NetLibrary

I think AudioBooks are a great way to get people into reading, especially people who may not like to actually Read. My sister HATES to read. If it's not US Weekly or other magazine, she wants nothing to do with it. But she will listen to Audiobooks on her commute. My brother, who has a reading difficulty, always hated to read. I think had Audiobooks been available to him, he would have enjoyed school much more because he could have listened to the stories that he class was reading to further his comprehension. It would have been great if he could have listened while he read along.

As I mentioned in my post about podcasts, I'm not a huge fan of listening to talk, unless it's extremely interesting. While I love Tracy Chevalier, I tried an Audiobook of one of hers, and it was difficult for me to listen to. I kept having to "rewind" and listen over again. (Traffic on 287 often breaks my listening concentration.) However, I would love to try again, and am thinking of doing so with Dan Brown's new novel. I've found that if I'm very interested in the topic, I'm more likely to listen. If I'm not, I zone out completely. So while i'm still looking for the right book to turn me into a true audiobook fan, I can definitely see the advantages.

But, Audiobooks bring a whole new group of people to the literature. At first, when I first heard of this idea of books on tape, I was anti the idea of "listening" to read. But I've come around. I think it's great that this group is now able to access some great stories that they may have ignored, simply because they don't like to read. I know thats true for my sister, and other family members as well.

I've not used "ebooks" yet, but I can tell that they are the way of the future, to some extent. I often think of a book I read as a kid called "This Place Has No Atmosphere" by Paula Danzinger. It took place in the future, and the main character, Aurora, was upset she couldn't bring her collection of books to their new home on the moon. She knew she could print anything she wanted, but she also knew it wasn't the same. Nothing will be the same as a REAL book, however, we will constantly come up with new ways to access the information within those covers. I think we need embrace it and accept it. (Hey, Kindle is on my list of "if i had $1,000 to spend at will.)