Audio Books Opinion Review

When my mother started to go blind, one of the things she worried about was missing out on was books. She's always been an avid reader - from newspapers to best sellers to more obscure stuff.  Most people assume that anyone going blind would learn to read Braille. The fact is, it's difficult for an adult to learn, and even more difficult for an adult with diabetes to learn, due to related circulation problems. As most people who develop blindness late in life are diabetics, there are actually lots of blind adults out there who never learn to read Braille. My mom is one of these people.

Audiobooks are one form of Assistive Technology that have made a huge difference in my mother's life. These days, just about any book in print is available in an audio format, weather it be old-school cassette tapes, compact discs, or even digital recordings. So, while there are tons of books available on Itunes, a person doesn't need to have an expensive MP3 player to listen to Audiobooks. Thing is, while the cost of personal cassette players has gone down to about $10 (I bought one for $8 at Target, recently) the cost of Audiobooks seems to be going through the roof.

One can expect to pay anything from $25 to $50 for one book in Audio format. That's a lot of money - especially when one considers that it's a rare thing to listen to the same book more than once or twice. It's not unusual to see an Audobook selling for $40, when the paperback, printed version is available for as little as $5.95. This seems as if it's less than equitable to people who choose the Audiobook format due to a disability. Over the last few years, I've come up with some strategies for saving money on Audiobooks, and I hope others find them useful.

Thrift shops: Goodwill shops, Salvation Army Thrift Stores, and privately owned second-hand shops are a treasure trove of used Audiobooks. I find that Goodwill stores never charge more than $5 for a used Audiobook, and that they usually have a pretty large collection in the book department. They also often offer a deal if you buy a bundle. The last time I hit the Goodwill for books-on-tape, I came away with 8 titles, and only paid $12. If you choose to shop for second-hand Audiobooks, please do the rest of the Audiobook consumer world a good turn, and donate your own used Audiobooks to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, St. Vincent Depaul, or some other second-hand dealer. It's a great way to recycle and a great way for the blind and people with low vision to support one another.

Garage sales : This is more of a hit-or-miss option, but it's worth trying, especially if you enjoy a good garage sale, anyhow. It doesn't hurt to ask folks holding a sale if they have any Audiobooks they want to get rid of. You may find that people hadn't even thought  of making money from their old books-on-tape gathering dust.

Libraries : Many public libraries lend out Audiobooks for free, or for a nominal fee. Of course, this means the listener has to listen within a specified timeframe, but that's not too big a deal. If you don't have a library card, get one - it's such a great thing to have. If the public library in your community isn't too great, look into getting a card from the closest university library - a lot of schools offer borrowing privledges to the public for a small fee. Both public and private (such as university) libraries sell old titles to make room for new. I hit these sales whenever I hear about them. You never know what you'll find, and you may just find some good Audiobooks being offered for next to nothing.

The Big Book Dealers: I know this seems unlikley, because these are some of the guys who have the nerve to charge $45 for one Audiobook, but some of the best deals on Audiobooks can be found at Borders. I'm talking about old-school books-on-tape. There are heaps of books-on-tape still out there, taking up precious space...space that could be used to display more up-to-date merchandise, like books-on-cd. I've bought my mom tons of great books-on-cassette at Borders and Barnes and Noble - brand new and un-opened, but at great discount. This is where having bought the $8 old-school Walkman comes in handy. The folks at Borders may think cassettes are a thing of the past, but there's nothing wrong with the technology and, if it still works, why not make it work for you? If you don't see any books-on-tape for sale, ask - on more than one occasion, I've found they keep the books-on-tape in bottom shelves or out-of-sight, even though they're dying to get rd of them.

Audiobooksforfree.com : This website offers tons of royalty-free, as well as more recent, titles for free download. I haven't tried them yet, but it's worth exploring. They offer a range of formats: books in MP3 format at a lower quality for free download, with other, better sound quality options costing anything from $2 to $8. They also sell bundles of books on CD. I plan to try a few free downloads, and I'll probably review the site, so watch this space.

Simplyaudiobooks.com : It's like Netflix, but for Audiobooks. Again, I haven't used these guys yet, but I'm planning to, especially after reading about them in Business Week. They seem to have a variety of plans, just as netflix does. I'll be starting my mom with a one-book-at-a-time option, and see how she likes it.