Cassette recording of Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command

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Audiobooks (42939)

An audio book is a recording of the contents of a book read aloud. It is usually distributed on compact discs (CDs), cassette tapes, or digital formats (e.g., MP3 and Windows Media Audio). The term "audio book" has been synonymous with "books on tape" for roughly 20 years. more...

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Cassette tape sales still comprise roughly 40% of the audio book market, with CDs the other dominant format type.

Unabridged audio books are word for word readings of a book, while abridged audio books have text edited out by the abridger. Audio books also come as fully dramatized versions of the printed book, sometimes calling upon a complete cast, music and sound effects.

There are quite a few radio programmes serialising books, sometimes read by the author or sometimes by an actor, most of them on the BBC.

The popularity of portable music players such as the iPod have made audio books more accessible to people for portable listening. With optical character recognition, and text-to-speech software it is simple to put any book into audio format.

Audio books have been used to teach children to read, and increase reading comprehension. They are also indispensible for the blind.

See also: Radio drama