best-audiobooks.co.uk

Hard times are leading more people to the doors of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library for the free services it offers, the system’s director says.

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Learn how to speak Armenian on PC, MP3 player or iPod.
Ever wondered how to learn to speak Armenian?  Well ,Pimsleur has the answer (Eastern and Western Armenian)
Going on vacation to Yerevan, to enjoy the traditional Armenian hospitality, or studying for your degree, learning to speak Armenian is a must, and before audio books arrived, mastering the Armenian vocabulary and pronunciation used to be challenging.
Whatever your reason for learning the language, the good news is that Armenian language courses are now readily available online in audio format and can be downloaded to your MP3 player in minutes.
The unique audio method allows the listener to learn

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According to thebookseller.com, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy has been voted the favourite audiobook in the Book Marketing Society’s 40 Best Audiobooks promotion.

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So Long Cassettes - NYC publisher Hachette recently threw a mock funeral event for the passing of a piece of technology - the audiocassette.  The convenient little tapes were dumped by the music industry some time ago, but lived on with publishers of audio books. A number of outlets continue with them - they are preferred by many people for book readings and audio dramas because it is simple to pick up where you left off, to rewind in case you missed a sentence, more older cars have cassette players in them, and they’re the cheapest media. (The median age of the 200 million cars and trucks on America’s roads is nine years old, and the majority of them probably have cassette players in them - though of course they don’t all work. But in 2007 only 4% of new U.S. vehicles had factory-installed cassette players.)  Read entire text at Audiophile Audition

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has been named one of the books of the century by the New York Public Library, this is the profoundly moving classic about a young girl coming of age at the turn of the century.

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Following the unexpected popularity of Cold Sassy Tree, Burns found herself flooded with mail requesting a sequel to the novel. In 1987, Burns underwent a second round of chemotherapy, which led to congestive heart failure and left her bedridden for more than a year. In February 1988, Burns began to dictate the sequel to Cold Sassy Tree, which she planned to title Time, Dirt and Money. In this second novel, Burns intended to base the story on her parents’ life and marriage during the Great Depression. The manuscript was unfinished at the time of her death on July 4, 1990, but the completed chapters, together with Burns’s notes, were published in 1992 as Leaving Cold Sassy.
Read entire extract at Sparknotes.

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King Lear -  The aging king of Britain and the protagonist of the play. Lear is used to enjoying absolute power and to being flattered, and he does not respond well to being contradicted or challenged. At the beginning of the play, his values are notably hollow—he prioritizes the appearance of love over actual devotion and wishes to maintain the power of a king while unburdening himself of the responsibility. Nevertheless, he inspires loyalty in subjects such as Gloucester, Kent, Cordelia, and Edgar, all of whom risk their lives for him. Read the entire extract at Sparknotes.
The King Lear Character 

Its good to see a prestigious organisation such as the American Library Association taking a keen interest in what young adults should be reading and listening to. This is an excerp from a recent announcement:
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), today announced its 2008 Selected Audiobooks list. The list for those ages 12-18 is drawn from the previous two years of spoken-word releases and presented annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting.

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According to the Audio Publishers Association, audio book sales are rising in the US.
The estimated sales of audio books in 2007 is $923 million, which is an increase of 6% over 2006.
More than 25% of the US population listen to audiobooks.

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Good news is getting scarce at the moment but for some services there is some good news on the way, as, the EU has announced that Vat is going to be reduced.
According to the RTE business website: 

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