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Digital audiobooks a big part of recreational reading

By Ellen Grace

Like most people these days, I depend on the Internet for a large portion of my entertainment, education, and communication. Nonetheless, there has always been a schism between my Internet life and my intellectual life. On the one hand, I love to read books online, but on the other hand most of the classic and important literature that I read is in printed copies. I don't know whether it is because I have grown up with books, or because there is something more appealing about the format, but so far nothing has replaced the comfort of being able to hold a book in my hands and peruse it at my leisure. Digital audiobooks, however, are starting to make a strong headway. I predict that they will become a big part of recreational reading in the next few years.

In many ways, the digital audiobook is nothing new. People have been listening to books on tape for a long time. Although the format has changed – Record has given way to cassettes, which has given way to CDs, which have ultimately given way to the downloadable audio book – the books are still pretty much the same. There is one big difference, however. Digital audio books have become much more convenient and much more portable.

Whether you read Stephen King books or classic audio books, digital books promise features that previous generations didn't have. First of all, you can take digital audiobooks anywhere with you. You can download books online, saving them on your iPod so that they can come with you on the go. That way, instead of just having one with you, you can have as many as you want at any time. Modern iPods can store Dozens of books, if not hundreds. Even more portable are the self playing digital audiobooks that are only now starting to come out on the market. You simply pick up the book, plug your headphones into it, and press play. They are tiny little volumes powered by a microchip that contains all of the digital information.

What is so neat about digital audiobooks is how much control you have over them. In the age of casette tapes, you had to fast-forward and rewind to find your way to a specific part. Nowadays, you can move to any point in the digital audio book with the click of a button. This makes them almost as easy to thumb through as printed books!