There are many people who don't realized that they might want to look for the unabridged audio book version when they were buying a new audio book, but had simply bought whatever was featured or listed as the most popular for that particular title. In fact, a very good percentage of all audio books on the shelves of bookstores or available as audio book downloads are actually the abridged version and many people purchase them without even realizing that fact. Still, the question remains, what is the real difference between the two types of audio books on sale?

An unabridged audio book can be considered the full and complete version of the original printed tome, word for word. Abridged audio book versions have been edited. In some cases, the editing is fairly minor and does not leave much out from the original work, while in other cases the editing can be quite extensive. Also, in some cases the author is the one who does the editing, or the publisher might edit the work without the input of the author if they have contractual rights to do so.

What this means is that an abridged work, whether in the form of a printed book, an electronic ebook, or an audio book on CD or MP3, does not contain the complete and original work of the author. An unabridged audio book, on the other hand, will be read by the author or by a voice-over artist and every single word in the volume will be recorded as the audio book. Therefore, the unabridged version will be as close to the original message and intent of the author as one can possibly get without inviting the author over for a personal reading.

This may bring up the question, why would anyone buy anything except an unabridged audio book? There are many reasons for this, but the primary reason is to make the recording shorter. This allows the listener to listen to the audio book in less time and when dealing with very long tomes, this can be a great benefit if time is short and if the listener simply wants to be able to get the gist or the highlights of the book by listening to a shortened audio version.

One reason people seek out the shorter, abridged versions of audio books on CD is so that they can use them as a review of material that they have already read. This can be helpful to students preparing for exams, or to a business man preparing for a presentation based on a certain book, or even just to enjoy a quick refresher of a favorite novel.

However, there are many people who feel that they might be missing something important that the author was trying to communicate if they only have access to the abridged version. In those cases, an unabridged audio book is the best choice and the listener can relax and enjoy the volume and know that they are getting the full story.