Audio books on CD are now common in the library; in fact, we no longer purchase books on tape. But you may recently have noticed a new format for audio books – MP3 CDs.
The MP3 CD format has some advantages for audio books, most importantly the fact that a book that requires up to 20 regular CDs will fit on just one or two MP3 CDs. The cost is also considerably lower.
Will you be able to play this new format on your existing players? Many CD players sold in the past few years, even boom-box style ones, can play them and many new cars are coming with MP3 CD-capable CD players installed as standard equipment. In addition, almost any DVD player sold in the last few years will play them with no problem.
The library has just under 100 of these on the shelves now, with titles ranging from recent fiction to literary classics, to current non-fiction. Here’s a sampling:
The 47th Samurai by Stephen Hunter
Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
The Boys of Everest by Clint Willis
Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack by Charles Osgood
Emma by Jane Austen
Good Rat by Jimmy Breslin
Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
No Simple Victory by Norman Davies
Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott
Swim Against the Current by Jim Hightower
You can spot them by the bright red spine label with white lettering that says, “MP3 CD Your CD player must be able to play the MP3 format.” We hope that you’ll give them a try.
