to try but there are so many resources out there I don’t know where to start.

If anyone has recommendations on ebooks suitable for listening to during the commute please post them here.

Personally I’d be interested in educational ones (introducing new skills/knowledge), personal development ones (not so much related to business, leadership etc…).

But any you can receommend may be useful for another member so don’t be shy.

Thanks.

2

Yale has put out courses as MP3s, those I listen to when I drive.

You need to make sure though they all have the same volume, some are simply not loud enough.

There is freeware that can do that.

3

The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons by Napoleon Hill is good. It takes longer than expected to get through because it is suggested you review previous lessons at certain points. After that I listened to Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Bossidy and Charan, but that is more business and leadership related.

Right now, I am listening to Mastery by Robert Greene. It was mentioned by a T-Nation member in another thread, and I’m liking it so far. Thinking about getting one or two audiobooks by Brian Tracy on time management and discipline, but looking for more objective reviews before I make the decision to buy.

There’s a lot of language and speech audiobooks/lessons out there you may find useful. They encourage participation, so you’ll have to be okay with the occasional funny look if you ride a train to work.

4

[quote]orion wrote:
Yale has put out courses as MP3s, those I listen to when I drive.

You need to make sure though they all have the same volume, some are simply not loud enough.

There is freeware that can do that. [/quote]

Are these the lectures from Open Yale Courses or another source?

Asking because I’m looking to expand my audio-library.

5

Just dont listen 50 shades of grey read by Wilford Brimley

Seriously conflicts the hell out of you

6

[quote]fncj wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:
Yale has put out courses as MP3s, those I listen to when I drive.

You need to make sure though they all have the same volume, some are simply not loud enough.

There is freeware that can do that. [/quote]

Are these the lectures from Open Yale Courses or another source?

Asking because I’m looking to expand my audio-library.
[/quote]

Yeah, I think its that.

This is serious quality, I am working through their history lessons now.

7

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]fncj wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:
Yale has put out courses as MP3s, those I listen to when I drive.

You need to make sure though they all have the same volume, some are simply not loud enough.

There is freeware that can do that. [/quote]

Are these the lectures from Open Yale Courses or another source?

Asking because I’m looking to expand my audio-library.
[/quote]

Yeah, I think its that.

This is serious quality, I am working through their history lessons now.

[/quote]
Okay serious question.

Why?

Is this a passing interest or hobby?

My life is 10 feet deep of drama and alligators with work and running a business, my spare time is spent on wife and lifting.

Maybe I suck but I spent my time thinking how to make my company money and growing.

8

[quote]Derek542 wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]fncj wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:
Yale has put out courses as MP3s, those I listen to when I drive.

You need to make sure though they all have the same volume, some are simply not loud enough.

There is freeware that can do that. [/quote]

Are these the lectures from Open Yale Courses or another source?

Asking because I’m looking to expand my audio-library.
[/quote]

Yeah, I think its that.

This is serious quality, I am working through their history lessons now.

[/quote]
Okay serious question.

Why?

Is this a passing interest or hobby?

My life is 10 feet deep of drama and alligators with work and running a business, my spare time is spent on wife and lifting.

Maybe I suck but I spent my time thinking how to make my company money and growing. [/quote]

Because I think all the fucking time, my brain just wont stop.

So, if I do that, I think about other things.

9

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]Derek542 wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]fncj wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:
Yale has put out courses as MP3s, those I listen to when I drive.

You need to make sure though they all have the same volume, some are simply not loud enough.

There is freeware that can do that. [/quote]

Are these the lectures from Open Yale Courses or another source?

Asking because I’m looking to expand my audio-library.
[/quote]

Yeah, I think its that.

This is serious quality, I am working through their history lessons now.

[/quote]
Okay serious question.

Why?

Is this a passing interest or hobby?

My life is 10 feet deep of drama and alligators with work and running a business, my spare time is spent on wife and lifting.

Maybe I suck but I spent my time thinking how to make my company money and growing. [/quote]

Because I think all the fucking time, my brain just wont stop.

So, if I do that, I think about other things.[/quote]
Mine does also, but I just figure to use it to make me money.

