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Across the nation, on every college campus, there has been a rising trend in listening to audiobooks by students. Some students listen to audio books rather then reading assigned text, some to help learn a foreign language, some to catch up on politics, religion and some just to catch up on their reading for pleasure.

Some feel it is cheating, and some feel it is just taking advantage of the technology of today. Students are choosing to listen to audiobooks rather then read their assigned books for class.

If you have ever taken an English or classic literature class, you know how much reading goes with each course. It can be hard to juggle your reading for each class, working full time or at a part time job, and having a social life. As a result of this many students are choosing to listen to their Shakespeare, Hamlet, or other classics as audiobooks.

Business majors also enjoy listening to audiobooks. There are many classics like the work of Dale Carnegie, audiobooks that teach sales, real estate, leadership, management and finance. These business major students that listen to audiobooks are learning how to best manage their time at a young age and this will no doubt help them in the business world later in life.

Students of foreign languages also frequently listen to audiobooks. Imagine if you are struggling in a Spanish, French, or Chinese class but could not afford an expensive tutor. Audiobooks that teach a language are a great way to reinforce what you have been learning in class and will surely help you grasp the language and do better on your tests.

Political science majors are also no strangers to audiobooks. There are many great titles on political biographies, past wars, and even the political writing of Aristotle. Such audiobooks can give a great insight to any political science class.

At Christian schools, Christian titles are popular amongst the students. There are many different Christian titles for these students ranging from best sellers like Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life, Lee Strobel’s A Case for Christ, and even both the New and Old Testament as dramatized audiobooks.

One thing that most college students do that go away to school is drive home to see their family, or just for a free laundry service. For some this is a short drive, for others the drive can take several hours or sometimes even a plane ticket is needed. If the student is not interested in listening to an audiobook that pertains to their studies, then they will listen to audiobooks for pleasure.

It can be hard to find time for pleasure reading while being swamped with school work and listening to the audio books is an easy way to catch up on that book you have been meaning to read. Listening to the audio books while commuting instead of listening to mindless radio is a great way to make the time of the drive or flight fly by.

Audiobooks, or as they used to be called, books on tape have always been popular, but with recent technology changes it is easier and more affordable then ever to get your hands on them. Originally the books on tape were just that, books recorded as spoken word on a cassette tape. Then the audiobooks were made as books on CD. Books on CD can be pretty expensive. Now, the fastest growing form of audiobooks is audio books that can be downloaded from the internet. Downloaded audiobooks are priced much better then prepackaged audiobooks on CD.

Audiobooks downloaded from the internet are great because you don’t have to wait to get your hands on them. The only wait is for your file to download which does not take long at all, especially if you have a decent internet connection. Once you download your audiobook, you can play it on your PC, burn it to a disc, or load it to an iPod or mp3 player. Since it seems that nearly every college student has an iPod or mp3 player, it is easy to see why downloadable audiobooks are such a natural fit.

So the next time you see headphones on a student on campus, or if you are driving behind a student on their drive home, there is an increasing chance that they are not listening to their favorite music, but instead, they are listening to audio books and you will understand why.

The author of this article recommends visiting (http://www.audiobookstoreportal.com) to discover audio book downloads for yourself.

I have often mulled over the phrase don’t judge a book by its cover’ but I had never thought it would be most apt for the publishing industry where every other day you have a new best seller. And I say this because the term best seller is one of the most abused terminologies in the publishing field. Like many of you, I also went by what the name suggested – best seller – meaning a book that perhaps sold the most or a book that sold over a million copies or an equivalent number. But I was wrong. I was surprised to learn and perhaps now you are that there are NO set number of copies or any standard formula that defines which is a best seller book. All well known lists use different criterion to determine which are best seller books and which are not.

One theory that is gaining favor with the majority is any book that is high on current popularity charts may be called a best seller. However, I am a bit skeptical with that and not without reason. Who are the people who figure in the popularity charts? It is no secret that publishers use innovative marketing strategies, to influence agents, editors, retailers, and buyers to affect the popularity of their books on sale.

You’d also think that a book would have to be terrifically good reading to gain best seller status, at least that’s what I thought. Well, I was wrong again because the novel I read from last week’s best seller books list was a ho-hum read, and left me wondering if something was wrong with me!

I discovered that some lists usually have two divisions, fiction and non-fiction. In fact, I was quite taken aback with the following piece of information: it’s been reported that The New York Times created their Children’s Books section in 2001 to separate the Harry Potter series and clear out a space for other titles in the number 1, 2 and 3 spots on their Fiction list, which Harry Potter had been hogging for over a year!

The New York Times collects both wholesale and retail data, thus being perhaps more inclusive and closer to reality in terms of actual public popularity.

Then there is the Book Sense best seller books which determine elite status only from sales generated through independent book stores. I find this method of data collection a bit skewed considering that some people only shop for books in the larger chains, never going inside their neighborhood book shop.

Amazon, the giant online bookseller has yet another way of naming best seller books on their list. Amazon updates its list every hour, with data collected on sales from their own site. (How else could they update their list so quickly?)

In fact, many self-published authors use cleverly timed marketing campaigns where buyers receive something free from the author, like an e-book or a free trial version of software, for purchases made on a certain day in a certain time frame. All to achieve, if only for an hour, a coveted spot on Amazon’s top 100 best sellers list.

So you can see there’s many a way to construct a best seller books list. What’s number one on one list may never see the light of day on another. So look over that book before snatching it off the shelf. See if what’s inside is of interest to you and yes never judge the book by its cover!

