I've been using Speechify to listen to web content. The fee is modest ($35 a year, I think) but it's well worth the ability to look away from the screen for awhile and still listen to articles.
I actually did a digital service-learning project with students to create narrations on librivox for short stories in American literature that wasn't on there.
Hey, just noted you earned your PH.D.---am I correct? Congrats! I am a huge audiobook fan, but I tell my students that this is because: 1) I use audiobooks as motivation to take long walks; and 2) As I age, I find it difficult to read print on a page; and 3) Like everyone else, I have little patience for long-form reading---and I am an English instructor!
Two thoughts... 1) If SoundCloud technology was ever set free on audio books, I do think it would be a total game changer. That flat, robotic narration would be a thing of the past. 2) The alternate version re: preserving the artists input and/or helping move the backlog of books that would otherwise never be sent to production would be tech that applies voice change technology to the spoken word. I know there's controversy with deep fakes over this (i.e. having it sound like Matthew McConaughey read your book when he really didn’t) and I suppose one could argue that if you're going to go that route, why not just use the talent's original voice. But I do think there may be something to at least explore there.
I've been using Speechify to listen to web content. The fee is modest ($35 a year, I think) but it's well worth the ability to look away from the screen for awhile and still listen to articles.
Good overview, Lance. (I didn't know you were a big audiobook fan. Did you ever narrate for Librivox?)
Your call for creating more audiobooks is an important one.
audiobook fan might be an understatement :)
I actually did a digital service-learning project with students to create narrations on librivox for short stories in American literature that wasn't on there.
Hey, just noted you earned your PH.D.---am I correct? Congrats! I am a huge audiobook fan, but I tell my students that this is because: 1) I use audiobooks as motivation to take long walks; and 2) As I age, I find it difficult to read print on a page; and 3) Like everyone else, I have little patience for long-form reading---and I am an English instructor!
hey Rachel! Yes, I did and just finishing up edits to submit the final dissertation to walk in may!
I always joke that audiobooks make me well-domesticated because now, it's no longer chores; it's reading time!!!! :)
Two thoughts... 1) If SoundCloud technology was ever set free on audio books, I do think it would be a total game changer. That flat, robotic narration would be a thing of the past. 2) The alternate version re: preserving the artists input and/or helping move the backlog of books that would otherwise never be sent to production would be tech that applies voice change technology to the spoken word. I know there's controversy with deep fakes over this (i.e. having it sound like Matthew McConaughey read your book when he really didn’t) and I suppose one could argue that if you're going to go that route, why not just use the talent's original voice. But I do think there may be something to at least explore there.