I just bought The Search in audio format, and I wanted to encourage all of you to do the same. Why? Well, because it’s my voice reading the book. It took me a long time, and it’s very, very hard to do – the engineers are sticklers for pacing, inflection, pronunciation, and the like. I thought it would be easy – after all, I did play Nathan Detroit in my high school’s production of Guys and Dolls – but I was in that damn studio for the better part of two weeks. It was hard work, yet I really wanted to do it – the idea of having a record of my work, in my own voice, where my inflections and nuances were preserved, well, that struck me as a neat idea.
This audio book has been available for some time – in fact, I’m told it’s already a best seller for Audible (it don’t take much, folks) – but I have not pushed it here because I was waiting for Audible to make a special landing page for Searchblog readers (yes, I get a small cut, like with Amazon). They’ve finally done it, and you can buy it here. If you become an Audible member ($9.95 a year), you get the book free. That’s pretty cool. (You can also get the book on iTunes, if that’s your method of choice.)
Many will ask why I went with Audible instead of streaming a home brewed podcast. In a word, professionalism. I don’t have the time, money, or inclination to figure out how to execute the quality of work the engineers and producers did on this product. By the next product, I hope that will no longer be the case.
If you get the book and listen to it, please by all means tell me what you think. I’m working on a new chapter for the paperback now, stay tuned for more on that.
I would love to use Audible, but alas, they don’t support Linux clients.
Very short sighted given the very high growth rate of desktop Linux. Those companies positioned to join that Linux growth will be those that benefit most.
I’ve read it, I’ve heard it…. John’s voice can go through my head with my eyes closed in that long flight… Thanks John!
If you could only have it Spanish, it would educate thousands of people in Latin America that need to understand “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture”. And I write your complete title to make a point.
Saludos,
Nacho
Gosh doing that sounds painful. Nice work, John.
– Stuart
I’ve bought the Chinese version(if English, it’s better) and I’m reading it now. Some friends from IT industry extremely recommend it.
The matter of Search is also hot and is going on in China. Our local company named Baidu had come into the market and it’s called Chinese Google.
I bought the paper version in November of last year, and allowed guilt to cumulate as I felt myself falling further behind the curve every day for 2 months. Then, audible came out with this version on Jan 1, and I was able to upload all the info in a couple of days. Some people insist that audible books don’t count as “reading”, but that distinction becomes moot when you don’t “read” the paper book for months. I post reviews of the books that stream through my eyes and ears at ‘The Tapeworms turn’ blog. It’s a matter of fact that since I started listening to books, I’ve been able to vastly increase the number of books about which I am intimately aware. Btw, I really enjoy John Battelle’s narration, although I don’t mind the sort of “un-professionalism” that typifies the presentation audios on ITConversations. Concerning audible’s flaws: I don’t viscerally object to the DRM, since listening to a book often feels like an act of consumption (at $10) than the experience of music or books on paper.
It’s great you went through audible. One of the key issues with listening to Audiobooks is bookmarking…being able to pick up where you left off, and audible does this nicely. I’ve been a subscriber for a long time and have a book credit waiting. Think I’ll pick up The Search.
Congratulations, congratulations, and thank you for this excellent and mind opening book.
Or is it something new? It is you speaking!
If i have the opportunity to buy it in spain, in spanish, and in paper i will, because i will like to underline some parts.
It is hard to listen to your book with a pencil an paper in the hand, and harder to remember what i want to check after you said it.
Best regards
Antonio Perezdecastro
Listening to audio books is more entertain than reading it. But it is easy to let me go to sleep.