E-books and Audiobooks, Alternatives to Paper Books and Where to Find Them

Reading "Audiobooks & Ebooks" by Amy Lynn reminded me of the days when I enjoyed reading thousands of pages of e-books and listening to hours of audiobooks. Audiobooks come in more forms that just mp3 however, and some are free, some aren't. There are a lot of free e-books out there. Some e-books are in special file types, others are just text files. Whether you are looking for audiobooks or e-books, this article should help point you in the right direction.

E-books are electronic books. E-books come in many file formats, with some requiring a special e-book reader. I tend to stay away from those, as it seems a bit silly to buy a reader for everything. If you haven't read a lot of the classics yet, many older books are legally available for free through Project Gutenberg. If you want to pay for your e-books, try eBooks.com. The great thing about e-books in text format is that you can use a reading program to have your computer read them to you. I read thousands of pages of e-books with the free version of Read Please. While reading programs aren't going to get every word right, following along with the text can help you to build your vocabulary. In this way, reading e-books can be especially helpful for dyslexic students and ESL students. Younger readers might also appreciate being able to follow along with the book they are reading.

Audiobooks are another great way to read books. Reading an audiobook doesn't require as much concentration as reading an e-book. I've found that I enjoy reading audiobooks while driving or while working. You can buy audiobooks in book stores or online. You can borrow audiobooks from the library. Audiobooks may also be rented from audiobook rental stores or online audiobook rental services. Depending on where you live, you might find that not all of these options are available to you. Public libraries often have a very limited selection of audiobooks. Audiobooks at public libraries may also be on tape instead of CD. Some book stores have more of a selection than others. I've found that renting audiobooks online is a good option. There are also some services such as Audible that allow you to download audiobooks directly onto your mp3 player. However, beware if you only have an mp3 CD player, as Audible does not allow you to burn an mp3 CD. If you want to burn books that you downloaded from Audible onto a CD, it is going to take a lot of CDs. If you have an mp3 player that does not work from a CD however, you won't have this problem. You can also download audiobooks through Audible on iTunes to put directly onto your iPod (or other mp3 player).

In addition to regular reading material, there is a lot more available in e-book or audiobook format. At Project Gutenberg, many scientific papers and many historical speeches are available to help you study (or just learn). If you are looking for audiobooks to help you study for a class, take a look at Talking Book World. I found some great course related audiobooks on the Talking Book World website that really helped me to study for my classes. E-books and audiobooks are truly great resources for students.

There is a lot more available on e-books and audiobooks than most people realize. Take advantage of e-books and audiobooks to advance your reading skills, study for your classes, or just read more for fun. Reading e-books and audiobooks can be an entirely different experience compared to reading traditional paper books.