Plus my commute is used to catch up with all with all my job sites.

10

[quote]Derek542 wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]Derek542 wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]fncj wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:
Yale has put out courses as MP3s, those I listen to when I drive.

You need to make sure though they all have the same volume, some are simply not loud enough.

There is freeware that can do that. [/quote]

Are these the lectures from Open Yale Courses or another source?

Asking because I’m looking to expand my audio-library.
[/quote]

Yeah, I think its that.

This is serious quality, I am working through their history lessons now.

[/quote]
Okay serious question.

Why?

Is this a passing interest or hobby?

My life is 10 feet deep of drama and alligators with work and running a business, my spare time is spent on wife and lifting.

Maybe I suck but I spent my time thinking how to make my company money and growing. [/quote]

Because I think all the fucking time, my brain just wont stop.

So, if I do that, I think about other things.[/quote]
Mine does also, but I just figure to use it to make me money.

Plus my commute is used to catch up with up with all my job sites.[/quote]

Ah, you want to know why I dont think about something useful?

First because its boring, but also because useful is a broad concept.

Ideas have shapes and if you recognize the shape you suddenly discover that an ancient battle formation, or more precisely the idea behind it, is something you can use.

Homeostasis is the same as cybernetic, the welfare state is the idea of the perfectability of mankind, which is an ancient religious idea and so further and so on.

If you get an idea, a feel, for the shape, you recognize it even if it comes in a different costume.

That is very useful if you want to know whats going on.

11

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]fncj wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:
Yale has put out courses as MP3s, those I listen to when I drive.

You need to make sure though they all have the same volume, some are simply not loud enough.

There is freeware that can do that. [/quote]

Are these the lectures from Open Yale Courses or another source?

Asking because I’m looking to expand my audio-library.
[/quote]

Yeah, I think its that.

This is serious quality, I am working through their history lessons now.

[/quote]

There’s a lot of interesting courses on that site. I was looking into Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature with T. Gendler a while ago, but it seems all the audio they have for the lecture series is for iTunes. That crashes my computer. Thinking I’ll have to use jDownloader or something else to rip the audio from the youtube playlist on the YaleCourses channel. lol

You’re right about inconsistent audio levels. I reviewed the Shelly Kagan lectures on death, (it has been out long enough that I could find it in mp3,) and noticed the sound quality varies depending on the day recorded.

For anyone else wondering, sites like OpenCulture has a lot of free audiobooks and ebooks, typically the classics in literature, philosophy, and some political writings. However, LibriVox has a more extensive collection of works in the public domain.

12

[quote]Derek542 wrote:
Okay serious question.

Why?

Is this a passing interest or hobby?

My life is 10 feet deep of drama and alligators with work and running a business, my spare time is spent on wife and lifting.

Maybe I suck but I spent my time thinking how to make my company money and growing. [/quote]

In whatever you listen to, your mind will identify what is useful and begin to develop ways to apply it to what is important in your life. Even when focused on the narration of a seemingly unrelated topic, thoughts of your family, career, and pursuits still exist, so if an idea is presented that can enrich one or more areas your mind will latch onto it.

13

[quote]fncj wrote:
The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons by Napoleon Hill is good. It takes longer than expected to get through it because it is suggested you review previous lessons at certain points. After that I listened to Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Bossidy and Charan, but that is more business and leadership related.

Right now, I am listening to Mastery by Robert Greene. It was mentioned by a T-Nation member in another thread, and I’m liking it so far. Thinking about getting one or two audiobooks by Brian Tracy on time management and discipline, but looking for more objective reviews before I make the decision to buy.

There’s a lot of language and speech audiobooks/lessons out there you may find useful. They encourage participation, so you’ll have to be okay with the occasional funny look if you ride a train to work.[/quote]

These are great suggestions.

If you just want personal improvement on a general level, you can’t do any better than either Brian Tracy, Zig ZIglar, or Jim Rohn. All them have both general and more specific titles. I love Zig and Jim for the personal growth stuff, and Brian Tracy is fantastic for Sales, Marketing and the art of influence and negotiation.

