Kindle and Audible.com

Book are expensive and they take up space. If you are anything like me, you have a ton of books scattered around the house. Let's face it, most teachers are big readers and love books, one reason we are teachers. But you can only add so many shelves until things start getting cluttered in your classroom or home. Thank goodness for Amazon's Kindle. Kindle books are usually cheaper than many of the hardcover and softcover books on sale, unless you buy used. There are many books on Kindle available for free and there are also magazines for a fraction of the newsstand price from Kindle. And you don't need a Kindle to get Kindle books, as I am sure you know. The Kindle app is available for all computer, tablet and smartphone platforms. I only carry my smartphone with me when I am out. But, if I get stuck somewhere - dentist, doctor, auto repair - I can just pull out my smartphone and catch up on a book or the latest edition of PC Magazine to pass the time. That way I can avoid the stupid talk shows that always seem to be playing in the waiting rooms across America. There are also many textbooks that students can download to use for classes. One of my student textbooks is available online, on Kindle and in softcover form for $20. So my students can choose how they want to view their text. Kindle has another option that lets students rent textbooks for a defined period of time, the shorter the time the cheaper the price - another way to cut textbook costs and kids don't have to lug another heavy book in their backpacks that are loaded to the gills already.//// I like to read but don't always have the time to sit down with a book. But I do a lot of driving and sometimes get stuck in traffic. There is seldom something playing that I really want to hear on the radio. So I started using Audible.com several years ago. There is a monthly subscription fee of around $15.00. For that fee you can download 1 credit (usually 1 book) each month. The selection of books is wide and varied. Members can choose from a particular genre or by topic or author. Not sure you would be interested in a book? There is the option to listen to a snippet of the book so you can decide if you like the content and/or the narrator before adding the book to your shopping cart. The narrators are professional actors and professional voice actors. You may have seen some on television or in movies. Or it might be the author of the book reading his or her own book for you. So I can get into my car, plug my smartphone into the audio port and start listening as I drive. Years before I had an audio port, I used a small set of portable speakers in my car to listen. If I get behind in my listening I can suspend my membership for a few months so that I am still a member but I am not being charged. And then I can restart my subscription later to start getting books again. Both Kindle and Audible.com are Amazon products. The benefit is in using the Amazon website. When you find a book, Amazon will let you know if it is in Kindle and/or in Audible version and how much each costs - an all-in-one shopping experience. I know I have mentioned that I am an Amazon fan before in a previous post. But there are so many reasons that Amazon is a great place for teachers. So here are two more.