Audiobook

Audiobook used to give information to farmers in Kenya.

Audiobooks or "talking books" are books that have been read aloud by someone and recorded. Nowadays, they are usually recorded onto compact discs (CDs), although some older editions remain on cassette tapes. (This is why many texts in this format were first called books-on-tape.) More recently, audiobooks have been available to download from the internet (free or paid-for) and pre-recorded on special MP3 players.

While audiobooks can be used by anyone, they serve as a main resource for people who are blind or cannot see well.

Many popular books are often chosen to be turned into audiobooks. The original author may or may not be involved in choosing the narrator for the reading. Some authors often use the same reader for many books, so that their audiobooks have a similar sound or style.

Audiobook Media

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  An audiobook collection in a library. A mix of cassette tape and CD-ROM formats.

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  Example of an audio studio for professional readings. The studio is surrounded in sound baffle panels to mitigate reverberation from the speaker, allowing the microphone to pick up clearer audio.