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Posts Tagged ‘audiobooks’

For most of us who are business people, we love to improve our business acumen via reading and taking courses, but we lack the time to do so.

This is where audio books have come to play a very important role in our lives.

I'm assuming that if you're reading this, you're a businessman or woman, interesting in improving your business acumen - and now you can! Just use the amazing value inherent in listening to audio books. Another huge benefit of audio books is that you never have to worry again about not having the time to finish, or having the will power to actually turn the pages of a book.

You can get the same, if not more, enjoyment from listening to a business audio book, than you can from reading one, especially if you use your time effectively - listening on your commute to and from the office.

If you are at loose for the specific business audio books to go for, below are 5 of some of the best that any business person shouldn’t do without listening to:

1. How to win friends and influence people – by Dale Carnegie

I don't know about you, but the most important aspect of my business is PEOPLE. For almost every endeavor of life, especially business, we need people to keep the business going.

There aren't just the people that bring in the sales, these people are also the ones that make the sales a possibility in the first place. To be able to succeed at this, we all need to know "how to win friends and influence people".

That's why this incredible book by Dale Carnegie is a "must have" for any person in business.

With the power of the information contained in this book, you can learn not just how to influence people to bring in more sales for your business, but most importantly how to win your friends and staff that will help you make the sales possible.

Now in audio book, you can enjoy this book from the comfort of your car while commuting to and fro your job.

2. It’s not the big that eat the small… it’s the fast that eat the slow – by Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton

In today's business, one of the single most common words that we need to embrace is "CHANGE". In a constantly "updated" world, we need to be ready to embrace and implement changes to our businesses.

This audio book is a fabulous resource for dealing with many day-to-day challenges in keeping your business afloat.

The fastest organizations on the planet today are the ones that will thrive. In this audiobook you will learn how to make sure your company is right up there with the fastest. You will be given examples of how to make these improvements, using numerous tried and tested methods, including the power of commerce, deployment of resources, and excellent people management.

3. Management Challenges for the 21st Century – by Peter F. Drucker

When it comes to business management and leadership, one name stands tall in any gathering of experts. That name is Peter F. Drucker.

Drucker is definitely not talking from theories, he is talking from a wealth of experience after being in and writing about the industry for an incredible eighty years. He has been there and done that, when it comes to business and management.

This audiobook title explores in depth how 21st century management challenges can be handled by business professionals.

4. Jack: Straight from the Gut – by Jack Welch

There's no denying the fact that Jack Welch is one of the world's most successful CEOs ever.

This audiobook will follow Jack Welch's steps through his career to where he is today, one of the most successful businessmen ever.

5. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap – by Jim Collins

You can't argue with the fact that "without the techniques and strategies, no company or business can excel beyond a few days, weeks or even months".

Businesses and companies that have stood the test of time for many years know what to do and have done them right.

The author has taken quite some time to collate the results from his extensive studies of companies who have had business success for many, many years - looking into what they are doing so right, that their counterparts are not.

The power of the information contained within this business audio book can help any business person to succeed.

These 5 audio books can do a lot for your business and career if you take the time to listen to them and apply what you will learn therein to your business and career.

An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0027

Are you thinking of going for a holiday in Spain?

If yes, you need to consider learning the Spanish language. It’s a massive advantage to actually be able to converse with people, this includes airport staff, hotel staff and even Spanish locals as you are exploring.

Do you think you’ll be alright if you don’t know the language? Well, if so you need to know that almost everyone you meet will be speaking the language. Not being able to understand nor speak can spoil the fun of the holiday for you.

So, yes, you need to really consider learning the Spanish language before you embark on your trip to Spain.

Oh… You’re going away in the next few days and therefor will not have anytime to teach yourself it?

You do not need to worry about that. Just getting your hands on the right audio book about learning Spanish language can teach you the language within a very short time.

Impossible?

Not really.

There are many audio books that teach the Spanish language, but my favorite is – “One-Day Spanish: Teach Yourself” by Elisabeth Smith.

