Online Talking Books
Books have been made since time immemorial and they were created for us to read and learn and know things from the past and things that we can use in the future. Scrolls and manuscripts were written to record men’s view of what is happening during that time and one of the greatest discoveries of our era is a set of written manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Books have always been the medium of passing on information from one generation to another and the finest example of such a book that has withstood time and has been translated into so many languages is the Holy Bible.
Education was and still is mainly based on things that are written and up to now, books are still the very foundation of the source of everything that needs to be learned. Everything that needs to be learned, even cooking, is converted into ink and printed on paper.
Talking books in the private domain are also distributed online by companies who want to make profit out of it. Talking audio books on cassette or CD are generally more expensive than hardback copies of the actual books because of the added expense of recording and the lack of the economy of scale in high “print” runs that are available in the publishing of printed books. Preloaded digital formats are similar in price to their CD counterparts. The audio content is preloaded on a small and simple player, which removes the need for a separate piece of technology such as a CD player or MP3 player.
Downloadable talking books tend to cost slightly less than hardbacks but more than their paperback equivalents and there are also free audio books available. For this reason, market penetration of talking books is significantly lower than for their printed counterparts despite the high market penetration of the hardware (MP3 and WMA players) and despite the massive market penetration achieved by audio music products.
Talking books have been utilized to teach children to read and to boost reading comprehension as well as being very accommodating for the blind. The National Library of Congress in the U.S. and the CNIB Library in Canada provide free talking book library services to the visually impaired; requested books are mailed out (at no cost) to clients.
Is AudibleListener The Ideal Option For Audio Books?
It seems technology has got to a point where just about anything we can get our hands on is in digital format – including books. People who have very little time on their hands can certainly appreciate something that will allow them to learn about something new while they keep their hands busy. AudibleListener is helping people do just that.
‘Audio what now’? AudibleListener is the name of a program to which you subscribe if you want to get an audio format for a variety of things: French language lessons, the latest live album of your favorite band or musician, the best-selling novel of the month, or even that inspirational program you have been dying to listen to because you have not the time to attend it. There is a monthly subscription fee in order to use AudibleListener. The good thing is you can go with a ‘light’ membership or a ‘heavy’ membership, depending on the volume of downloadable clips that you want to have.
Once you have suscribed you will login to the members only area in order to find and download the clips you want directly to your desktop, laptop or audio device. The most popular operating systems are catered for so you should have little problem with playing back your choices. There is also the option to then burn the files onto a format you can use elsewhere, for instance onto a CD so you can play it in your car. This gives you the option of being able to move around freely – with just a headset or volume turned up – while you go about other tasks during your day with the added benefit of being able to pause or rewind so you don’t miss anything.
Audible.com is perhaps the best place from where you ought to buy audio books online, because here you can find books on romance, history, literature and a whole lot of other categories as well. To help you in buying the right audio books online, Audible provides a small description about the book and this in turn will help you make up your mind as to which audio book to buy and fill the “bookshelves” of your personal computer or audio player.