I’m into a FANTASTIC program on marketing right now called Piranha Marketing, distributed by Nightingale-Conant. I have been in business for myself for 7 years and studying this stuff for 11, and I have spent the entire 8 CD set listening to a constant stream of new ideas I have never heard of or thought to implement. REALLY good stuff.

Best idea, though, is just to go to the two websites mentioned earlier and first browse through to find something that speaks to you, and then go to google and look for reviews. Again, some stuff is expensive, but the benefits you gain are worth so much ore than you will ever be able to pay for them. There is also the option of buying them used. If all else fails, there are other methods by which these audio can be obtained, but I won’t endorse them here.

14

[quote]fncj wrote:

[quote]Derek542 wrote:
Okay serious question.

Why?

Is this a passing interest or hobby?

My life is 10 feet deep of drama and alligators with work and running a business, my spare time is spent on wife and lifting.

Maybe I suck but I spent my time thinking how to make my company money and growing. [/quote]

In whatever you listen to, your mind will identify what is useful and begin to develop ways to apply it to what is important in your life. Even when focused on the narration of a seemingly unrelated topic, thoughts of your family, career, and pursuits still exist, so if an idea is presented that can enrich one or more areas your mind will latch onto it.[/quote]

Preach it, brother fncj!

15

The free CDs that come with Success Magazine are excellent. Typically 45 mins to an hour each.

I’m a big Darren Hardy fan. I also like Jim Rohn’s stuff a lot

16

For someone who doesn’t have a lot of extra money, just get “plain old” audiobooks. There is plenty of extremely valuable information out there that can be purchased for not much more than the price of the book itself and that allows you to use your down time in a valuable manner (without getting carsick, and while performing detailed but monotonous tasks).

Also, I know a lot of people will probably think I’m crazy, but Tony Robbins has some fantastic stuff. Sometimes it can get a little over the top, but there is plenty, PLENTY of gold to be dug from any one of his programs.

To this day, in 11 years of research, the single best sales program I have ever found (upon which I have largely based my own consistently 90-95% successful sales program) has been his CD set The Power to Influence. It is 100% practical information with no fluff that absolutely deconstructs the sales process and crosses over into influencing people not just in sales, but in any part of life you can imagine. It is one of my absolute top 10 of all time programs that I would recommend to anyone involved in any kind of business that involves negotiation of any kind, which is pretty much any kind of business at all. VERY good stuff.

Here is a link to the accompanying booklet for anyone interested in picking up this wonderful audio program.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/30556478/Anthony-Tony-Robbins-The-Power-to-Influence

17

Some great suggestions. Thanks guys.

18

I’m a 2 book/month member at audible.com and have been for almost 2 years. My favorites in that category have been:

Power of Now, A New Earth, Stillness Speaks, all by Eckhart Tolle

The 50th Law by Robert Greene

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Your Brain At Work by David Rock. While this is spun as a business book, it’s really personal development at its core.

Talent is Overrated by Geoff Coldrin. This book should be a unit in high school.

As an additional thought, it’s good to have access to some good fiction books. While on paper it sounds good to listen to non-fiction/educational/personal development books, if you’re dead tired they can be hard to pay attention and meaningfully reflect on non-fiction. When you’re really tired and have a commute ahead of you, it is really helpful to put on a really engaging fiction book.

19

[quote]challer1 wrote:
I’m a 2 book/month member at audible.com and have been for almost 2 years. My favorites in that category have been:

Power of Now, A New Earth, Stillness Speaks, all by Eckhart Tolle

The 50th Law by Robert Greene

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Your Brain At Work by David Rock. While this is spun as a business book, it’s really personal development at its core.

Talent is Overrated by Geoff Coldrin. This book should be a unit in high school.

As an additional thought, it’s good to have access to some good fiction books. While on paper it sounds good to listen to non-fiction/educational/personal development books, if you’re dead tired they can be hard to pay attention and meaningfully reflect on non-fiction. When you’re really tired and have a commute ahead of you, it is really helpful to put on a really engaging fiction book.[/quote]

Nothing wrong with good fiction. So long as the emphasis is on the “good.”

20

Op: if you have a smartphone I’d check out the Freakonomics podcast. It’s free and really interesting.

That is of course if you’re not deadset on a audio book