Making a CD from Audio Book

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My mother got a book for Christmas about three years ago. She couldn't read it because she needed new glasses. Then she had nearly a two-year wait for glasses because all the eye doctors were closed (lockdown). She got new glasses but still can't read.

She decided she wants to listen to the book instead of reading. I found it on Audible and other audio-book apps but she doesn't have a computer or any smart device. She's never even sent a text message before. There's no way I could set her up with an iPad or something to listen to a book (turning it off, on etc). I'm not about to sit there with her through an entire book, using my laptop.

What are seniors who can't see / use technology supposed to do?

A CD would be perfect but it isn't available on CD.

Is there any way I can burn a CD of an audiobook for her? It would be a very much loved gift if I could do that for her but I have no idea how. I've never used an audio book app and don't know anything about them.

Thanks!

If you can download an audio book (to Itunes, or whatever) so its just another sound file in your music library (like a pop song) then you could burn it to a CD just like you could with music. I suppose that you would have to pay attention to time. The audio book would have to fit into an 80 minute, or 74 minutes available on a CD. War and Peace might take several CDs.

Thanks. I'm looking into that but I don't have Apple Music on my laptop. It's only on my phone. My laptop still has iTunes which doesn't work anymore. I looked in App Store for Apple Music and can't find it anywhere.

I may have to abort mission.

I'm so bad at computers.

Maybe you could record it yourself? Most PC's have the program to do it though you may need a microphone. Getting it on to the CD and making it actually play is the hard part. This is where you may need a teenager...

Last edited by maycontainthunder on 15 Nov 2021, 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You would need to remove the DRM protection.





What is the name of the book?

I sent you a PM, Soliloquist! I hope that's OK.

I believe iPod shuffle with VoiceOver enabled is one of the best devices to listen to audio books for older people. If you select the book before handing it out, all she would need to do is to slide the power switch. Chapter navigation and volume controls are ring buttons. It can't be simpler. Last time I checked I was able to sync Audible and Apple audiobooks from Books app on my Mac. Something might have changed since couple recent updates of MacOS, but I don't think this is something they would break.

You can't buy a new iPod shuffle anymore, but I've bought a used one dirt cheap from a used electronic store couple months ago, when my mom lost hers.

P.S.
In couple days I'm going to visit my parents, I can check if MacOS would sync purchased Audible books to iPod Shuffle without issues.

Last edited by smartHulk on 16 Nov 2021, 6:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

For War and Peace unabridged "several" means like 40-50 audio CDs. Andy Weir's "Hail Mary" would take like 15.

You can fit it to several data CDs or single DVD disk as 128kbit mp3 files, but you would need a player that supports these formats. Navigation would be a nightmare unless you neatly prepare directory structure to fit what your CD player would consider to be albums and tracks. Only few well designed CD players would remember last track and position and resume playback from the same place.

Thank you very much to everyone including Soliloquist who sent PM.

This is all very helpful info. The audiobook is apparently 9 hours long so I think it would be crazy to try burning that many disks even if I knew how. I have a few options for saving it to an old laptop / iPod so maybe I'll try to go from there.

Thanks again!