Why I Love Audio Books and You Should Too

In Defense of Audio Books

As an argument I'd say that audio format books fall within the oral tradition and therefore I can say that especially in historical classics they were audio long before they were written, so they have become audio again.  The stories of Greek Mythology come to mind among others.  So listening to a book is no less valuable than reading it and with great narration I'd submit it is better.

Why I now prefer to find audio if available.

The truth is that between my eyes and time available I find that books on audio have become a mainstay for reading the books that I want to read, but cannot find the time to spend doing so.  In the case of this book I listened to it while doing other things like checking email, browsing the news, and making food.  When I am in a car that has a CD player I would spend all driving time doing the same since it is much less stressful than listening to the radio for political talk.

I used audio books to get through many college literature classes that I couldn't have done as good a job completing without being able to listen to the story multiple times in addition to reading it.  I did this with the Illiad.  It is still one of my favorites when it comes to audio books.

The reality for me is that I find time to read three times more books than I would have time or ability to do since I became a fan of audio reading.  I have been doing that since the 1980's when some early self help books came out on cassette.  Now with digital files and books on CD it is possible to have a huge collection in addition to what I can borrow from the library.  The digital file format even allows me to store some books on my computer for listening.  Other options include Amazon and the Apple version.

Finding a great narrator makes the experience exceptional so I recommend that you look for great narrators.

Here are some of my favorites.

George Guidall
David Muller
David Rintoul