Posts Tagged ‘audio books’
The MP3 audio book has become so famous due to creation of the ipod and the ubiquitous MP3 player. Do these thoughts really help you understand why these particular kinds of audio books have become such a rage and are it really any better than the CD versions of the audio book.
MP3 Audio Books Are Very Portable
Well, MP3 audio books are very portable and so offer you a better chance to listen to your favorite author at any time and at any place that you choose and it certainly is a marked improvement over the hardbound printed books.
The MP3 audio book provides more usability than any other form of audio book and so you can make good use of them without even owning an MP3 player because your home computer can be used to enjoy these books.
The MP3 audio book is available at more reasonable costs and so instead of paying a lot of money for the CD audio book you can take advantage of the digital format that means no overheads for the publisher who will then be willing to sell you the MP3 audio book for a lower cost.
The MP3 audio bookis also very convenient and certainly more than any other audio book format and you can browse different MP3 audio books online and then download whichever one takes your fancy. No more is it necessary to go to a neighborhood book store to look for your audio books.
Best of all the selections that are available as MP3 audio books are far greater than for any other kind of audio book format and this means that you can be the first to get the latest book and the hottest selling bestseller. In fact, even if you are looking for some very obscure titles you stand a better chance of finding what you want if you check out the MP3 audio book titles as compared to the CD versions.
These reasons have made MP3 audio books demanding and other audio formats out of market. MP3 audio book downloads are fast and convenient and easy to do. You can be sure that every book that has ever been written will have been converted to MP3 format which is why it pays to download the MP3 version. One of the reasons for demanding an MP3 audio book is it’s superior sound quality.
Although the popularity of audio books is quickly catching on around the world, there is still such a huge majority of people who have never tried reading this way. Getting a Harry Potter audio book CD so that you can read a book without actually having to read it yourself is really a great idea, because then you can do other things, while you are listening to the book.
Many people find this useful because they can listen to the Harry Potter audio book or other of their choice, while they are doing the dishes or running other errands around the house, and even out if they are wearing headphones and listening to it. Maybe you just want to listen to a Harry Potter audio book for pleasure, or you have to read a Harry Potter audio book for educational or even career purpose, and either way, you are going to find it easier than ever when you have it in audio form.
Trying a Harry Potter audio book is also going to be a lot of fun if you have never tried it before. One will definitely enjoy it. There are audio books for pretty much every text book out there today, but it can often take some time to browse around at different audio book stores to find the downloads or CDs that you want.
Where to Shop For Harry Potter Audio Book
If you want to find a Harry Potter audio book, Random House is a great place to head to if you wanted to find the books either in text or audio form. They always have the latest releases available, so you know that you are always going to be one of the first to read the new Harry Potter books as they are released.
The Simply Audiobooks store provides free downloads. They offer the entire Harry Potter audio book set for free, and they will be releasing the next books as they become available.
There are lots of other great places that you could head to as well if you wanted to find the Harry Potter audio book set, and this means that you can start listening to the books right away. Everyone who tries the audio books really enjoys them and it really just gives you more opportunity to start reading all your favorite books again.
I know for a fact when I was growing up, most of my friends hated reading as there as so many 'easier' and more fun things to do.
Audio books have now made it possible for children to get better access to materials that they don't like reading.
Of course they must still read, but reading any material and still hearing it makes the reading much more interesting.
Many schools have now taken audio books not just to the homes of their students but also in the classrooms.
Experts in the educational sector have agreed that audio books in the classrooms go a long way to help students more than normal books, especially those students who are just beginning to read or those who have difficulty in reading.
Below are 8 specific benefits of using audio books for students:
1. Using audio books to teach children in school gives them "variety", instead of just listening to their teacher, they benefit from the change that comes with "another" teacher.
2. You can find audio books that are specifically made to make learning entertaining, it's a much more fun way of teching.
3. An audio book being played in the classroom will free up the teacher time, they can spend more time preparing exciting lessons and other tasks.
4. For children with reading difficulties, they can slowly follow the readings from audio books until it feels comfortable to read.
It's a very powerful way of improving learning skills as all children have to do is listen to an audio book while reading the printed words.
5. Audio books save money. You wouldn't have to buy 30 seperate books, one audio book can be listened to all students at one time.
