Avid readers tend to prefer the physical pages to any alternative modes of comprehension. And those who don’t share the reader’s enthusiasm would rather tune in to the radio than the sound of someone reading. So it seems that audiobooks are destined to be thwarted at every turn – if that’s the case, why are they so popular? It’s true: most of our bestselling bound favorites have their counterpart in audio form, doing just as well in sales.

In fact, literary god Stephen King claims:

Some…claim that listening to audiobooks isn't reading. I couldn't disagree more. In some ways, audio perfects reading....Audio is merciless. It exposes every bad sentence, half-baked metaphor, and lousy word choice...the spoken word is the acid test. They don't call it storytelling for nothing.

So what is an audiobook, really? To define it out of my own personal knowledge: take a literary tome of any kind – autobiography, fantasy, sci-fi – hire certain persons with a voice that others enjoy listening to (or not) and assign them characters to read. After a few recording sessions, narrative and dialogue alike come alive, packed into a little Compact Disc to be listened to anywhere. As an added bonus, oftentimes the voice of your favorite character comes from a popular actor or TV personality.

But what’s the big deal? Turns out audiobooks are the perfect solution for those long drives through the barren wastelands devoid of any decent radio stations, or for car rides when no one can seem to agree on what to listen to, aside from the consensus that no one wants to listen to each other. Just pop in the first CD installment of your favorite Harry Potter and ta da, hands-free entertainment for all! If you’ve always lamented that you “can’t make time for reading,” don’t – make use of the time you already have, and knock out a novel in the car, on a plane, while you’re cooking dinner, or heck, even in the shower. There are incredible possibilities.

There is a catch, however: not all audiobooks are created equal. Some are halting, some employ obnoxious narrators, and some are just plain dull. Before purchasing the audio versions of your favorites, check the customer reviews on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. If you’re looking for new reads, check out AudioFile’s Best of lists, especially their lineup for 2008. Here are a few that were personally recommended to me:

1. His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman; full cast recording produced by Listening Library

2. The Arkangel Shakespeare series of The Plays of William Shakespeare; Produced by AudioPartners; unabridged, full cast recordings

3. Redwall by Brian Jacques; Full cast unabridged production by Listening Library

4. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card; Unabridged, full cast recording by Macmillan Audio

5. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood; Campbell Scott

The only downside to what I’ve discovered as something of a literary revolution is that the purchase of said audiobooks can get pretty pricey. Naturally there’s Overstocks and Amazon, and on occasion your favorite used bookstore will carry them. But if you’re still in a fix, check out these alternatives:

Podiobooks – A free service that delivers serialized audiobook performances in podcast form. You can receive episodes via RSS feed or by directly downloading, then listening on a computer, burning to a CD, or transferring to an MP3 player.

Librivox – Listen to a variety of public domain books.

Audiobooksforfree – Here, you’ll find every kind of book imaginable (though some are abridged) absolutely free of charge.

Audiobooks.net – In addition to free books of public domain, this site offers books available for download.

Learn Out Loud – Features a huge collection of educational audiobooks, as well as videos.