If it weren’t for audiobooks, I wonder if I would be the life coaching editor here on Bellaonline today. About 10 or 11 years ago I was browsing through a discount bookstore in Manhattan when I came across two audiobooks one was Ekhert Tolle’s The Power of Now and the other was Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness. I took them to work with me the next day and listened to them while I processed health insurance claims.

Then I kept listening to these books over and over, adding other self-help titles. A year later when I began to write about life coaching, much of what I wrote was based on these books.

In the self-help world, listening to audiobooks is highly recommended. Experts suggest that you use every opportunity to learn by listening to books while in the car, during exercise and if you have a job that allows it, while you work.

I not only listen to audiobooks to learn, I listen to them for fun. I don’t think I would have enjoyed romance author Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflower series as much if not for the captivating performance of narrator Rosalyn Landor. When I read one of the books, Devil in Winter, I could practically hear Landor’s voice telling the story.

The one and only thing I don’t like about audiobooks is that it’s difficult to skip around or to return to specific passages. I can listen to a story once and get it, but sometimes with self-help audiobooks I have to listen to them a second or third time.

The following are a few audiobook facts compiled by the APA:

• Audiobook buyers love the convenience of listening, especially as perfect entertainment for a long car trip


• More than two-thirds of recent audiobook buyers described audiobooks as relaxing and a good way to multi-task.


• Listeners also stated that an audio performance makes some books more interesting than they would be in print.


• The greatest potential for growth exists in digital formats.

Formed in 1987, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) is a not-for-profit trade association that advocates the common, collective business interests of audio publishers. The APA consists of audio publishing companies and allied suppliers, distributors, and retailers of spoken word products and allied fields related to the production, distribution and sale of audiobooks.