6. When a child becomes tired they will not have the motivation to read.
Most importantly, popular stories that children love, will be very interesting for them to listen to.
7. You'll find that kids actually prefer audio books to physical books. It feels much more comfortable for them to "listen" to an audio book than "read" a book.
8. Audio books also have children deal with the pronunciation of certain words that they would have difficulty with merely reading them. By hearing the pronunciation and seeing it printed, they would better grasp it.
All in all, most children find it a great deal of fun listening to a lesson on audio, rather than having to read it. That is why children spend a lot of time watching movies, rather than reading.
There is no wonder why more and more schools are taking advantage of the current technology and using audio books when teaching.
An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0023
Technology really has given us a lot to be thankful for.
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? No, not now we have the wonderful creation on 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 now have the freedom of doing what we want, while having the book read to us.
More people are embracing the wonders of audio books and are buying their favorite books in audio book version.
If you have thought about buying audio books you will want to read the below suggestions
1. In the comfort of your own bed. You know the days, when you really can't face the world, you just want to relax. Or we could just want to lie down in the dark until we fall asleep.
What a great time to listen to an audio book. You wouldn't need to turn the lighting on, have the book in your hands, turning pages, wearing glasses or actually read the book itself.
When you listen to an audio book you do not have to worry about these things, you can simply relax and have your favorite book read to you.
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 you need to be using your hands whereas your mind is completely free.
Instead of feeding your mind with negative thoughts during this time, an audio book will 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 brilliant time to listen to and love 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.
This couldn't be a better example of killing 2 birds with one stone, a workout for your mind and body!
5. On the road commuting, his could either be in your personal car or a commercial bus or train ride to work. You see, many people loose a great deal of time doing nothing while commuting to and fro their jobs.
This time could be better spent listening to an audio book that improves your mind, one that could improve your professional skills?
As an example, while listening to your favorite music is a lot of fun, just imagine how great it would be to be able to listen to an audio book that will actually improve your skills, this could be a benifit for your career.
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.
Just think how much of an amazing advantage it would be to spend this time listening to an audio book that would 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.
An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0024
Of course, I was taught French during my school days but never took it seriously. In my honest opinion, something like that just wasn't of any importance to me, and probably never would be.
Like everyone I know, you just figure that English is more popular and that you can get along anywhere with your own knowledge of the English language, right?
How dead wrong I was.
It really became apparent how wrong I had been when I was sent to France for an assignment through my work. I was like a real fish out of water.
Literally everywhere I went, restaurants, bars, shops, galleries, offices, transport - everyone was speaking French. Finding somebody who could speak my native tongue was like trying to find someone in England who could speak Swahili.
Whew, I really felt lost.
That experience nonetheless, I still made a silent resolve not to learn the language, since I wasn't going to be coming back to France.
Alas! On returning home, my superior informed me that I would be going back again three months later. Not only that, but this time I would be staying for much longer than the last time.
I protested, but she didn't bulge.
Right that second I made the decision to make sure I had learned French before those three short months were over.
Being a lover of audio books, I went right ahead and bought some “Teach yourself French” foreign language audio books which I played while preparing for work in the morning, while exercising, during my commute to and from work and any other time when my hands were busy but my mind was free.
To be honest, I didn't really pay too much attention to the "Teach yourself French" lessons in the beginning, because it was all very strange to me.
But as time went on, it all started to make sense. What was really beneficial, and what really helped me to grasp the language in the end, was the translations to English for any of the words spoken in French.
This really confirmed what I had read sometime ago about the power of listening. It is no wonder that the good lord gave us two ears and one mouth. This means just listening is powerful enough to learn virtually any language.
I couldn't believe it, but I gradually started to pick up the language and was able to master quite an large amount of French just six weeks after I had started.
You can imagine the surprise on the face of my boss when, 10 weeks later, I spoke French to her without mixing it with a single word in English!
She couldn't believe it and asked me how I was able to do it. I told her - audio books!
Not only was she very impressed, she made me the head of the delegation she was sending to represent our company in France.
She made sure every other member of my team got their foreign language audio books and did exactly what I had done.
When I eventually got back to France 3 months later, I was no longer "a fish out of water".
It was fantastic, and I was amazed that I had been able to do this without hiring a tutor, going to college or night school, or even reading any French tutorial books.
