The first talking-book program appeared in America in 1931. It was established to help blind people who could not read print. First audio books were recorded a year later. They were oral histories told by J. Harrington and other professionals. Blind adults received those talking-books by mail for free.
Forty years later spoken recordings on vinyl records became popular in schools and libraries. Later talking-books appeared on cassettes. They were admired by drivers, because they could be played in cars.
The first books were instructional and educational recordings. They were followed by self-help tapes and literature. Of course, many authors at first couldn’t agree to let their printed books be recorded as audio books. For many years talking-books were original productions. They were not based upon print stories and novels.
In 1980s distribution of audio books became a real business. Its yearly income quickly grew to several billion dollars. While first audio books were recorded by regular people, later companies paid professional actors to read texts and stories. Nowadays audio books even have their own Oscar called the Audie Awards.
With invention of CD players and CDs, with advent of Internet audio books took hold of the world. More and more people enjoy this format of “reading” because it’s easier, more comfortable and cheaper than print reading.
There are a lot of web-sites with free audio books. Different audio formats and mp3 players allow listening to the book recorded while being occupied.
It is easy to search for free audio books online. World Wide Web has tons of pages that carry the information needed. Some sites provide paid services on subscribing to new audio books and downloading them. But some sites allow you to download audio books for free.
You get several advantages choosing free audio books. You pay nothing to get an interesting book. You listen to audio books while performing everyday tasks.
Of course, you can’t find free audio books of modern print literature. Some sites, like AudioCloset.com, share classical literature and educational recordings from public domain. Most books are read by volunteers, but the quality is still good.
It’s important that anyone can become a volunteer and share either his own story or texts of public domain with other AudioCloset.com members.
No time to read? It is not a problem for you if you have free audio book downloads.
