Right Audiobooks

Will e-Books Do Away With Printed Books?

Was it not a sign of the times that Dan Brown’s latest bestseller The Lost Symbol sold more of the Kindle version in the first two days than the hardback version. Of course, the Kindle version was considerably cheaper ($9.99) than the retail price of the hardback ($29.95). But that an electronic version can outsell a printed copy is a significant sign that the way we read is changing.

The Kindle, for those who don’t know, is an electronic device sold by Amazon that downloads a written copy of any book or magazine in its 350,000 volume library. Once downloaded, the copy is yours to read when you like. The device is just five inches by eight by .3 inches in size and boasts that the battery will last days before a recharge is needed.

Some were no doubt scared away by the initial price tag of $400, yet Amazon now says it will sell nearly 200,000 units by the end of the year. It will help that the price of the Kindle dropped 35% to $259, and $279 for the unit that works abroad. And since Amazon keeps track of what all you purchased, if the unit crashes you can always reload them at no cost.

Though it is possible to adjust the size of the type on the Kindle, Amazon has now a larger version called the Kindle 2. It has a 9.7 inch diagonal screen, close to the size of notebook paper. It too is just .3 inches thick, has an equally impressive battery life, and contains 3.3 gigs of memory (up to 3,500 books storage). It sells for $489 at present. Both Kindles can read the books to you audibly though it sounds computer generated and is far below the quality of a professionally read audiobook.

Neither Kindle is dependent on a Wi-Fi network to get access to the library, for they operate on a 3G network like a cell phone. As their ad states, a reader may hear about a book and be reading it in 16 shades of gray with less than a minute passing. Magazines or newspapers are available before they arrive on the newsstand. Another nice feature is the Kindle’s access to an online dictionary. If the reader comes upon an unfamiliar word in a text, he can use the scroll wheel to select it and look up the meaning.

Apple has entered the competition with a free iPhone or Touch application called Stanza with which an owner has access to a number of book sources including both free books and best sellers. The Barnes & Noble eReader is similar, though, at last report, their e-Books are not priced competitively. A Kindle for iPhone (and Touch) application is also available. The Touch and iPhone are smaller than the Kindle but they have color monitors (helpful for maps, charts, or pictures in books), the type size can be changed, and the Touch, for the same price, can do much more that just provide e-Books.

On the negative side, e-Book readers do have disadvantages. For example, you paid for the book but you cannot share it with others as you could a hard copy. Though having many books at your fingertips is great, you can’t write in the margins or give them as presents for special occasions. You are always dependent on electrical power eventually, and its size and cost make it a target for theft. Though you don’t need a giant print version of anything, neither can you pass down a book treasure to future generations. (Imagine the grandfather in Princess Bride reading from a Kindle!)

I predict that, though the printing of books may decline, purists will be slow to give up a book in hand or on the shelf. There’s just something special about the smell and feel of a book that Kindle can’t replace.

Still hanging on to those favorite old books? We understand. If you have a treasured volume that needs repair, consider the book rebinding services of Tightly Bound Books. They’re not only professional, but friendly, too. As their motto states, they provide “Book binding repair with personal care.”

Reader Pocket Edition (TM) (PRS-350S) von Sony Silber: Tragbares Lesegerät für elektronische Bücher (E-Books) £116.99 Sony PRS350 eReader Pocket Touch Edition 2GB Silver PRS350SCE7 Other Photo Video…

APPLE iPods – iPod classic 160 GB in silver – NEW £251.39 Get more capacity for less with the iPod classic 8th generation from Apple!  This model of the iPod classic boasts160 GB of storage space so you can carry your entire multimedia collection withyou everywhere you go. The Genius function picks out songs in your library that gogreat together and makes a playlist for you, while Cover Flow lets you browse through your songs and videos by album art. …

APPLE iPods – iPod classic 160 GB in black – NEW £251.39 With a huge capacity for a lifetime’s entertainment and alower price tag, the 8th generation iPod classic  is well worthy of itsplace in Apple’s line-up.  In fact, this model of the iPod classic boasts160 GB of storage space so you can carry your entire multimedia collection withyou everywhere. The Genius function picks out songs in your library that gogreat together and makes a playlist for…

Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity £6.00 With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, “flow”, “mind like water”, and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you’d almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance. Not quite. Yes, Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-dos clogging your brain into a sophi…

Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation £6.04 The authors claim to show how lean thinking with a new definition of value can breathe life into a company or economic activity, doubling productivity and sales whilst stabilizing employment, by providing a step by step plan based on in depth studies of fifty lean companies around the world….

This Is an AudioBook $25.49 Demetri’s first literary foray features longer-form essays and conceptual pieces as well as his trademark charts, doodles, drawings, one-liners, and lists….

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Dummies Audiobook $9.09 CBT is a hugely popular self help technique, which teaches you how to break free from destructive or negative behaviours….

Never Give In: The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches $30.19 Any admirer of Churchill’s will want to add this audiobook to their library….

Neuro-Linguistic Programming For Dummies Audiobook $9.09 This audiobook stands alone as an introduction to a long-established branch of personal development psychology….