6 great places to enjoy audio books

Peter B Butler

We have a lot to be grateful for when talking about technology.

Who would have ever believed that not only would we cut down on the way we use up our vegetation for making hardcover and paperback books, we would also be able to ‘listen’ to our books instead of ‘reading’ them.

Ironic? Not with the introduction of audio books.

With audio books, we now have the unique advantage of doing other things that take up our hands, but not our minds. We can now do other things like household chores, exercise, etc while still having the book read to us.

More people are embracing the wonders of the audio book and are buying their favorite books in audio book version.

If you are considering buying an audio book, below are 6 of the great places you can enjoy audio books:

1–In bed – There are certain days when we just don’t want to do anything but lie down in bed thinking of certain issues. Or we could just

want to lie down in the dark until we fall asleep.

This is a great time to listen to an audio book. You wouldn’t have to bother with putting on the lights, holding the book, flipping through the

pages or the stress of reading the book itself.

With an audio book, the entire book will be read to you while you stay comfortable in bed – without flipping any pages, holding the book or putting on the lights.

2–In the kitchen while doing household chores such as washing the dishes or cooking. For some people it can be very boring being in the kitchen, especially washing the dishes or other such chores.

This is a great time to enjoy an audio book because your hands are busy but your mind is free.

Instead of feeding your mind with negative thoughts during this time, audio books would be a wonderful alternative.

3–In the garden while gardening – You can also listen to audio books while gardening. The audio book can make the gardening fun because you would be concentrating on the beauty of the audio book and not on the difficulty of gardening.

4–While exercising such as jogging – Exercising such as jogging leaves your mind open but your hands, legs and even your entire body busy. This is a great time to enjoy an audio book.

Most people perform exercises for many minutes or even hours while their minds do nothing. But listening to an audio book during this time ensures you don’t waste those times that you exercise.

Talk about killing 2 birds with one stone – exercising your body and mind at the same time!

5–On the road commuting – This could either be in your personal car or a commercial bus or train ride to work. You see, many people lose a great deal of time doing nothing while commuting to and from their jobs.

Why not use that time to listen to an audio book, especially one that develops your mind and/or improves your professional and business skills?

For example, listening to an audio book that improves your skills daily can do a lot of good to your career, instead of listening to a musical song which wouldn’t help you much in the area of skill acquisition.

6–In the air while traveling – You wouldn’t believe it, but there are many people who spend more time in the air than on road. There are professional assignments that involve traveling from one state to the other, or even from one country to the other.

If you are in such a situation, consider the enormous benefits you would get listening to audio books, especially those that can improve your professional skills.

Yes, there are many audio book courses made specifically for professionals to improve their skills in many areas of their professions.

Peter B Butler is the CEO of the Audio Book | Audio It Now Network has a 10% Discount Code for You. Follow the link for the Largest Range of Download Audio Books – Instantly. Audio It Now Network

I have added 50 books a year to my reading intake … without creating any extra time to read

Peter B Butler
Whenever I got together with friends and business colleagues they were often discussing the latest book or talking about a particular author they enjoyed.
There were so many titles and authors that I wanted to learn from. I need to somehow find more time to read. We all lead busy lives yet somehow my friends and colleagues seem to manage it. I did not understand how they found the time to read.
At a late afternoon coffee get together another friend was sharing how he had just finished a certain book. I blurted out in my frustration �How on earth do you find the time to read so much�
It was a strange reaction. My friends looked at me, looked at each other and smiled. One of them said �These are Audio Books we’re talking about. We don’t �read’ per say, we listen, to an Audio Book�
The penny dropped, I do remember one of them saying something about downloading. I missed the context of what was said that day and didn’t pay much attention to it. They had been talking about listening to an Audio Book, downloadable Audio Books even. All this time they had assumed I had known they were talking about this new website they had found www.audioitnow.com where you could download an audio book instantly.
One of my friends then pulled out her MP3 player. She then played an audio book for me to listen to.
She explained that this was how she had �read’ over one audio book per week. She listened to an audio book while she prepared for work in the morning, while she did her exercises each day, while she commuted to and from work and any free time she had on her hands that didn’t involve using her mind.
I was surprised, to say the least, that I could have been doing the same thing in my spare time, instead of just commuting to and from work doing nothing.
You see, my work is one that requires a lot of my time involvement. I have to leave home quite early, spend over an hour on the road because of the constant heavy traffic and when I get to work, I work all day until break time and closing time.
From what this friend of mine explained to me, I knew I had to give audio books a try.
I did and was very impressed.
Now, I can proudly say I also benefit from the reading of up to 50 books each year.
Still don’t think it’s possible?
Fine, let’s do the math:
For an audio book that takes 4 hours, you can have it read to you in just two days – 1 hour each day while preparing for work in the morning and 1 hour each day while commuting to and from work. That’s 4 hours in 2 days.
So, if it takes you 2 days to have one audio book read to you, that will be 365 days in a year divided by 2. That will equal about 133 books each year!
That’s over double the original 50 audio books we were targeting, right?
Audio books are indeed the secret formula that many people use to get the value from the best books they want to read. With an audio book, you can forget the frustration you always had whenever you force yourself to read any book.
For the bookworms back in college that want to continue reading but can’t afford the time anymore, you now have a solution in audio books.
Whether you want to use your PC, MP3 player, CD or even a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), it is now possible and within your reach for peanuts

