Something about Audio books!

Finished reading..err..listening Steve jobs’ biography,’ iCon’! Wanted to read the book since a long time. Laid my hands on it a couple of times but could never go beyond a couple of chapters, thanks to my preoccupations. So there I was, searching for the audio version and on acquiring, listening through it and finding that it was worth every bit of it! The powerful, modulating voice of the narrator, providing apt dramatic intonations in between, pausing at pivotal instances to make an effect and ruthlessness in trying to create an unbiased character sketch of Jobs, with all his follies and his Genius, made it an interesting audio, assisted by a good audio player and lot of time during transit. Not only it saved a lot of the time I would have spent reading the book, it made me appreciate again what the audio books have to offer subtley and powerfully!

I have known audio books for 7-8 years now, and have tried to make a good use of it, trying to collect them whenever and wherever I can. Buying mp3 player enabled me listening them per my will. Although I would always maintain that the touch and feel of a book in hand is unmatchable when comparing with listening its audio version or a watching a movie based on it. Still I believe that an audio can be a good and worthy substitute if you already have your platter full. It can be very powerful tool to quickly self educate or self enable or train on any topic under the sun, since they seem to be available on any topic under the sun! If the thought of ‘educating’ sounds boring, take a Novel by any of the masters up. Fire a query on Amazon.com to get an idea and surprise yourself by the variety of technical, spiritual, self help, thrillers, mysteries, horror, business, fiction, non-fiction, educational, children’s, and languages etc literature available in audio format.

Although the audio books have existed for ever in form of tapes or audio cassettes, the proliferation through internet, on cds and in most user friendly, compressed formats like mp3, seems to have revolutionized their use. Almost all the books in hard copy seem to come out in an audio version without fail to capture the readers’ eagerness and enriching their experience of a book and its message. I find podcasting as it exists, an extension of the same phenomenon .So be it a Stephen Covey or a Wayne Dyer or a Deepak Chopra, or J K Rowling, Dan Brown or Robert Ludlum, or it be the latest issue of New Scientist or Harvard Business Review or The Economist, all are eager to have their message conveyed, their stories heard, lending their own voice, or having someone else do it.

As I find the audios and the audiophiles increasing and the kind of content available, I find it unaffordable not to explore what this medium has to offer in terms of ease of spread of information, Self education & training, keeping updated and entertainment. Definitely, looking for more of them this summer!