Where to download audio books

Audio books have always been a popular way to catch up with reading when you are on the move, and their popularity has soared with the availability of instant downloads to various listening devices. From Mp3 players to mobile phones and from iPads to Kindles, listening to spoken word performances has never been easier.

Humble beginnings

New media has revolutionised the way in which one listens to audio books. From their humble beginnings as books on cassette tapes, audio books can now be listened to at the push of a button. This article takes a look at a few of the websites that offer a selection of audio books to download.

Audio book websites

Audible.co.uk Audible.co.uk is part of Amazon. It claims to offer the widest selection of digital audio books for download. These include literary classics, new releases and fully unabridged performances. In addition to audio books, it also offers radio shows, podcasts, stand-up comedy, and speeches. According to its website, Audible's mission is "to establish literate listening as a core tool for anyone who seeks to be more productive, better informed, or more thoughtfully entertained." Audiogo.co.uk Formally being termed as BBC Audiobooks, AudioGO has sold over a million downloads online. It promises to embrace the BBC’s history of broadcasting excellence with the publication of BBC-sourced content - from full-cast radio dramas and complete readings, to comedy, crime and children’s titles. Digitalaudiobooks.co.uk Digital Audio Books has a huge inventory of audio books with more titles being added everyday. Its online collection of audio books includes more than 50,000 titles available to download to Mp3 players, PDAs and Mp3 compatible phones. They are also fully compatible with all iPad, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone and Kindle models. Silk Sound Books Silk Sound Books offers unique, unabridged audio books read by a group of actors & performers who came together and decided to record their favourite classic literature. All the audio books are exclusive to the company and include readings by Bill Nighy, Jane Horrocks and Tom Baker. Naxos Audiobooks Naxos was the first independent audio book company to develop its own download shop from its website, and it remains committed to expanding its list of titles for dissemination through all the new media.