Audio books are available in two forms, i.e. abridged and unabridged. The abridged form of audio books is that which consists of only the most important parts of the book and the unabridged form of audio books is the complete version of the original text.

When you purchase an unabridged audio book, you get to listen to every single word of the original book read out by the narrator. Clearly, this form of an audio book is pretty lengthy. The unabridged form of audio books is particularly liked by those who have a lot of free time as well as patience so as to listen to every word penned down by the author. It takes up a lot of time to listen to unabridged audio books as these are complete books and obviously listening to spoken pages takes a lot more time as compared to those that are read. These audio books are not really liked by those who just scan through the text written in the books and do not read it carefully. Audio books that are around 30 hour in their unabridged version might be just 7 – 8 hours in their abridged form.

Then we have abridged audio books, which only consist of the most important bits of the book. Wordy scenes, subplots and descriptions are all left out in abridged audio books. This basically implies that the parts of the book that are not all that important are left out and these only present the main parts of the plot. Clearly, these do not require as much time as unabridged versions to be heard.

Price variations amongst abridged and unabridged audio books

In the CD form, it is quite likely for the unabridged audio books to be a little expensive, considering that they need more disks in comparison to abridged audio books. Mailing costs would also be charged additionally in case these are purchased over the internet. Obviously, the production costs associated with unabridged audio books is higher as well in order to produce more CDs and the narrator also charges quite a bit more money for having to speak more for an unabridged audio book. However, in MP3 format, there is less price difference amongst these two types of audio books.

Listener’s preference

Along with time and cost, there is also the issue of listener’s preference. A majority of audio book listeners want to hear every single word of the book. Obviously, they prefer unabridged audio books. It is common for authors to not permit the production of abridged version of the books as they believe it would compromise on the quality of their work and the effort that they put in. Abridged audio books that have been produced with the consent of the author have “approved by the author” recorded on to them right in the beginning. All in all, both these forms of audio books are perfect for people that suffer from visual ailments and reading disorders.

However, it is up to you whether you want to purchase abridged or unabridged audio books, so make a wise decision!

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Category: Entertainment
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