This amazing audio book is perfect for any person that is think about going on vacation to Spain. As the title implies, it is really a one-day Spanish crash course that can teach you the language faster than you can imagine.

There’s no complex grammar or studying to do, just really quick and fun speaking practice. And guess what? It works wonders in teaching you the Spanish language.

Still think it’s impossible?

Now, let me ask you. If any one person can learn a particular 50 – 100 words in the English language, that is all it takes to be able to actually understand and possibilly even speak the language?

For example, this entire article won’t contain more than 50 to 100 words. Most words are always repeated when we speak, whether in the English language or any other language.

This is the same thing with most other languages, Spanish inclusive.

This “One-Day Spanish: Teach Yourself” by Elisabeth Smith will help you learn the 50 most needed words in the Spanish language.

With this audio book, which is just about 1 hour and 8 minutes, will enable you speak holiday Spanish in only one day!

An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0020

I know for a fact when I was growing up, most of my friends hated reading as there as so many 'easier' and more fun things to do.

Audio books have now made it possible for children to get better access to materials that they don't like reading.

Obviously, children still need to read, this is very important but reading along side audiobooks make is so much more exciting.

Many schools have now taken audio books not just to the homes of their students but also in the classrooms.

It has been mentioned by the educational sector that audio books, when used in teaching, can even have more impact than convensional books for children that are just begining to learn to read or those with reading difficulties.

Here I have listed eight advantages of pupils using audio books

1. When a child listens to an audio book it's like having a new teacher teaching them, as this is a change it makes it more exciting and new.

2. There are specific audio books prepared with children in mind that are not only educative but very entertaining, these types of audio books make learning much more fun than normal teaching.

3. Using audio books to teach kids in school will give the teachers more time to prepare for the next lesson, the teachers can play the audio book for the children while doing something else.

4. For children with reading difficulties, they can slowly follow the readings from audio books until it feels comfortable to read.

It's a very powerful way of improving learning skills as all children have to do is listen to an audio book while reading the printed words.

5. Audio books save money. Instead of buying dozens of books for a classroom, just one audio book can be played for all the students in the classroom.

6. Audio books that tell interesting stories are very helpful in times when the children would have become too tired to read and study.

Most importantly, popular stories that children love, will be very interesting for them to listen to.

7. You'll find that kids actually prefer audio books to physical books. A child can feel more 'at home' when they are 'told a story' rather than reading a book.

8. Having the word actually spoken to a child is a great advantage when learning how to pronounce words. By hearing the pronunciation and seeing it printed, they would better grasp it.

All in all, most children find it a great deal of fun listening to a lesson on audio, rather than having to read it. That is why children spend a lot of time watching movies, rather than reading.

There is no wonder why more and more schools are taking advantage of the current technology and using audio books when teaching.

An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0023

Of course, I was taught French during my school days but never took it seriously. As far as I was concerned, it wasn't important to be and would never be.

After all, English was more popular and I could get along anywhere in the world with my knowledge of English language, right?

Oh my, how wrong could I have been.

It really became apparent how wrong I had been when I was sent to France for an assignment through my work. Talk about a fish out of water! I was completely out of my comfort zone.

Everywhere I went to, everyone was speaking French. Locating someone who could speak English was like locating someone in England who could speak Chinese.

Yikes, I just felt completely lost.

Even after the experience I had in France, I still wasn't really interested in learning the language, as I probably wouldn't ever be going back to France.

My boss told me when I got back that I'd be returning to France in 3 months. This time I would stay longer.

I argued, begged and pleaded, but she was having none of it.

There and then I made a commitment to myself to learn French before the 3 months was up.

Being a lover of audio books, I went right ahead and bought some “Teach yourself French” foreign language audio books which I played while preparing for work in the morning, while exercising, during my commute to and from work and any other time when my hands were busy but my mind was free.

To be honest, I didn't really pay too much attention to the "Teach yourself French" lessons in the beginning, because it was all very strange to me.

