Lou Martiniano asked:




I have been looking at various reviews about the Kindle from Amazon and the iPad from Apple. I can see some of the advantages for using these electronic devices but the overall cost just doesn’t seem right for us average readers.

Flying on an airplane to France and spending a month there is great for the user of an iPAD or Kindle. The author of the testimonial indicated that she had lost many books that she left in France when she finished reading them. The other issue with paper books was that to carry 5,7 or more books was very stressful due to the extra baggage you must carry with the added weight.

And with the announcement just today that an airline is going to charge flyers $45 for each CARRY-ON luggage, it is not going to be something one would want to do while flying. But using a Kindle or iPad would be useful.

BUT! How many of us travel on airplanes to France. How many of us are in planes often enough to warrant buying one of these electronic devices. How many of us do enough traveling to warrant special devices that we need to carry around.

Not many. And now we get right back to the reasons you want to “listen” to your books. You can load an audio book to your mp3 or iPod players and take your books with you along with your music anywhere you want to go. You can listen while driving, walking, jogging, bike riding, working around the house, working on your job, on and on.

With your busy life you just don’t have time to read a novel or a great book or a magazine or any of those other things because you are doing something else. That is why audio books became so popular, they can afford you the opportunity to “read” a book while doing something else.

You are a multi-tasker extraordinaire and just cannot find time to read a book, Kindle or iPad. If you are one of those that would like to have the latest electronic gadget then may the force be with you. But like I just saw at the Amazon site there are 61 Kindles that are used and available at greatly discounted prices. Some are “like new”, so you can pick up a good deal.

But, even at the discounted prices, just imagine how many audio books you could buy and have as part of your collection. Oh and by the way, you do have to buy your books at the Kindle store or iPad store for approximately $10 per book. Cheap but add that to you $400 or $500 purchase of the electronic device it is very expensive.

Also you cannot store them in your computer, so you end up with a book in your e-device that cannot be exchanged or loaned to anyone else unless you loan them your e-device. Don’t think that will happen, especially when you have spent additional money for an extended warranty plan.

I believe that there are people like you that will see that these new devices are just that, NEW. Audio books will be around for a long time and so will the need for them. Your life is not going to get any less hectic so you will still need to be able to multi-task. Audio books will help you do that better then any device in recent history. Read by listening to your favorite books today before you forget.

Roland