At BooksOnAudio You can listen to a good book when your eyes are too tired to read one. Just switch on the audiobook and let your mind soar. Its a great relaxation and stress relieving tool. http://www.audiobooks.net

It’s a common question asked of science fiction fans – “Why do you read that stuff?” I’ve always found the best answer is to pick a great title and tell your friend to try reading it.

Of course, the right book depends a great deal on your friend’s personality. Take a roommate I had in college. She wanted to figure out what it was about science fiction that held my attention so, and asked me to let her borrow “Stranger in a Strange Land”.

I gave her “Starbridge” by A.C. Crispin. Why?

This was a very quiet girl. Innocent. She changed her clothes in the bathroom because she didn’t want anyone to see her getting dressed. Can you imagine her reading “Stranger”?

“Starbridge” worked perfectly. She was shocked, utterly and completely shocked that there could be sex in science fiction. I didn’t want to scare her completely off, fun as it might have been, by exposing her to anything more intense than the mild scene in “Starbridge”.

And yes, I laughed.

Of course, “Stranger in a Strange Land” is not something I would hand to most people for their first exposure to science fiction. Heinlein may be one of the great authors, but some of his works aren’t for the unprepared.

One of the first things to think about is whether to recommend a book that is more science fiction or more fantasy. The two get so intertwined, and which is really better can depend on what your friend is most likely to enjoy.

The first thing to do is go through your own collection. Knowing your friend, which is the most appropriate to hand over? There’s probably something.

If nothing comes to mind right away, I recommend starting out by thinking of some of the more popular authors. “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card may be a good choice. Same for “Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov.

The thing to consider is what kind of books, movies or television shows your friend likes already. Science fiction novels can have aspects of any other kind of fiction. The friend who loves historical novels may enjoy alternative histories. The romance reader may be more likely to enjoy the fantasy side of science fiction. The technology buff may enjoy hard science fiction.

Make your selection based on what you think your friend would like, unless you want to try to shock them. Many people are surprised to find out that science fiction novels aren’t all ray guns, bug eyed monsters and rockets that can make U-turns.

Stephanie Fosters shares her thoughts at http://www.sciencefictionado.com/ about her favorite science fiction. She reviews science fiction novels at http://www.sciencefictionado.com/book-reviews/ as well as television shows and movies on her site.

iPod and MP3 players are becoming omnipresent. Everywhere you go, you see the familiar headphones in someone’s ears. And with the busy lifestyles we live, it is no wonder that audiobook sales are soaring. The combination of audiobooks and iPods are now making it possible for people to listen to their books on tape, or audiobooks where ever they go.

Apple and its many retail partners managed to sell 88 iPods per minute in 2006 which totaled 46,432,000 iPods sold. That is more then 1 iPod sold per second! The Christmas season from October and December were obviously the busiest of the year.

IPod sales look to continue to grow in 2007. In the first quarter of 2006, total iPods sold were 8.53 million. It is estimated that for the first quarter of 2007 iPod sales will be over 10 million. Some predict that the new iPhone will slow down iPod sales, but others feel the iPhone will not be competition due to its US $500 Price plus associated fees.

Audiobook sales have also been soaring. In 2005, audiobook sales totaled $871 million. Audio books are getting a boost in sales due to the rise in popularity of downloadable audiobooks which represented 9 percent of total audio book sales in 2005. While that number may seem small, it is a 50 percent increase in sales from 2004. It is fair to predict that audiobook downloads are going to continue to rise due to the rise in popularity of iPods and MP3 players.

Another reason audiobook download sales are going to continue to soar is that as of this year, almost all new cars are now capable of playing digital audio files. 97 million Americans drive alone to work everyday, and commuters are stuck in traffic an average of 62 hours per year. That is 32 percent of the entire U.S. population, and that does not even include those who commute by bike, bus, train or car pool. Now that audiobooks can be played so easily in cars and on iPods, it’s easy to see that audiobook download sales are going to skyrocket even further.

It is clear that with the rise in iPods and MP3 players, and the rise in audiobook downloads go hand in hand. Listening to your audiobooks on iPods is a great way to maximize your time. It seems to be harder then ever to find the time to read. We can now find time to read, or rather listen thanks to our trusted iPods and MP3 players.

We can multi-task by listening to our audiobooks as we exercise, clean the house, commute to work, or even just listen to as we relax. In fact, there are several audiobook titles that are designed to help you fall asleep and to relax.

Many businessmen love listening to their sales or motivation audiobooks. Students are listening to assigned literature on their iPods as audiobooks. People are learning a foreign language with audiobooks. And couples are saving their relationships by listening to audiobooks.

Audiobook downloads are priced far better then audiobooks in prepackaged CD’s, which another great feature. There are also many free titles to listen to and many quality websites let you listen to five minutes of your audiobook before making a purchase.

It is easy to download your audiobook off of the Internet. You simply select your title, make the secure purchase, then you are ready to download. The download takes seconds to a few minutes depending on the size of the file on most computers. If you have a dialup, you can select the smallest size file for each title which is not as good of quality, but still sounds as good as any audiobook CD you may have purchased from the store. Once you download your audiobook, you can play it on your PC, burn it to disc, or you can load it to your iPod or MP3 player.

After learning how easy it is do listen to an audio book on your iPod or MP3 player, what are you waiting for, go out there and listen to you audio book today!

If you are ready to start downloading your audiobooks today, the author recommends visiting http://www.audiobookstoreportal.com. If you own a website and would like to sell audiobooks through your site, visit http://www.audiobookstoreportal.com/affiliatesignup.html