June is National Audio Book Month!

June is National Audio Book Month! Here at the Tennessee Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped (TLBPH), a section of the Tennessee State Library & Archives, our focus is on providing audio books to people who have physical disabilities that prevent them from reading standard print - and these people are the only ones who can borrow books from us.

However, almost anyone can "read" an audio book. In fact, there are annual “Audie Awards” given each year since 1996 by the Audio Publishers Association for commercial audio books.

Reading an audio book can pull you into the story, and a good narrator can really “make or break” a book. For example, the “Harry Potter” audio books narrated by commercial narrator Jim Dale have won many audio book awards, including a couple of Grammys and a record 10 Audies. But, the audio narrator of the TLBPH’s books, Erik Sandvold, is equally popular among blind and physically handicapped patrons nationwide. In fact, he is so popular that he has recorded more than 700 titles for the federal government’s studios, plus many for commercial audio book publishers. Sandvold is a two-time winner of the prestigious “Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award,” given by the American Foundation for the Blind.

Summer is a great time for reading, so why not try reading an audio book? Some new titles available to eligible registered TLBPH patrons that may also be available as commercial audio books from your public library include:

• You Can, You Will: 8 Undeniable Qualities of a Winner, by Joel Osteen
• The Double Fudge Brownie Murder, by Joanne Fluke
• Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, by Rick Bragg
• The Last Dickens, by Matthew Pearl

All of these are also available as commercial audio books, either on CD or from audible.com. Your public library may have or be able to obtain these audio titles for you.

The State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State.