Where to find unabridged audio books

We live in an increasingly hectic world, and sometimes, there’s just not enough time to read a book. That’s where audio books come in, as you can listen to them while driving to work or even when you're out shopping. In fact, you can listen to them anywhere that you have access to a media player, even while doing other things. This makes them tremendously useful, particularly unabridged ones, as they give you all the content of the book. Finding them needn’t be a chore either, and this article details the best places to look.

Audible

Audible.co.uk is an Amazon company, and being owned by Amazon you know that it’s going to have competitive prices and a lot of choice. Audible works a bit differently to Amazon though, as it’s a subscription service. There are different plans available, but essentially they allow you to download a set number of audio books per month for what amounts to hugely discounted prices. There are over 50,000 audio books to choose from and many are unabridged, so if you’re likely to listen to a lot of audio books, this is probably the best solution.

Amazon.co.uk

If you only want one or two audio books or don’t like the idea of paying a subscription, then Amazon itself sells them individually, and as with Audible, there are thousands on offer. You can buy both CD and MP3 audio books, and while the prices don’t work out to be quite as good as Audible, they’re still very competitive and there are often discounts and sales. The site contains a mix of abridged and unabridged books, so check the description to see which it is before buying.

iTunes

If you’re already one of the millions of people using Apple devices, then the simplest way to get unabridged audio books is to just buy them straight from iTunes. There is a fairly large selection and they’ll easily synch up with any Mac, iPhone, iPod or iPad, so you can listen to them almost straight away wherever you are.

Conclusion

These are probably the three biggest and best retailers of unabridged audio books in the UK, and they each offer almost every audio book that is currently available, so you should be able to just stick with one shop. Which one works out best depends on your own circumstances - Audible is the best value if you want to buy a number of audio books over the course of the year, iTunes is the most convenient for Apple users, and Amazon is probably best for everyone else.