I’m an Audiobooks Fan and You Should Be Too! How to Get Started

There is a great quote by T.S. Eliot about living life in a circle – and after time, always coming back to the place we started. I remember as a little girl listening to the radio with my Mum – she seemed to have it on all the time, while cooking, washing, cleaning the house. It wasn’t until the late 50‘s when we got our first TV, so, for a lot of my childhood, it was the BBC World Service that lulled me to sleep. Then, as I grew older, books became my main source of knowledge.

Today, I have come full circle and find myself listening to the book equivalent of radio – audiobooks. The great thing about audiobooks is that you can listen to your favorite books anywhere you go, on your mobile phone, PC, or iPod. There are 10,000’s of audiobooks available in a number of formats. In order to listen to audiobooks, you will need:

• A mobile device or computer
• A place to get the audiobooks from (free or paid)
• A set of headphones or computer speakers

To get started with audiobooks, the first thing that you need to do is download the books themselves. There are several options. If you are looking for free audio books and don’t mind putting up with a few sound quality issues, you can go to a site like Librivox.com. They have 1000’s of out-of-copyright books that you can choose from. And best of all, they are free.

But, if you want the latest titles and amazing sound quality, you may want to consider a service like Audible.com. Not only do they have the biggest selection of titles, but, you can also get a free audiobook when you sign up for one of their programs.

Audiobooks offer another way to enrich your life with words and stories. I love the freedom to be able to walk and wonder, while listening to an engaging story unfold. I love to feel the wind on my face as a story unravels in my mind, while I have both hands free to wrap a shawl around me. Audiobooks are a great way to exercise both the body and mind!

What’s your take on this? Have you ever tried audiobooks? What was your experience?