Audio Books vs Traditional Books

For avid audio books listeners it is clear that these “audio books" are not just books-- or at least they are not what the increasingly small minority of non-audio book listeners thinks audio books are. Audio books are not merely a vocalization or reading of a book but, rather, an imaginative experience for the senses.

Audio books can do what traditional books simply cannot – they can teach you languages. Using audio books to learn a language offers the advantage of being able to hear the proper pronunciation of foreign words. Students listening to language audio books become accustomed to not only how individual words are pronounced but also the cadence and the accentuation of the language. Doing this with a traditional paper book would require additional instruction – more often than not, by taking a class. But who has time to take a class?

Which brings us to another valuable advantage that audio books possess–the gift of time. Audio books are a multi-taskers dream. How else could you finish the 22,937 chapters of Yongle Dadian (the world’s longest book) while stuck in traffic, at the gym or cooking dinner? Audio books make it possible to read while doing almost anything you could even “Read with your eyes closed" as Jiggerbug, an new audio book rental service, likes to put it. No more straining your eyes or finding a quiet place, with audio books you can fit in a moment of peace in a hectic day.

Audio books are not just stale narrators reciting words from your favorite book. In fact, with audio books you may to once again listen to classic radio programs from the first half of the twentieth century. There is a plethora of these recordings available such as The Shadow, The War of the Worlds (or anything else by Orson Welles), The Adventures of Superman and The Edgar Bergen Show. If you’re feeling a bit risque Too Hot For Radio is a set of compact discs consisting of material that have been banned or censored from the radio. Other audio books include a full cast of characters acting out the book for the readers imagination to take over. But even if that sort of thing doesn’t tickle your fancy, there’s always the more “traditional" use of audio books— listen to them for the sake of hearing some of the greatest books ever written, abridged or unabridged.

With audio books’ growing popularity, just about any book imaginable can be found on the audio book format Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, for example, is available in an abridged edition The classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is certainly a pleasure to hear as well as read and for fans of more contemporary literature, Dan Brown’s hit The Da Vinci Code has been on the New York Times Best-seller List (as of this writing) for 139 weeks—and is still frequently rented in audio book format from services like Jiggerbug (http://www.jiggerbug.com). Log on, try their free trial and discover just what an experience listening to books can be.