Audio books so easy you care

I'm an audible ninety minutes into the eight hour treat of The Second Coming of Steve Jobs as written by Alan Deutschman and narrated by Charles Stransky. The reasonable price tag of $15.95 pales in comparison with the low cost of frustration associated with completing the transaction and the time spend before I was listening. It's a good deal.

The process is made easy by the combination of iTunes 3 and Audible.com. Pick your title, pay the man, and choose your sound quality. I chose the highest, downloaded just over 100 Mb (at close to full speed of my 512 Kbit connection) in about an hour. Delightingly painless.

I'll be sinking more into audio books shortly. With the iPod, you can "read" books comfortably in the bus without requiring a seat, and at the desktop, you can work and listen at the same time. Fascinating.

Oh, and Steve Jobs is a very interesting character.