Hi, my name is Carol and I am addicted to audio books. My story: I am 32 and addicted to audio books. I have been trying to cut back but I can’t. I was first introduced to audio books 12 years ago. My parents bought me a Stephen King audio book as a birthday present. It included 10 books on cassettes each 25 minutes. I finished listening to it the first night. Then, I started buying audio books for me and for each of my friend’s birthdays (whether they liked audio books or not). As times passed I moved to audio books on CDs and later on to downloadable audio books. I have known all the online audio book rental services and buying services. In fact, I had an account in most of them.

My average output was two audio books per week but I remember some weeks where I skipped sleeping and listened to up to five audio books. I purchased almost any new fiction audio book in the market.

I managed to find some free audio books but still paid a lot of money for my audio book collection.

I got addicted to the comfort of having a “miniature” book. I got addicted to the narration, the music and the sound effects.

I got addicted to the ability to listen to audio books anytime and anywhere (I remember listening to it in the bathroom and in work and in other weird places).

And then I decided to make the move. If I can’t beat it, I would join it. I resigned from work and made a profession out of my hobby – I started making money out of my comprehensive knowledge of audio books. Nowadays, I write reviews about new audio books and serve as a consultant for audio books’ publishers. I am happy listening to free audio books and being paid for it (just finished listening to the last Harry Potter audio book). Have you tried listening to audio books? Try it.