These days, going to the library just isn't the same as it used to be. You will often find that there are more and more computers popping up at libraries all over the country. The computers are there to provide students with better research that they can get over their campus Intranet or over the more public Internet. But there is one thing that you probably didn't notice and that is the accessibility one has to audio books.

Audio books are audio translations of actual books. People are hired to narrate books and those narrations are made into audio formats like CDs, tapes, or mp3's which is most popular now that it seems everyone has an iPod. But why should you make the switch to audio books when you are used to reading paper backs? Here are some of the reasons you probably should.

• Pay attention to the world around you – The problem with reading books is that you tend to miss things that you shouldn't have. There are so many “goings on” and so many beautiful things in this world that you wouldn't want to miss. But as a bookworm you probably already have.

Now think about listening to a book. You can just sit in your favorite coffee shop, put on your earphones and listen to your book while watching what goes on around you. You will never miss the things that happen around you if you use audio books.

• Trim down the bag – Are you still a student? Can't stand to be away from a book if you are in the middle of reading it but need to be somewhere else? Well, you don't have to carry the book around anymore especially if it's heavy. If you have an mp3 player or a CD player, you can easily bring around an audio translation of the book that you want to read.

Imagine all the space you can save as a student. There are many schools that encourage the use of audio books these days. You might not even have to bring a bag anymore because all you will need are your audio textbooks and some notebooks for taking down notes at lectures.

• Expand your horizons – There are tones of subjects that you can read about. Audio books are so easy to make and they are also not that expensive either. In fact, if you search the internet, you will find that there are many free audio books that you can download and listen to. Your options will also be endless and you will see titles that you never knew existed from all around the world.

Explore the many stories that the world's best and upcoming writers have to offer. Reading books will only slow you down as well. With audio books, you can adjust speeds and since you never have to put it down to take a break, you will have gone through more books in a day than you could have in for example, a week if you were still reading books. Now that is a big difference.