I am a pre-boomer ('43), and had an ebook reader, and enjoyed it, but found it limiting. So, abandoned it for the Palm515, and love that. Easy to hold in bed, and read when dh is asleep, and I am not...
I find downloading much easier, and have the choice to read on my computer screen or my palm.
But!!! I love to listen to books on my iPod as well. This leaves me free to sew, knit, cook, quilt, etc... I also find that since I am too fast a reader, that listening forces me to slow down, and concentrate on details that I otherwise might have missed. I aslo can listen to books in bed when I have trouble sleeping, without disturbing my husband, and find that it makes it easier to go back to sleep, by taking my mind of my stuff, and listening to a really good yarn!
Again, when downloading an audible book, you can also listen over the speakers on your computer, and several members of the family can listen together... and another option is the ability to burn the books to cds, so you can listen to them on any cd player...
Any of you interested please go to the following link and sign up. You can download free software to listen to an audible book, and they have listening devices that can be purchased through them. A week or so back, I think they were offering a $100 discount on an iPod.
Any freeper here who signs up and puts my user name down in the proper spot helps this lil ol granma out a lot, and if you stay signed up for 3 months, it really helps! Sp, please do not forget to put in my user name, which is the same as here...
jacquej
and the link?
http://www.audible.com/adbl/store/welcome.jsp
Text readers are greatly improved from the "Forbin Project days." I suspect most of us will live to see the day when it is unnecessary to have some record audible books. I'm sure good actors and readers will be better than computer readers, but most printed text will never be recorded.