Audio books add theater to the written word. Reading the story and having a story read to you are different in many aspects. Good audio books, whether fiction or training, must have a good narrator to bring the words alive. The narration of a book is an art requiring talents that are more than just having a pleasant voice.

There is much planning in the production of an audio book and this planning is what makes it a success. Portraying characters in different voices, styles and accents set audio books apart. Creating an audio book is not just reading the words but speaking the words with perfect pitch and tone.

So. . .before you purchase an audio book look at the reviews. Know who is narrating the book and how the audience likes the narrator. Most audio book reviews deal with the narrator more than the story. For example, Jim Dale is known as the voice of Harry Potter and has recorded all seven of the books. He has won the best children's narrator award 4 times. He also holds the Guinness Book of World Records for having created and recorded 134 different voices for the Harry Potter series and Deathly Hollows.

APA stands for ‘The Audio Publishers Association’ and is a not-for-profit trade organization. Their primary goal is to promote awareness of audio books through gathering and disseminating statistics. The audio book industry is a billion dollar industry. The industry has been growing steadily for more than a decade. Much of this steady growth is directly related to the popularity of eBook readers and PDA’s.

Beginning in 2008 audio books has seen an increased steady growth. 83% of audio books are targeted to the adult audience, while 17% toward children and teens. Fiction books represent 73% of all sales, while non-fiction represent 27%.

While the industry grows so does the popularity. There are business audio books to improve your business acumen, college textbooks, children's books, novels, training manuals, etc. When you consider how profitable spending those few minutes in traffic listening to an audio book you may consider using your eBook reader to store those books.

More people are turning to audio books instead of music, news or talk radio. Business audio books are vastly popular for those wishing to gain advantage. Children are listening to audio books rather than watching cartoons. Readers are tuning into the audio book craze while driving long distances.

With a wide variety of titles and genres there is something for everyone. Audio books can be pricey and hard to find. The most popular way to get an audio book is searching online. Buying directly online allows you to download directly onto your computer or eBook reader. Purchasing an audio book at a store will be on a compact disk or tape format. Downloads are most often less expensive, and found free. Most eBook sites also include audio books. Free-books.org offers free downloads for eBooks and audio books.

Renting an audi book is also available. This works the same way you rent a movie. There are sites where you can pay a monthly free and have access to thousands of audio books as a rental. Audiobookworm.com is a site much like Netflix, although more expensive.

Purchasing audio books is always an option. This can be very costly as audio books can be a little pricey.

I wrote this article to encourage you to try an audio book today. Use your eBook reader or PDA and download a free book. There is another choice. I have just begun listening to audio books and will begin doing some reviews. Until then. . .keep reading. . .keep listening. . .keep moving forward.