All of this was possible within 3 months just listening to French audio book lessons.
Do you know what was most intriguing about this? I did this all in my "free" time. There were no extra committments of time needed from me, I just used the same time that I had wasted in the past.
Now, if I could do this within just three months, I am absolutely certain that anyone else can do it too.
I can honestly say that if there is any foreign language that you are itching to learn, do exactly as I did and you'll be amazed by the results in just three months, simply from the power of audio books.
There are several audio book versions of many books on learning foreign languages that you can get on the Internet.
You can start your search from SpokenNetwork.com directly or via the search engines. Simply type in the phrase or particular title you are interested in and you will be presented with the best results… within seconds.
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0026
For most of us who are business people, we love to improve our business acumen via reading and taking courses, but we lack the time to do so.
And this is right where audio books have now started to play an incredible important role in our lives.
As a business person, you can now use the amazing value inherent in listening to audio books. You won't have to worry about not having the time or will to flip through the pages of a book.
With an audio book you can enjoy the same value of any business book when preparing to go to work in the morning, when commuting to and fro work, etc.
If you are at loose for the specific business audio books to go for, below are 5 of some of the best that any business person shouldn’t do without listening to:
1. How to win friends and influence people – by Dale Carnegie
I don't know about you, but the most important aspect of my business is PEOPLE. For almost every endeavor of life, especially business, we need people to keep the business going.
There aren't just the people that bring in the sales, these people are also the ones that make the sales a possibility in the first place. To be able to succeed at this, we all need to know "how to win friends and influence people".
This book has worldwide acclaim and has received many, many accolades. It really is the "must have" book for anyone who has a business, or is interested in improving themselves in their business.
This audio book contains such an enormous wealth of information that you will not only learn how to influence people in your workplace, in effect turning around more sales, you will also learn how to win over your friends and staff.
Now in audio book, you can enjoy this book from the comfort of your car while commuting to and fro your job.
2. It’s not the big that eat the small… it’s the fast that eat the slow – by Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton
In today's business, one of the single most common words that we need to embrace is "CHANGE". In a constantly "updated" world, we need to be ready to embrace and implement changes to our businesses.
This audio book is a fabulous resource for dealing with many day-to-day challenges in keeping your business afloat.
The fastest organizations on the planet today are the ones that will thrive. In this audiobook you will learn how to make sure your company is right up there with the fastest. You will be given examples of how to make these improvements, using numerous tried and tested methods, including the power of commerce, deployment of resources, and excellent people management.
3. Management Challenges for the 21st Century – by Peter F. Drucker
When it comes to business management and leadership, one name stands tall in any gathering of experts. That name is Peter F. Drucker.
Being an expert of the industry and writing about it for a staggering 80 years, Drucker is not just talking from theory. He has been there and done that, when it comes to business and management.
This audio book thoroughly examines how business people can handle the management challenges that the 21st century ushers.
4. Jack: Straight from the Gut – by Jack Welch
Nobody could ever deny that Jack Welch is right at the top of the list of must successful CEOs ever.
In this powerful thought-provoking audio book, he tells his story detailing how you can follow his steps to become one of the most successful persons in your career today.
5. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap – by Jim Collins
It's a fact that you really cannot dispute "without the techniques and strategies, no company or business can excel beyond a few days, weeks or even months".
Businesses and companies that have stood the test of time for many years know what to do and have done them right.
The author has taken quite some time to collate the results from his extensive studies of companies who have had business success for many, many years - looking into what they are doing so right, that their counterparts are not.
The power of the information contained within this business audio book can help any business person to succeed.
I can guarantee that the five audio books I have selected (and have listened to in-depth myself) can really boost both your career and your business if you are willing to apply what you learn from them.
A great source I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. They can be found at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0027
There’s no denying what a perfect combination audio book technology and the introduction of MP3 portable players have become.
You now have options of listening to your audio book, not just on cassette tape players, CD players, and your computer, but also on your MP3 player.
So, if you are one that would rather listen to your audio book on MP3 player, rather than your PC, you can.
Below are the exact steps you need to take to make this possible.
NOTE- The following guide has instructions for Windows Media Player Version 10. If you are using an older version, you can download the latest version from Microsoft's website.