As the time wore on, it all started to sink in and make sense to me. What was really beneficial, and what really helped me to grasp the language in the end, was the translations to English for any of the words spoken in French.

This really confirmed what I had read sometime ago about the power of listening. No wonder God gave us 2 ears and just one mouth. You can learn virtually any language from just listening - it really is that powerful.

You wouldn't believe it but gradually I picked up and was able to speak some amount of French just 6 weeks after.

You can imagine the surprise on the face of my boss when, 10 weeks later, I spoke French to her without mixing it with a single word in English!

She couldn't believe it and asked me how I was able to do it. I told her - audio books!

My superior was so amazed and impressed that I had taken the time to learn the language, that she promoted me to the head of delegation for the next trip we had planned to France. I was going to represent our entire company.

She made sure every other member of my team got their foreign language audio books and did exactly what I had done.

Three months later, on my return to France, nobody would mistake me for the "a fish out of water" I had been on my initial visit.

It was incredible, but I was able to achieve this without taking any classes, without hiring any private French tutor, without reading any "French tutorial" books.

All of this was possible within 3 months just listening to French audio book lessons.

And do you know what was the most intriguing thing about all of this? All of this I did in my "free" time. I didn't commit any special time to this, but the same time I had wasted in the past.

If I could do this within 3 months, I am very certain anyone can do it too.

I can honestly say that if there is any foreign language that you are itching to learn, do exactly as I did and you'll be amazed by the results in just three months, simply from the power of audio books.

There are several audio book versions of many books on learning foreign languages that you can get on the Internet.

You can begin searching from SpokenNetwork.com direct, or through the many search engines. Simply type in the phrase or particular title you are interested in and you will be presented with the best results… within seconds.

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0026

Like everyone, French lessons were compulsory during my school days, but I never really took them seriously. As far as I was concerned, it wasn't important to be and would never be.

Like everyone I know, you just figure that English is more popular and that you can get along anywhere with your own knowledge of the English language, right?

How dead wrong I was.

It really became apparent how wrong I had been when I was sent to France for an assignment through my work. I was like a real fish out of water.

Everywhere I went to, everyone was speaking French. Finding somebody who could speak my native tongue was like trying to find someone in England who could speak Swahili.

Yikes, I just felt completely lost.

Even after the experience I had in France, I still wasn't really interested in learning the language, as I probably wouldn't ever be going back to France.

My boss told me when I got back that I'd be returning to France in 3 months. This time I would stay longer.

I protested, but she didn't bulge.

Right that second I made the decision to make sure I had learned French before those three short months were over.

Being a lover of audio books, I went right ahead and bought some “Teach yourself French” foreign language audio books which I played while preparing for work in the morning, while exercising, during my commute to and from work and any other time when my hands were busy but my mind was free.

At first I didn't pay too much attention to what was being said in the "Teach yourself French" audio books because it was a strange language.

As the time wore on, it all started to sink in and make sense to me. What really helped was the translations to English for any word spoken in French.

It definitely confirmed the theory I had read some time ago about how powerful listening can really be. It is no wonder that the good lord gave us two ears and one mouth. You can learn virtually any language from just listening - it really is that powerful.

I couldn't believe it, but I gradually started to pick up the language and was able to master quite an large amount of French just six weeks after I had started.

You can imagine the surprise on the face of my boss when, 10 weeks later, I spoke French to her without mixing it with a single word in English!

She was amazed by my achievement and wanted to know exactly how I'd done it. So I told her my secret - it was audio books!

My superior was so amazed and impressed that I had taken the time to learn the language, that she promoted me to the head of delegation for the next trip we had planned to France. I was going to represent our entire company.

She made sure every other member of my team got their foreign language audio books and did exactly what I had done.

Three months later, on my return to France, nobody would mistake me for the "a fish out of water" I had been on my initial visit.

It was fantastic, and I was amazed that I had been able to do this without hiring a tutor, going to college or night school, or even reading any French tutorial books.

