Did you know that audio books are becoming more and more popular by each day? For example, in 2004, over $124 million worth of audio books were sold in the UK and $120 million in Germany during 2005. Experts say that this year the market is expected to rise by 20% in Europe, and audio books seem to be even more popular in the USA.

But why are audio versions a convenient way to "read" a book?

1) You save time, because you can listen to an audio book anywhere and everywhere, and you can even do other things at the same time. You can listen when driving to and from work, when walking the dog, cycling, working around the house or at the computer, exercising, and so on. The possibilities are endless.

According to a recent survey, in the USA a person is driving an average of 1 hour and 13 minutes daily, which means over 440 hours a year for each driver, or 11 full-time work weeks. This is huge! Imagine how many things you could learn during this time by simply having your MP3 player with audio books at hand.

2) If like me you love reading and don’t have enough time, audio books can give you the opportunity so that you can read many more books which you might not otherwise have time to read.   We all have times in our lives that we look to fill and audio books can fill these times without taking too much time out of our daily lives.

3) When looking for a gift for an older, ill or recovering patient remember audio books will make this gift more special.  This is a gift they can remember and enjoy time after time.

4) Audio books can be a blessing for blind people, disabled people or people with impaired vision. Everyone should have the chance to experience and enjoy a book and in many cases, this is the only way for such persons to do it.
Spoken books can help these people improve their education, develop new hobbies and habits and greatly enriching their life, both personally and professionally.

5) Audio books can also be used in the most important skill a child can ever acquire which is the ability to read. Audio books can be easily used to stimulate literacy in children. Children can listen to audio books whilst following the story in a paper book. They could also listen just to gain and improve vocabulary and communication skills. If you want to instill in your child the love of reading, audio books can be a excellent start.

These are only five good reasons and benefits of using audio books.  There are many more benefits of using audio books, but even these few reasons should be enough to convince you to enter the exciting world of the spoken books.

** The Global Audio Book Store http://www.globalaudiobookstore.com has over 5000+ audio books for you to choose from including categories like arts, drama, biography, business, thrillers, fiction, health & recreation, history, humor, radio shows, religion & spiritual, self-help plus tv and film. PLUS you can get heaps of FREE audios.