Audio Books Online

The audio books market has a new player as users of computers or new music technology get used to changing how they purchase their books. The iTunes music store is selling a wide selection of US-dominated books on www.iTunes.com to download to your home computer or iPod.

If you don't have broadband you can expect a hefty phonebill and delay but you may find availability more flexible than the often limited selection available in most stores. Currently number one is CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper's career memoirs Dispatches from the Edge, which includes his reportage on last year's Hurricane Katrina. The book has been conveniently promoted by the author on his 60 Minutes TV show and has just entered the US charts at number one. Also in the iTunes Top10 are Tolstoy's abridged Anna Karenina, Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain and Grisham's The Broker. In the absence of sales figures we think iTunes may be currently achieving low sales of audio books rather than attracting an esoteric audience.