And it was all done in three short months, just from listening to my foreign language audio lessons.

Do you know what was most intriguing about this? I did this all in my "free" time. There were no extra committments of time needed from me, I just used the same time that I had wasted in the past.

Now, if I could do this within just three months, I am absolutely certain that anyone else can do it too.

If there is any language you would love to learn, follow my footsteps and you will be pleasantly surprised what can happen in just 3 months, with the power of audio books.

There are several audio book versions of many books on learning foreign languages that you can get on the Internet.

You can begin searching from SpokenNetwork.com direct, or through the many search engines. You just need to type in the phrase or title of the book that you are interested in, and you'll be given a whole host of results… within seconds.

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0026

It’s really amazing that you can get the exact value listening to an audio book while doing your normal chores as you would reading it.

Certain experts even say information sinks in more when we are not paying direct attention to them.

But when did this audio book phenomenon really start? In other words, what’s the history of audio books?

From all indications, audio books look like a very recent invention, right?

WRONG!

It is very easy to make the assumption that audio books are a recent invention because of the mention of CDs, downloadable digital formats, MP3s, PDAs and other technological jargons each time audio books are discussed. But audio books started way before now.

In order for us to know just how long audio books have existed, we first need to know what audio books actually are.

Forget any other jargon you may have seen, audio books are just books that are in audio format, to be listened to instead of read.

Even so, recorded versions of books have existed for a very long time, far before now. If you want to be specific, it is safe to say they have existed for at least half century ago.

It could even be much longer, if you take into account the Library of Congress recordings especially made for the American Foundation for the Blind and distributed free throughout the U.S.

Although Robin Whitten (Editor and Founder of the only magazine which is only available to the audio book industry) said – Audiofile–http://www.AudioFileMagazine.com, Caedmon (now a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers) can be credited to have started the recordings of literature as far as 50 years ago.

Also, he said that Caedmon was only a small company way back then in New York, which began the process of recording the great authors and poets of the 1950s to audio. Specifically, he said one of the earliest recordings were by greats such as Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Fitzgerald and Robert Frost.

Then they were just recorded when they were doing their own works and then made as vinyl records.

But the early recording made here could be argued to be the very first collection of audio books ever made.

However, the transition of these book recordings into audiocassette tapes didn’t happen until the late 1970s up to the 1980s. From thence, it blossomed until audio books in audiocassette tapes came to be accepted by all and sundry.

For whatever reason however, the audio book phenomenon didn’t really kick off until the 1990s.

And with the transition from audiocassette technology into CDs, more people have become interested in audio books.

With the explosion of the world wide web and everything that comes with it, audio books have now gone from vinyl records, tapes and CDs into downloadable digital formats. These can be listened to in many different ways, on a desktop PC, laptop, MP3 player etc.

If you still want to ‘go back through time’ the original book recordings that began this audio book industy are available.

Impossible?

Not really.

You can still buy some of the early fifties analog recording made by Caedmon on the world wide web.

For example, recently I was able to browse the Internet thoroughly and found the original recording of “The Lord of the Rings” as read by J.R.R. Tolken.

You can find that classic you have always dreamt of in audio book format if you search hard enough on the Internet.

A really good place for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0016

It's amazing to think that hardly anyone pays attention to what they expose their minds to.

You see, it is your mind that is the biggest factor when it comes to your personality, the way you live your life and what you end up doing as an individual.

You could achieve all of your dreams just by having a positive mind set.

Most of the highly successful people you see in the news today took a great deal of time to work on improving their minds.

But if on the other hand your mind is negative and inactive, it's very likely you won't amount to anything in life, analyzing the lives of some of the notorious people in the world would reveal that they always fed their minds with negative thoughts.

The question that obviously comes to play here is, are we born with positive or negative minds?

I will quickly and firmly say NO!

We develop our minds by what we put into it. If we are always putting in negative information into our minds, this results to negative thoughts and ultimately negative actions.