The Author is Peter B Butler. The CEO of the Downloadable Audio Books at Audio It Now Network at www.audioitnow.com

Peter B Butler is the CEO of the Audio It Now Network has a 10% Discount Code for You. Follow the link for the Largest Range of Downloadable Audio Books – Instantly. Audio It Now Network

Is the Apple iPod the best mp3 player?

Peter B Butler
There are Apple iPod users that wouldn’t trade their iPod for the world. On the other hand there are mp3 lovers who wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole.
As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
The Apple iPod was released in 2001 and in a very short time almost became a substitute for the term MP3 player. How? By having an impressive market share, over 80% of the hard drive based MP3 player market and around 70% of the entire MP3 player market.
This means that almost everyone has heard of the iPod, which is another reason for it selling so well, besides the real advantages, of course.
Let’s take a look at some advantages and disadvantages that can help you decide if the Apple iPod is the best MP3 player for you.
iPod is cool, trendy, fashionable, stylish, classy … whatever word you want to use to describe this. However, it is also one of the most expensive MP3 players out there. If you want to impress and the price is not a problem for you, the an iPod is a possibility for you.
Then it has genuine advantages: small size, very good sound quality, easy to use navigation with the click wheel and a large storage capacity. What’s more, the latest models can play video files and display pictures in multiple file formats. The iPod Nano also has a full color screen, a stopwatch and lap timer. Another plus is that you can find many cool iPod accessories.
When it comes to disadvantages, the iPod has a big one, especially if you’re an audio book lover. Downloadable audio books are becoming very popular and more and more websites are now offering them.
Unfortunately Apple have refused to enable the Windows Media capabilities of the iPod, while the majority of audio book publishers do request that their titles are available only in a copy protected WMA format. In this situation, you can only use iTunes to add new content to your iPod MP3 player.
Virtually all other MP3 player manufacturers support WMA files now, so it hopefully won’t be long until pressure from customers forces Apple to enable it.
Until then, there is an easy solution. You need to burn the files to a regular compact disc and then rip as MP3 to your iTunes. However, this might not be convenient for everyone.
Another drawback becomes apparent if you want to connect the iPod with your home stereo system. And that’s because the iPods do not have other needed output connections besides the headphone jack. In this case, you will need to separately buy a special docking station.
The good thing is that the docking station can also act as a charger for the battery, it has a remote control and output connections for video as well. However, this is an extra expense and you need to be aware of this.
For example, I’ve seen the iPod Shuffle 512 MB priced at $64 (or the 1 GB version at $94) and the docking station for the Shuffle is $34.
Also, the iPod does not play radio, record voice or have a text viewer. However, if all you need is to play music, this should not bother you.
Now you know some advantages and some disadvantages of the well-known Apple iPod MP3 player and you can make an informed decision.
And I think you already know this, but sometimes it’s good to be reminded: there’s no point to look for ‘the best mp3 player’. Because all you need is the best MP3 player for you.

Peter B Butler is the CEO of the Audio It Now Network has a 10% Discount Code for You. Follow the link for the Largest Range of Downloadable Audio Books – Instantly. Audio It Now Network