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Audio books can be a great companion when you’re driving long hours. Books read by their authors are more special heard than read. You hear their own emotion that they meant to come out when they wrote it and the subtlety in their voice that you can’t get reading it yourself. Dennis Miller Rants are just better read by Dennis Miller. Christopher Reeve’s book is even more powerful when you hear his voice getting tired and hear his respirator helping him take a breath between sentences. It takes his story to a different level when you hear his struggle in his own voice.

Besides making the time fly by when your driving a long boring interstate, you just can’t beat, being stretched out on your bunk on a warm summer day with a cool breeze blowing through the truck listening to a great book. Every once in a while I will buy one from a bookstore, but they can be really expensive. I’ve done a program of renting audio books at some truck stops and returning them at a different truck stops, it’s a really good idea and it’s cheaper than buying, but the selection is slim. Kind of like the public library, a lot of good books, but the popular titles get checked out quick and often and you have to be in the right place at the right time to get what you want.

I’ve been checking out Audible.com. Download a title directly to your computer. Burn it to a CD or transfer it to your PDA or MP3 player (Get a FREE Creative MuVo MP3 player, or click here for a list of compatible devices). Know what you’re getting, read the reviews from other readers (listeners, but that doesn’t sound right, it’s still a book). Choose from more than 18,000 audio books. including best sellers and new releases. Download times vary depending on the sound quality that you choose, but with a WIFI connection it’s not a be a big problem. I’ve experimented with the different qualities and there’s a difference, but it’s usually a single spoken voice so I would rather have a faster download, half the disk space instead of getting digital CD high quality for just a voice. It’s a difference between an FM signal or a CD. They’re both good, one is just better. And I can always download it again (as often as I want after I bought it) if I want a better quality.

Audio books at Audible are cheaper than bookstores and Amazon.com if you want to buy one individually or just once in a while. Or you can join the club and get one book a month, plus a subscription to the New York Times, magazines or NPR programs pay 14.95 a month. Or what I do, 2 books a month for $19.95. Any two books. Large unabridged audio books can be expensive. This is a great program for getting audio books cheap and save the space of storing them in your truck, keep them all on your computer or MP3 player. Just want one? How about $9.95, any book.

Want to try it out for free? There are several free choices available. Condalizza Rice’s testimony in front of the 911 Commission, plus any night of the Democratic National Convention and others. Two hundred selections under $10 including the entire 911 Commission Report for $9.95, twenty riveting hours. Audio versions of magazines like Forbes and Scientific America and all of the NPR programs.

In case you couldn’t tell, I really like this site. The clubs seem to be a good deal, the individual prices are pretty good, the ease of downloading and listening and you can’t beat the selection.

If you don’t want to listen to your audio book through your headphones or a puny speaker, get this FM transmitter from Arkon.com. Plug it into your computer, MP3 player, CD player or anything that accepts a regular headphone jack and the output goes through your FM stereo. Get the one that has definite frequency choices, only because the other cheaper ones that have a dial control have a tendency to drift a little over time and you’ll have to readjust once in awhile to stay on frequency.