So, if you want the opposite and creative thoughts, it is pertinent to always get the right kind of information into your mind.

Many people would suggest reading the right kind of books.

Of course, as life has changed so much, hardly anyone has any time anymore, only a few people will still read books.

We mostly only have time to read the newspapers and magazines, and guess what? Most newspapers only end up giving us bad news that further increase our negative state of mind.

If you want to really get positive and helpful information, you need to read books that contain such information.

Thankfully with the advent and popularity of audio books, anyone can get the right information into his or her mind without having to “read”.

You can enjoy the benefits of audio books while exercising, commuting to and fro your work, etc.

For those who don't know exactly the audio books to go for, below are some of the 10 best audio books to improve your mind.

1. Build Your Self Esteem Author: Glenn Harrold Publisher: Diviniti Publishing

2. Awaken the Giant Within Author: Anthony Robbins Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

3. Develop a Powerful Memory Author: Glenn Harrold Publisher: Diviniti Publishing

4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Author: Stephen R. Covey Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

5. How to Win Friends & Influence People Author: Dale Carnegie Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

6. Awaken the Giant Within Author: Anthony Robbins Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

7. Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway Author: Susan Jeffers Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

8. The Power is within You Author: Louise L. Hay Publisher: Hodder Headline Audio books

9. Creating Inner Peace and Calm Author: Glenn Harrold Publisher: Diviniti Publishing

10. Get Up and Do It! Publisher: BBC Books

Any or all of these audio books can be bought from some of the leading audio book stores on the Internet.

An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0022

The beauty with audio books is that you have more than one option for listening to them.

For those of us who like to be given lots of options for doing certain things instead of being forced to adapt to just one choice, you definitely have lots of options for listening to your audio book.

If you find your self preferring sitting in your favorite chair, or sitting at your desk then cassette tape if the option for you.

But if you have a desktop or laptop computer, you might prefer listening to your audio book from it.

Pretty much all Personal computers have software built in for playing back audio books. If your PC doesn't have any (very unlikely), you can still download them completely free on the Internet. The best two free digital audio players that you can download are:

- RealOne Player: It can be downloaded completely free from their website - http://www.Real.com

- Windows Media Player: It can also be downloaded completely free from their website - http://www.Microsoft.com

But if you would rather listen to your audio book while doing your household chores, dancing, exercising, jogging, commuting to and fro work, etc, then you would need portable audio playback devices that you can carry around and listen to, preferably with an earphone.

The advantages of portable audio players have made their market grow as more and more people are starting to use them.

CD players and CD Rom devices are the most common form of these portable audio playback devices. These can be carried easily when you go around the shops, go for a run or when you are on the way to work for example.

The more advanced form of these portable audio playback devices for playing audio books, especially those for listening to downloadable audio books, include:

— Audio-ready PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). Some of these PDAs include Casio CASSIOPEIA and Compaq iPAQ. These can both be very expensive, they can cost up to $499 for the Compaq and around $399 for the Casio.

— Compatible Portable Audio Players. Some of these include the Creative’s NOMAD Jukebox 3 and the SONICblue’s Rio 900. These are cheaper than PDAs. For example, you can get the SONICblue's Rio 900 for about $250 from sites such as Sonicblue.com

Finally, like I said in the start of this article, whatever tool you decide to use in listening to your audio books will depend largely on “how” you prefer listening to your audio books.

For example, the 'young and restless' teenagers can't be without the PDAs. I bet you wouldn't too if you were their age, right? But for the "aged and rusty" who just prefer the ease of being seated on their favorite couch, nothing can be better than listening to their favorite audio books from their "good old" cassette tape player!

A really good place that I have come across to download audio books is Spoken Network. You can get these at:

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0017

Despite how great CDs are, many people still prefer audiocassettes to them, especially when it comes to listening to audio books.

Below are some of the reasons why:

One, Audio books in CDs can't contain more than 75 minutes of content but audiocassettes can hold as much as 90 whole minutes (and, in many cases much more) of narration.

