By Sarah McVean/nw news editor
A student’s schedule is always scrunched for time.
With work, school and relationships, students do not have much time for homework. So why not work on homework while you are driving?
I am not talking about doing your math homework but reading for a book report or extra credit. Not even reading, but listening.
Audio books are an easy way to cram in some reading in that little spare time students have.
If it takes someone 20 minutes to drive to school and 15 minutes to get to work, that would be an hour and 10 minutes that a student would have to “read.”
The average time of an audio book is about eight hours. That makes it about two weeks to complete it.
To make things even simpler, a student can download them onto his computer and put them on an iPod or mp3 player. So wherever it is convenient, you can put on a set of headphones and listen to a book.
Sometimes the author of the book will be the one reading.
“ You can hear how the author meant for it to be read,” the friend who got me interested in audio books said.
Right now I am “reading” A Mighty Heart by Mariane Pearl, and she is the one actually reading it.
The book is based on the terrorist abduction of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl and his pregnant wife’s search efforts.
Pearl’s reading the story makes it more personal.
Pearl is French Cuban, so she has a unique accent but is well spoken.
Having her read it makes me understand and feel the emotions of the book just as she had intended.
Many different ways are available to get these audio books without having to pay $20 or $30 apiece.
Web sites such as www.audible.com, www.simplyaudiobooks.com or www.the audibookstore.com offer books for under $10 or you can even sign up for monthly subscriptions. Fort Worth and Arlington public libraries have many titles available.
Arlington public libraries have a new system where members can download the audio books straight from their computers to their iPods or mp3 players.
My iPod goes wherever I go, which is a convenient way for me to keep up with downloading my reading requirements.
