Finding another reader who is enjoying the same audiobook is a little easier with Slate's Audio Book Club. Even though people who download the podcast can not participate in the conversations, the podcasts are inviting and entertaining. Just as people can use Kindle's social networking features to find people with similar reading interests, Slate's audiobook podcast can be shared on Facebook, and there are ongoing discussions about the podcast in the Slate comment section.
Slate's Audio Book Club Discussion Group Podcast
Not all of the books that are discussed during the podcast are new releases. The Wolf Hall audiobook was reviewed months after it was published, and the Brideshead Revisited audiobook has been out for years. The podcasts review new and classic novels, and they tend to focus on fiction books.
Slate's Audio Book Club discussions are usually hosted by Stephen Metcalf and Meghan O'Rourke, and there are a variety of contributors to the podcast. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of who is speaking because the participants get so caught up in the conversations that they do not remember to refer to each other by name to help differentiate the speakers.
Accessing Slate's Audio Book Club Podcasts
Each of the Slate Audio Book Club podcasts are about an hour long, and they can be played directly from Slate's embedded player. The can be downloaded from Slate, or they can be accessed through iTunes. Because they are long files, iTunes sometimes has a connection time-out error if a lot of podcasts are downloaded simultaneously. Look at Slate's podcast list and download a few at a time, because they are large files compared to Slate's shorter podcasts, such as the online magazine's weekly poetry podcast.
To really enjoy the podcast, it helps to listen to the audiobook that is going to be discussed instead of just reading the printed book. There is usually a month's advance notice of what book is going to be discussed, and because the podcast reviews books from Audible.com, all of the books are available as audiobook downloads. Audible and iTunes are audiobook market competitors, so a frugal iPod user should check prices on iTunes before buying from Audible. It is also possible to rent audiobooks.
Listening to Slate's book club discussion is like listening to smart friends talk about books. The podcasts sometimes veer into other sources, such as the May 17, 2010 podcast discussion about To Kill a Mockingbird, which was enhanced if listeners were familiar with Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article about the book. The podcasts are intended for adults; even though the books discussed might be high school assignments, the podcast discusses adult themes and uses explicit language.
Related Reading: For more information about inexpensive mp3 players for audiobooks, readAudible Ready Mp3 Players: $30 to $60 Audiobook Playing Devices. For more information about Audible.com and Apple iPods, read Audible Audiobooks on iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, and iPod Touch.
Publication Information
The Slate Audio Book Club Podcast is owned by the WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive. It is produced monthly by Slate.com.
Alex Sharp - Alex Sharp is a teacher who has been keeping Suite101 readers up to date with the latest in audio- and e-book gadgetry since 2008.
