Audible.com is an excellent source for audio books that are easily loaded onto your IPOD or other MP3 player.

Audible was founded in 1999 as a service to provide audio books to its then fledgling audio player. Since then, Audible has grown to over 50,000 titles. It has support for almost every audio player out there including Apple’s venerable IPOD. Audible was purchased by Amazon.com in March 2008 for 300 million dollars.

Why audio books rock

Books are downloaded to your mp3 player directly from the Audible.com site. The recordings come with album art and are chapter tabbed. A lot of the books are read by the actual authors and the selections that are not are read by professionals. The audio quality is usually excellent. Most of them are done very well and are a joy to listen to. The audio books are reviewed by readers on a five point evaluation system. Some books have two or three HUNDRED reviews with well written commentary.

I listen to an audio book in my car constantly. My commute to work is only 20 minutes each way, but in about two weeks I get through a six hour audio book using time that would have been wasted just driving. Long car trips become a joy when listening to a qood audio book. I usually leave my front door open while I am pumping gas and let it play even then.

Cost

There are several different plans availabe at audible and they also have monthly specials. There is a two credits a month plan for $22.95 that works very well for me. Almost all books are 1 credit. I have been on audible.com for 5 years and I have listened to 140 books. I have yet to download a book that takes two credits. The books that you download are on your computer. They also stay in a ‘library’ on audible.com’s site so that you can re-download them at any time if you need to.

Some of my Favorites

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell read by the author
Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell read by the author
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell read by the author

Life of Pi by Yann Martel- Excellent book with a great narrator.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – It is a great easy to listen to primer on all of science from the beginning of time until now.
The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss – Excellent book and part of the reason that I am writing this blogsite.
Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger – Excellent book with an excellent reading.

Other books that were great on Audible in no particular order:
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Einstein a biography by Walter Isaacson- excellent
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Audible already has an amazing collection of books available to download. Just about all of the best-sellers are there and they are constantly adding new titles. If I had to give up cable OR audible.com, I would give up cable (but not my high speed internet 🙂 )

Visit audible today and LISTEN.

Visit Audible.com