Listening to audio books has become a very popular way for folks to keep up with their "reading," even when they don't have a moment in the day to relax in a chair and pick up a book. While "books on tape" is a rather outdated medium, audio books on CD and in MP3 format are constantly becoming more popular. The MP3s have the advantage of being cheaper to produce and there are more free audio book titles available as downloadable MP3s.

When it comes to listening to audio books on some type of audio book player, it isn't always about not having the time to sit down and read. There are some people who simply prefer to be able to multi-task and listening to audio books instead of holding a book and flipping pages is a better use of their time, in their minds. But regardless of the reason why a person loves to listen to books instead of reading them, a free audio book is always something that is welcomed warmly by any book lover.

An audiobook player is usually a portable device and there are versions to play all three types of the aforementioned audio book formats. Of the three formats, the cassette tape is fading out of the marketplace and it can even be difficult to find "books on tape" these days. But, if you have a good cassette player and prefer this format, then there are free and cheap audio book cassettes available if you ask around.

There are several websites that encourage people to post their items that they no longer want or use so that other people who want them can get them for free. There are many audio book titles available this way, both as audio books on CD and on cassette tape. One of the main purposes of these sites is to keep people from throwing things away so that they don't end up in a landfill. One of the biggest organized groups of this type is FreeCylcle.com and there are many types of items that people are giving away every single day.

Because an MP3 audio book is a completely electronic file, and does not have to be copied onto a physical device, such as a CD or tape, in order to be distributed, this is the least expensive type of recorded books on the market. As a result, there are more free audio book titles to choose from in MP3 audio book format than in the other two formats. The only expense is the MP3 audio book player; yet if you don't mind listening to the audio book on your computer, then you do not even need that.

There are also many websites that offer free audio book MP3s, so you can enjoy recorded books that cover just about every topic you can think of. On some of these sites, you simply search and download MP3 audio book selections as much as you like. Other sites will require you to register before you can download any of their files, and still others offer paid memberships and usually have an even greater selection from which you can choose.