Enjoy Books—No Reading Required!

One of the great advances in book formats has taken us back to our storytelling roots. No, we’re not talking about e-books—we’re talking about audio books.

Before the invention of computers or printing presses or even writing itself, the story existed in spoken form, as storytellers and their audiences sat around a campfire and passed down all kinds of tales. For a long time, auditory storytelling was more limited in use, mostly being involved in family histories and reading to children.

However, with the invention of the phonograph, the audio book was born. The first widely-sold audio book was probably What a Young Boy Ought to Know, written by Sylvanus Stall in 1897, and consisted of 24 wax cylinders. Audio books were first widely distributed via radio as radio dramas beginning in 1921, and haven’t slowed down since, from Walt Disney’s vinyl records to eight-tracks to cassette tapes to CDs to MP3 players and podcasts.

The pleasure of hearing a story read to you is hard to define. It may bring back memories of childhood, when your parents read to you, both to spend time with you, and to help you learn how to read. You might like the actor or actress reading the book. You may even find some books easier to read via audio book than print.

When you are read to, the reader uses different voices, speeds of reading (tempos), and volumes to express the events and emotions of the story. When a child is learning to read, these auditory cues help train the child’s “internal voice,” to help them pick up cues in the words and interpret them. 

Even as adults, this means that a good audio book goes straight to our guts in a way that even visual reading can’t. Even though we can’t see what’s going on, we can hear it, and our imaginations are made all the stronger for the emotional cues that the actor or actress gives us.

So if your hands are full and you’re bored, you might want to consider picking up your favorite book on audio to read or reread—it can be a powerful way to stay motivated.

Here are a few tips on how to find audio books on our catalog and on line:

Enter the term "audiobooks" in our online library catalog to see a list of the titles available.

Scroll down and limit it to abridged/unabridged, CD/cassettes, MP3s or playaway audio book (Discover a playaway: ready-to-go-audio! Playaway is an audio book and player all-in-one. Playaways come preloaded with an unabridged book and are ready to play whenever you are).

Or, download an audio book to your portable device from the Overdrive. Step-by-step tutorial is available.

Of course, there are plenty of web sites that offer free audio books that are in the public domain, read by very talented narrators.  Check Saikat Basu’s article 10 Best Websites For Free Audio Books for suggestions.