Here's the exact link - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download
First, you need to put the audio book into the computer from where you want to copy it to your MP3 player. If it is originally in a CD, you need to copy it from the CD into your computer.
Second, you need to plug in the USB cable to both the computer from which you want to copy the audio book and the MP3 player (all MP3 players come with this USB cable).
When you connect your MP3 player to your PC, your PC will show a message to say that it has found new hardware. If you are not indicated about this then there may be something wrong. Simply unplug it and try again.
Third, you need to open Windows Media Player and then the audio book you wish to transfer. This will open the audio book in the main display area of Windows Media Player.
Forth, with the sync list open on your Windows Media Player, add your audio book file.
Fifth, now you should click on the Sync tab on the Windows Media Player. You will now see a pull-down arrow on the box to the left hand side of the Sync tab. Make sure you select the labeled "Removable Disk (E)" as the source where the audio book will be copied to.
Sixth, you will see a display with an option to "start sync". Go ahead and click on this option. When you have done this, the Windows Media Player will indicate to you that it's sending the audio book into your MP3 player as "Removable Disk (E)".
Seventh, Once the sync process is completed you will need to verify that it is now actually on your MP3 player.
Lastly, ensure you click on your PC's hardware icon (located in your system tray) to "safely remove hardware". Be sure that you do not disconnect before you get the "it is now safe to remove the hardware" message. NOTE--not doing this before removing the USB cable can damage your computer and/or your MP3 player.
When all of this is done, you can then try to playback the audio book from your MP3 player. After you have gone through the above steps your audio books should appear on you MP3 player.
If however you are using an older version of Windows Media Player, you can still follow the exact steps above. The main difference will be that where it said 'Sync' it will will say 'copy'. You can select this and go through the same steps as above transfer your audio book onto your MP3 player.
An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is
Spoken Network. You can locate them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0017
You wouldn't believe how important it is, to know what it is that you put into your mind.
You see, the mind is the single most important factor in determining who you are and what you do as an individual.
You could achieve all of your dreams just by having a positive mind set.
Most of the highly successful people you see in the news today took a great deal of time to work on improving their minds.
But if on the other hand your mind is negative and inactive, it's very likely you won't amount to anything in life, analyzing the lives of some of the notorious people in the world would reveal that they always fed their minds with negative thoughts.
The question that obviously comes to play here is, are we born with positive or negative minds?
Of course, this is incorrect!
Our minds grow with us, as we put different types of information in to it. If we are always putting in negative information into our minds, this results to negative thoughts and ultimately negative actions.
So, if you want the opposite and creative thoughts, it is pertinent to always get the right kind of information into your mind.
Many people would suggest reading the right kind of books.
Sadly, because of the great demand on our time, only few people still read lots of books, especially after college.
We mostly only have time to read the newspapers and magazines, and guess what? The news today is so full of awful stories and events from around the world that it just makes things worse, adding to a negative state of mind.
If you want to really get positive and helpful information, you need to read books that contain such information.
Thankfully with the advent and popularity of audio books, anyone can get the right information into his or her mind without having to “read”.
You can enjoy the benefits of audio books while exercising, commuting to and fro your work, etc.
If you are reading this and have no idea what books to look for, I have compiled a a list of what I think is the top ten best audio books to improve your mind.
1. Build Your Self Esteem Author: Glenn Harrold Publisher: Diviniti Publishing
2. Awaken the Giant Within Author: Anthony Robbins Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
3. Develop a Powerful Memory Author: Glenn Harrold Publisher: Diviniti Publishing
4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Author: Stephen R. Covey Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
5. How to Win Friends & Influence People Author: Dale Carnegie Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
6. Awaken the Giant Within Author: Anthony Robbins Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
7. Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway Author: Susan Jeffers Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
8. The Power is within You Author: Louise L. Hay Publisher: Hodder Headline Audio books
9. Creating Inner Peace and Calm Author: Glenn Harrold Publisher: Diviniti Publishing
10. Get Up and Do It! Publisher: BBC Books
Any or all of these audio books can be bought from some of the leading audio book stores on the Internet.
An amazing place that I have come across for audio books downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0022
When it comes to burning (or copying/writing) a downloadable audio book into CD, you must be sure that it isn’t for commercial purpose, but strictly for personal use. This is very serious, breaking this law can get you into a whole load of trouble as you would be performing copyright infringement.
