Perhaps you are one of the folks out there who just love the kinesthetic feel of your books, and I’d agree with you–most of the time. (I love the feel of those books, too.) In the four years since we left Idaho, however, our print book library has taken a major hit. Indeed, we finally had to sift through even our old college books and decide whether we really needed to store or lug those poor things around–again. (We didn’t.)
In all the miles we shared on the road either in our car or the RV, one of the things we enjoyed most (after heart-to-heart conversations, of course) was to fill some of those open roads with borrowed audio books or those gleaned from a thrift store for a couple bucks. We listened to a wide variety of genres, and they were as exciting and remarkable for the distracted-free driver as the passenger.
Now we are playing the retired home bodies and it’s our son who faces an extended commute daily of well over an hour one way. I keep thinking what a perfect time that would be to catch up on the latest best sellers right there on his smart phone, which he carries anyway. There are many audible formats, of course, including MP3, and with the use of ear buds will disturb no one.
Of course, always the major go-to source of any book, whether print, eBook, or audio book is Amazon. While they do have a free download source in several formats, these tend to be the older classics. A new best seller may begin at $24.00 unless you happen to be a Prime Member. I have an Android on which I downloaded a Kindle app, and if you can dream it, there’s an app for that. There are Android apps for audio books and iTunes apps for iPhones.
Audible.com is another Amazon company. The free audible books end after 30 days and then become $14.95 per month. There are over 180,000 best sellers and new releases and you can exchange a title you don’t like or just flat cancel.
I used to find everything I wanted on iTunes and loved all the free podcasts in particular, especially my fav, Marc Gunn and his Celtic and Irish Music podcasts. I still have bunches of his music, but since I got this miserable HP Google dominated PC, cannot seem to download or access the website anymore. I’ve tried…still, if you have access, they also carried lots of audio book titles, many free.
Of course, there are others, but these are the big three commercial sources, or two really since Audible is still Amazon. Or–go to your local library–free or just a nominal fee–and they won’t stack up in your library. You have to take them back–and that’s a good thing!
If you can’t carry and whip out your print book, but have your smart phone with you, there is no reason you can’t still catch up on your “reading.” ©2017 Virginia Williams 
