In fact, audiobooks have been available for decades. Becoming more popular in the 60's as books on tape, and more recently as books on CD. Audiobooks can be played on any desktop or laptop device. With popularity of portable music players such as the iPod and MP3 Player, audio books are more accessible to people for portable listening.



Audiobooks are economical, often less expensive than a hard cover book. Studies show that listening to a recording can enrich your knowledge just as if you were reading a book.

Educational audiobooks have the same content as written books. This helps the person to learn words they may not learn correctly if they were to just read the book. Audiobooks are available in abridged and unabridged versions. Unabridged audio books are word for word readings of a book, while abridged audio books have text edited out by the abridger.

Getting a book published in audio is just as difficult, if not more difficult, as getting a book published in print. Most new popular titles put out by the major publishers are available in audiobook format simultaneously with publication of the hardcover edition. As the audiobook industry gains popularity, the availability of titles will increase.

You may like to listen to fiction and nonfiction best sellers, how-to books, biographies, children books and so on... while doing boring or repetitive tasks. Listening to motivational audiobooks while exercising has become very popular. Some of the most popular are books narrated by the authors themselves such as The South Beach Diet narrated by Dr Agaston.

Publishers hold the copyright to the content of each audiobook and audiobooks may not be reproduced (just like printed books) as it is considered copyright infringement.

Audiobooks enable busy individuals to multi-task and still enjoy some of their favorite literary works. Audiobooks are not intended to replace its paperback and hard book counterparts, but it is definitely a good solution for the times when you simply can't afford to take time off to finish reading a book.

So while audiobooks may be from the past, they are certainly the new wave of the future!