Borrowing audiobooks from the library
I usually pick up audiobooks on CD from the library while my kids select their books, but my good friend Meira A. downloads audiobooks from home via the L.A. library website. She says it's easy...just download the OverDrive app from the lapl web page, then find books and borrow them right through the website. You have about three weeks to listen, and can use a desktop, laptop, or tablet computer, or - Meira's favorite - use your phone. Each title has a certain number of copies to be "out" from each library branch at a time, so you might need to place a hold if the book you want to listen to is already checked out. However, you'll be notified electronically when the title becomes available, and since you can download it from home, it's a cinch to pick it up.
Meira thinks Beverly Hills and other libraries use a similar system.
Streaming audiobooks
Another great way to listen to audiobooks is by downloading them or listening to them stream via LibriVox. The LibriVox website contains titles that are in the public domain which have been read by one of their volunteers. While the audio quality is somewhat variable, my kids have enjoyed several tracks available on LibriVox, including "The Owl and the Pussy Cat," "Rumpelstitskin," "The Wizard of Oz," and "Alice in Wonderland." Because they rely on titles for which they don't require permissions, the books available lean towards the "classics."
Titles worth checking out
Our family has loved all the Ramona and Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, By the Great Horn Spoon!, the Little House Books, Alcatraz books by Brandon Sanderson, and Andrew Clements books like The School Story. We also really, really love The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, and Bud, Not Buddy, but a few other parents have mentioned they didn't like some of the content (there's a lot of mentioning of lying, for example, and an older brother trying to impress girls).
Favorite titles mentioned by my friend Traci T. are some of the ones I already mentioned, the Clementine series by Sarah Pennypacker, and the Magic Treehouse series. Meira suggested Roald Dahl books. Please send in your own favorites by leaving a comment!