Yes, the downloadable audio books are still under copyright, even after paying to download them.
The only instance where they are no longer under copyright is when the authors or translators have died over 70 years ago. There are certain publications by government that is not under copyright.
But this rule, "only for personal use" still applies when you are burning any of your downloadable audio book onto CD or any other format.
Even though it is for you own use, there are some publishers that will not allow you to burn your audio book to CD. Such audio book publishers will then choose to disable the ability to transfer the file onto a compact disk.
To be sure if your audio book publishers allow this, check it out before going ahead to buy it.
It will not be beneficial for you to buy it with the primary purpose of burning it to CD to listen with your CD player, only to find that you can't burn it to CD.
Also, when you are transferring audio books onto a compact disk you may need to use multiple CDs. For example, an audio book of about 10 hours can take you as many as 7 CDs to copy into, especially if you want to playback the CD with an MP3 player.
That being said, below are the steps to take to burn (or copy) any downloadable audio book into CD:
NOTE that the below instructions are based on Windows Media Player Version 10. If you are using an older version, you can download the latest version from Microsoft's website. This is the URL - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download
First, the computer you want to use to burn the audio book into CD must be equipped with a recordable CD drive and CD-burning software.
In other words, it is this CD-burning software that can burn the audio book into the CD. And it is your CD drive that can be used for this purpose.
Second, play the audio book on Windows Media Player. Ensure that you choose "Full Mode" when doing this, not "Skin Mode".
3rd. you will now see a 'now playing' message to the right side of Windows Media Player. If this does not show up you can press "Restore the Video and Visualization Pane" button to display it.
4th. Now slect the 'Library' tab. You will notice the “Start Burn” button displayed.
5th. Now it is time to actually put the blank CD into your CD drive.
6th. Now you need to Select 'Start Burn'. You will now see that Windows Media Player will start to burn the CD you placed in your PC.
Lastly, Most audio books will be larger than one CD, if your's is, Windows Media Player will ask you to insert a new CD. You can take out the CD and replace it with a new one.
Once the full 'burn' procedure is completed you will see the message "Complete".
An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network.
You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0018
The beauty with audio books is that you have more than one option for listening to them.
There are many options when it comes to listening to to audio books, you are not forced into one option.
If you are someone who likes listening while seated on your favorite couch or seated on your desk, listening to your audio book on your cassette tape player (if the audio book is in audiocassette tape, of course) is the option for you.
But if you have a desktop or laptop computer, you might prefer listening to your audio book from it.
Pretty much all Personal computers have software built in for playing back audio books. If your PC doesn't have any (very unlikely), you can still download them completely free on the Internet. The best two free digital audio players that you can download are:
- RealOne Player: This can be downloaded free of charger here; http://www.Real.com
- Windows Media Player: It can also be downloaded completely free from their website - http://www.Microsoft.com
But if you would rather listen to your audio book while doing your household chores, dancing, exercising, jogging, commuting to and fro work, etc, then you would need portable audio playback devices that you can carry around and listen to, preferably with an earphone.
The advantages of portable audio players have made their market grow as more and more people are starting to use them.
The most common form of these portable audio playback devices are the normal audio CD players or CD-ROM devices. These can be carried easily when you go around the shops, go for a run or when you are on the way to work for example.
The more advanced form of these portable audio playback devices for playing audio books, especially those for listening to downloadable audio books, include:
— Audio-ready PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). Some of these PDAs include the Casio CASSIOPEIA and Compaq iPAQ. These can both be very expensive, they can cost up to $499 for the Compaq and around $399 for the Casio.
— Compatible Portable Audio Players. Some of these include the Creative’s NOMAD Jukebox 3 and the SONICblue’s Rio 900. These are cheaper than PDAs. For example, you can get the SONICblue's Rio 900 for about $250 from sites such as Sonicblue.com
Finally, like I said in the start of this article, whatever tool you decide to use in listening to your audio books will depend largely on “how” you prefer listening to your audio books.
For example, the 'young and restless' teenagers can't be without the PDAs. You wouldn't either, if you were their age, right? The 'good old' cassette tape could not be a better format for the "aged and rusty", who would rather just be sat on their favorite sofa!
A really good place that I have come across to download audio books is Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0017