I love to listen to audio books while I'm doing housework or painting (and lately when I'm bookbinding). I tried listening to one while driving once and found I got so engrossed in it that it affected my driving abilities, so I decided not to do that again.

It is very important to have a good reader. I have stopped listening to audio books because I didn't like the reader's voice, but some readers are so good I could listen to them reading from the phone book.

Minnie, my late Mother who gradually lost her sight relied heavily on audio/talking books as supplied here in the UK by the RNIB (charity for the blind).
They provided a free lending system of special tapes that had to be used on the RNIB machines and the stories were always of the complete book, read by actors. An excellent service.
Of course we still have the BBC which gives us many hours a day of readings/plays/talks/quizzes most of which can be down-loaded by people in other countries . . . and you get it for free. In the UK we all have to pay a licence fee to watch the BBC, although the old Radio Licence has long gone.
I would be interested to know how many RP'ers use the site below.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's on at the BBC.

Thanks for that link. Interesting programs .
A long time ago a radio station used to play chapters of different books but those days are gone forever I'm afraid. Now it is just crazy music, or noise.

We just had a thread about different narrators-I pulled it up in case you wanted to read it-
My mother uses audio books while at dialysis and it makes the four hours pass much more quickly. My DD listened to books for her English GRE test while on her 45 minute commute each day. They really are a wonderful resource.

My mother and her sisters all had macular degeneration. One of my aunts loved audio books, but Mama kept falling asleep.

I can't exist without them, although years ago I thought they were worthless! I had always figured that it made no sense for me to listen to a book since I'm a pretty fast reader, and it would waste my time. (And thank goodness it's one of the few things that I haven't gotten considerably slower at!)

But then i realised that I could go for power walks or prune bushes, weed, bake cookies, dust and run errands while reading! Or rather listening to a book. It's been wonderful.

The biggest problem now is that BOT are going the way of vinyl. And books on CD are a pain, because you can't save your place, going between house and car or portable player. And they SKIP! So after much help from everyone here I'm going to be getting an MP# player to down load audio books from the library. Haven't gotten the nerve to actually do it, since that means having to learn a new device but I will do it soon.

Here is a link that might be useful: Best player for audio books

While I think this is a wonderful idea for many, it has never worked for me, I have tried listening to audio books while driving and doing other tasks and I just get too distracted to appreciate the work, itself. I have ever been great at multi- tasking. Listening to music works far better for me, while gardening, etc.Yet I have many friends who swear by this sort of listening, while on long car commutes, in the US, espec. when caught in heavy traffic blockages. (far safer than being addicted to their cell phone conversations, I tell myself). Anyway,it's just not my cuppa,.....

Recorded books don't work for me when driving in traffic. I pay too much attention to the book, and not enough to cars around me. However, when I'm driving on long trips I find them to be a wonderful thing. Travelling on nearly empty stretches of interstate can be sleep-inducing, and often there is no radio worth listening to. A book on tape (or CD) then keeps me alert, awake and attentive, and I enjoy them very much.

Rosefolly

I love to read but have low vision so tapes help me some. I still can read print but much, much slower. I receive several magazines on tape which I enjoy but most books available are novels which I dont bother with. Our rural mail carriers all use the books on tape and trade off with each other, my brother drives semi truck and uses the tapes except in the high traffic areas.

I am a big fan of books on tape. I got hooked on them weveral years ago when I had a merchandising job that took me all over the western part of New York state. Theproblem I am encountering now, is that my new car has a cd player instead of a tape player and it's hard to find books I like on cd. The libraries do carry them, but usually they concentrate on the best sellers and other authors that I don't dare for. Plus, I like a lot of authors who are no longer with us (like Georgette Heyer, Ngaio Marsh, Ellis Peters to name a few)but haven't been able to find any of their books on cd. Oh well, I suppose somewhere out there are new (to me) authors just waiting for me to find them.

By the way, I don't have any trouble listening to books on tape/cd in the car, unless the driving is horrible and I really have to concentrate on it. I don't get sleepy or want to nod off on long road trips if I have a good book to listen to! :)

I really enjoy recorded books--especially books I've already read! For some reason that makes it easier for me to do other things while listening if I'm familiar with the story. I love to listen while quilting. My public library had all of the Outlander series (unabridged!) available and I finished 5 quilts while listening.

I received an IPOD for Christmas but haven't yet downloaded any books onto it. (Who am I kidding? What I should say is I haven't asked my 17-year-old son to download any books for me--like I could really do it myself!)

Which reminds me--does anyone have an online audio book service they can recommend?
Cyndi

Cyndi, I've mentioned on other threads that I use audible.com. It is not free -- I have an annual contract where I can download 24 books at any time during the year I wish and can even carry over some to the next year. They have other plans available, too. All of the books have been well done and I'm very happy with the service.

It was relatively simple to set it up to download through my PC to my iPOD but I am a computer person so maybe that isn't a fair statement. However, it definitely should not be difficult for anyone.