UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Where does everyone get their talking books from.
I was just looking online and you can Download them has anyone tried this.

Really want something to do in the evenings and after my op.

Anne

P.S we don't have a tape player, do i need one?

Anne,

Some talking books come on cassettes, others on CDs.

A decent adult book (or even things like Harry Potter) can take over 10 hours to listen to in full, fitting on over 10 CDs or even more cassettes. Beware abridged versions, unless you want to just get the gist of the story!

If you download the titles, you'll end up with a series of audio files, preferably in mp3 format - you can listen to them on the PC or download (most of) them to your iPod or other mp3 player.

As with downloaded music though, firms offering downloads in other than mp3 format means that they can control your listening years after your purchase. Digital Rights Management is a bad thing for consumers... but that's another post for another forum!

Anne, here in the US we get these free from each state library, in your country I'm not sure, but for a small fee you can go here and download books:

http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html

no you won't need a tape player if you download them to your hard drive and can sit near your computer to listen. Or, drop them onto CDs, burn them, on your computer and then play them in any CD player.

Message me if you need additional help. Do you have a PC or a MAC? Mac has some really neat tricks built in to every machine for vision impaired people. That is what makes it possible for me to use mine.

Cheers, Piper

My local library does talking books, I think if you are not registerd partially sighted or blind you have to pay a one off fee of no more than £5 to extend the library membership. The money then gets put back into the library to get more talking books.

These are on both CD and tape.

Hi,
I use the RNIB Talking books service. with a special player supplied by them, it costs about £60.00 for 12 months. they have a good library. also a free service is http://www.calibre.org.uk which has both cd and tape format.

I get mine from the library,They have kept me going. I have three on the go most of the time. My favorite so far has to be Life of Pi, slow starting but very good.Sad as it is to say and please dont tell anyone but I really enjoyed the last two Harry Potter books!!! Sshhh plus they last for ages.If you have vision problems this service is free.My local Library are fantactic to me and always ask the wife how im doing.

Anne

Id also get yourself a pocket radio, MP3 player and a magnifying glass.......all three of the above proved helpful during the initial few weeks post graft for me........

HTH

Jay

Thank all,

I will pop to the library and see what i can come up with(I think i may have a big fine on my card which is my only problem )
Its my birthday next week so i am working on the MP3 player

Wait until next week for the library too, they might forget about the fine as it'll be your birthday