I have the same opinion, you can own an audio book on many different CDs however who likes to carry around a handful of CDs.

So, while you might need just one or a few audiocassettes for a particular audio book, you will need many CDs for that same audio book.

2. The extra cost in buying CD format audio books, the same product can be much less expensive as tape.

For example, while purchasing the unabridged version of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on twelve tapes has been found for only $31.96 on Barnes & Noble website, the CD format from  the same Barnes & Noble costs almost double that amount – exactly $55.96 for 17 sets of  CDs!

Of course, its not that they want to rip you off because it costs much more to produce CDs  than it does to produce audiocassettes.

Three, when you put off your CD player while listening to an audio book, you won't be able to resume from the particular spot you left off.
But when you have a tape, you can simply press play and you'll be where you left off.

Listening to CDs can be frustrating when you are in a car because everytime you stop the engine you need to start the audio book from the beginning and then try to find where you where last up to.

There is, of course, more 'futuristic' cars now that will remember to the second where you were last listenning.

this doesn't happen if you stop the car and remove the CD.But this will be fine when using a tape!

Four, because audio books are mainly just narration, many users don’t see why they should spend the extra money to buy CDs because of issues of recording quality when they can get the exact quality with audiocassettes.

Their argument is that if it was sound "quality" they wanted, they would go for audio books in CD formats, but sound quality is the same with audiocassettes and CDs when it comes to audio books.

In more concise terms, a persons voice doesn't have much to gain from a greater sound quality (as there is no drumming or music to compete with) on CD format!

A really great place to find audio books is Spoken Network. You can find them at:

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0014

When it comes to burning (or copying/writing) a downloadable audio book into CD, you must be sure that it isn’t for commercial purpose, but strictly for personal use. Violating this law is a really bad idea as it can get you into really serious copyright infringement problems.

Yes, the actual audio book content is still owned by the publisher an therefor it is still under copyright.

The only example of audio books that are not under copyright anymore is when the author or translator dies over seventy years ago. There are certain publications by government that is not under copyright.

But the rule of "only for personal use" is still ultimate when it comes to burning any downloadable audio book into CD or any such formats.

You won't believe it, but there are even certain audio book publishers that don't allow their audio books to be copied into CD. Such audio book publishers then go ahead to disable the ability to burn into CD.

To be sure if your audio book publishers allow this, check it out before going ahead to buy it.

It would be a waste of time and money if you were to purchase an audio book to burn onto a CD but then found out that you were not allowed to do this.

Also, when you are transferring audio books onto a compact disk you may need to use multiple CDs. For example, an audio book of about 10 hours can take you as many as 7 CDs to copy into, especially if you want to playback the CD with an MP3 player.

Saying that, These following instructions show you how to burn an audio book onto a compact disk

NOTE that the below instructions are based on Windows Media Player Version 10. If you are using an older version, you can download the latest version from Microsoft's website. Here's the exact link - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download

First, the computer you want to use to burn the audio book into CD must be equipped with a recordable CD drive and CD-burning software.

In other words, it is this CD-burning software that can burn the audio book into the CD. And it is your CD drive that can be used for this purpose.

2nd, open up the audio book and play in in Windows Media Player. You will need to make sure that you select 'Full Mode' when you are doing this, do not choose "Skin Mode".

Third, you will notice the "now playing" information displayed on the right-had side of your Windows Media Player. If it isn't displayed, you should click the "Restore the Video and Visualization Pane" button to display it.

Fourth, you can now click the "Library" tab. You will notice the “Start Burn” button displayed.

5th. Now you can place a blank CD into your CD drive.

Sixth, click the "Start Burn" button. Now the CD you had just inserted will begin the 'Burning' procedure.

Lastly, if the audio book is larger than the CD (most always are), Windows Media Player will prompt you that it requires a new CD. You can take out the CD and replace it with a new one.

Once the full 'burn' procedure is completed you will see the message "Complete".

An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network.

You can find them at:

www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0018