Listen Here

Although I'm an avid and voracious reader - I have been known on occasions to have three or four books on the go at once - I've always been a bit sniffy about audio books. Surely they're for lazy people who can't be bothered reading, or the blind or partially sighted, who either can't see at all, or have difficulty in seeing the printed word. 

Well, let me state here and now, I've had my Damascus road moment when it comes to hearing books being read. Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to The Guardian online with the offer of seven free John LeCarrie audio books. If there's anything I like better than reading it's summat for nowt, so I downloaded the books and more in hope than expectation started listening to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. 

It turned out to be a complete revelation. The chap reading the book didn't just read the book, he read it with characterisation and that made the experience far more memorable. Thinking that was maybe a one off, I joined http://www.audible.co.uk/ and took advantage of a free offer. I downloaded Before The Poison, by Peter Robinson, a favourite author, and again was amazed by the quality of experience. This is an excellent book by the way and well worth reading, or hearing.

Audio books I've belated come to realise are perfect for those times when you would read but can't because to do so might have repercussions; cycling or doing mundane tasks at work.

Having a complete antipathy to paying for something if it's unnecessary I thought I'd use the world's premier search engine http://www.google.co.uk/ to see if there were any free audio books to be had anywhere, and discovered the amazing site, http://librivox.org/ where out of copyright audio books can be downloaded free of charge. Of course modern books are not available but all those classics that I never got round to reading can now be enjoyed. I've started off with Arnold Bennetts's, The Old Wives' Tale, and am finding it just as enjoyable as the others.