Why You Should Switch to Audio Books

Before about two years ago, I would have mouthed off that "audio books" were just for (a) people who were going on long road trips, (b) blind people and (c)- people who cannot read. Then my wife, who was working about an hour away from our home at the time, bought the audio version of "Atlas Shrugged" so that she could have something interesting to listen to on the way to and from work. Having actually read the copy version of Atlas Shrugged before listening to the audio version, she knew what she was getting into with writing it, but since she loved the book anyway, it wasn't a big deal that there were something like 6 CDs and 30+ hours of talk, talk, talk. She ranted and raved about the depth of character development and intonation and emotion that she experienced while listening to the book that she simply was not ever able to achieve by simply reading the book. When I finally expressed an interest in getting the same experience that she was having, she signed us up for an audio book supplier and paid for the best account that they offer. I have since been converted (it did not take much) to the way of the audio book, and I would like to give you five reasons why you should convert to audio as well.

Reason One: There are some books that simply cannot be read and digested in the same fashion that they can be listened to. Stephen King's Lisey's Story is a great example of this. After downloading and listening to the book via audio, I recommended the book to everybody I met. I said that the book was the most cogent book King had ever written and that it was the most worthwhile delicacy available on the new releases section of any bookstore. My mother-in-law trusted my opinion and actually went out and bought the paper copy of the book. She only got a few pages into it before she set it down and called me up, not understanding what I got out of the book. There was simply a depth of character and (again) intonation that she was not getting, because she wasn't listening to somebody else's brilliant telling of the story.

Reason Two: Books tend to be much, much cheaper if you're a member of an audio book program. For example, where a certain book might cost you $20 in your favorite book store, the same book (audio version - which, by the way, you can put on your mp3 player) will cost you an average of $10 (some much less, some just a little more). Save money, and a trip to the store and get the book today!

Reason Three: If you have a commute, you cannot (regardless of what you have already seen people do in rush hour traffic) read a book and drive at the same time. Take a tip from my wife and get an audio book. It will reduce your traffic-stress level significantly, and it will give you something to look forward to on the way home as well.

Reason Four: You can listen to a book before going to bed without waking your significant other, but reading one will almost always elicit a "Please turn off the light, dear. I have to be up in 4 hours." With a "speaker pillow" (do an Internet search for those. There are several high end suppliers whose speaker pillows work great), you can listen to an audio book for an hour, and turn off your mp3 player when you start feeling like you cannot listen any longer.

Reason Five: Audio Books don't take up room anywhere but on your hard drive. You don't have to buy bookshelves upon bookshelves to store them and with the size of computer hard drives nowadays (one TB is becoming more and more common, it seems) you can store an almost infinite number of audio books on your computer forever and ever. And don't worry. If your computer crashes, you can still retrieve your audio books from your "library" which some audio book sellers keep on their website as a courtesy to you. Unlike stores like iTunes, which only allows you to download material once (and if you lose it, you lose it), there are places like Audible that allow you to download your material an infinite number of times (as long as you're signed in and have authorized a computer to do so).

So there you go. You have so many options and pros with audio books, there should be no reason that you don't find an audio book store online right now and sign up with them. I'm telling you, you'll appreciate the advice.