Any good reading (not books)?

[JustinAiken]

I spend alot of time riding the bus, where it's too loud to listen to music, and often too dark to read books... so I'm looking for some interesting articles/interviews/etc to read on my iPod...

Anything text only, as pictures/diagrams won't show up in my reader program...

[rackdude]

If I were you, I'd go to Teach12.com and pick up a tons of those. Recorded lectures from some great teachers. That's what I did. I have like 15 gigs of that stuff, but what I do in the daytime isn't music . I love all that I've heard so far, but just make sure that if you are just starting you don't take a course that you need to know a bunch of philosophers and books by name. It's great to be able to listen to some great lectures while driving though , but I don't know if you'd share my enthusiasm. I'd say a good starting place would be John Searle's Philosophy of the Mind course, and a good course for later on would be Jeffrey Kasser's Philosophy of Science course. Granted, I don't agree totally with what either say, but it's TRUE philosophy (not the crap that you read online, but the stuff that you hear in graduate debates) so even if you don't agree with everything, you hear and understand some pretty interesting arguments.

If it's too expensive, try out some Itunes University material. The Stanford stuff on legality is pretty interesting, they have a 2 hour recorded seminar all about fair use agreements and the internet and people from Ebay, Youtube, and record labels all are giving their point of view. I learned a tons of new laws and things I never even knew existed, and the arguments for and against them.

Give audiobooks a try. If non-fiction isn't your thing, try fiction. There are a lot of audiobooks on old books. I wouldn't do Shakespeare because it's kind of hard to listen to and fully understand right off the bat, but there are other things as well.

ThoughtAudio.com - an audio book publisher providing audio book downloads of philosophy and classic literature titles.

I don't like this guys voice too much but he has some great titles that are must reads. Everyone needs at least one Ayn Rand book under there belt, and he has Anthem. Also, his reading of Metamorphosis and Heart of Darkness are pretty good. Take a listen to the Tao Te Ching too, that's the Dao that you hear of. You can learn a lot easily and although some of these things I would never think of reading (since I'm a non-fiction reader), it's great and fun to listen to.

Also there's Librivox.org

Try it!

[tropicalhotdog]

Funny you bring up the issue of the guy's voice, because as someone who also listens to a lot of audio books, I'm surprised at how some publishers spend the money to release an audio book without any care given to selecting the reader. I've been trying to listen to Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded, which has some really interesting ideas in it but is read by someone who sounds like a cross between Casey Kasem and Bobby Brady when his voice starts to change. Have to say, I don't think I can continue; I just have trouble taking it seriously.

Some years back I bought what looked like a really cool audio book of Iggy Pop reading Poe's The Raven. The production was so bad and the audio was so unbalanced that it was unlistenable - I couldn't understand a word Iggy was saying.

NPR podcasts are eggregious offenders too. The audio quality of This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, etc., is horrible. I sometimes download the podcasts and then process through my gear to make it more listenable (although Joe Frank is always way cool).

For those of use who spend a lot of time on long drives, audio books and podcasts are a godsend. I just wish that more attention were paid to the production quality.

[JustinAiken]

Originally Posted by rackdude

If I were you, I'd go to Teach12.com and pick up a tons of those. Recorded lectures from some great teachers.

...

Give audiobooks a try.

I couldn't listen to audiobooks on the bus either - I'd have to crank the volume so high that I'd be scared for my ears. I don't like audiobooks anyways - I can read alot faster than most people can talk, so I'd rather read than listen.

Everyone needs at least one Ayn Rand book under there belt, and he has Anthem.

Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book... Fountainhead is great too, and Anthem is just great because it spawned a Rush song.

But yeah, I'm looking more for things to read (in .txt, .doc, .rtf, etc format) to read on my iPod Touch on the go...

[rackdude]

Originally Posted by tropicalhotdog

Funny you bring up the issue of the guy's voice, because as someone who also listens to a lot of audio books, I'm surprised at how some publishers spend the money to release an audio book without any care given to selecting the reader. I've been trying to listen to Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded, which has some really interesting ideas in it but is read by someone who sounds like a cross between Casey Kasem and Bobby Brady when his voice starts to change. Have to say, I don't think I can continue; I just have trouble taking it seriously.

Some years back I bought what looked like a really cool audio book of Iggy Pop reading Poe's The Raven. The production was so bad and the audio was so unbalanced that it was unlistenable - I couldn't understand a word Iggy was saying.

NPR podcasts are eggregious offenders too. The audio quality of This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, etc., is horrible. I sometimes download the podcasts and then process through my gear to make it more listenable (although Joe Frank is always way cool).

For those of use who spend a lot of time on long drives, audio books and podcasts are a godsend. I just wish that more attention were paid to the production quality.

Well the ones I'm talking about weren't payed. They are open source books that are over 75 years old so you can just find the text online. Some guy made a audiobook series of all the good stuff (I don't know if his Anthem copy is legal because it might be to knew, but whatever. Everything else is a classic that you have to read!) I have yet to listen to a bad production since most of what I hear is done really well, however sometimes the voices don't match the book. This guy from thoughtaudio gives great reads of non-fiction, but doesn't have enough intonation for fiction. However, it's nice and clear and fun and easy to listen to. thumbsup

[rackdude]

Originally Posted by JustinAiken

But yeah, I'm looking more for things to read (in .txt, .doc, .rtf, etc format) to read on my iPod Touch on the go...

Posted that right before me. Sorry.

You've read Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged? Thanks for telling me they're good. I just bought them to read to write an essay for a scholarship contest. Now I'm not so scared to pick them up.

Texts... you can make your own .txts from the open source material, again if you like the classics. If it's over 75 years old, it's free use and you can find it online. I have texts from each of Marx's books and George Orwell, but you can find a lot more. There are online copies of Kafka, The Prince, etc. Just google it, and you can copy/paste it into a text document if they don't have it formatted that way already. And don't think you're breaking the law either, if they are that old it's legal (however, more modern stuff still has rights attached to it).