The network ’3′ has just launched downloadable audio books for their customers, with a free preview service and a decent range of titles on hand.

They’ve teamed up with ex-SAS founder of the GoSpoken.com website Andy McNab, to deliver 100s of new spoken word or viewable text based books each and every month. These fall under 3′s new ‘Books on the Go’ service, with over 1000 books already in the back catalogue from the get go.

There’s already established and well known publishers onboard from the likes of HarperCollins and Penguin, with authors ranging from Stephen King to Jane Austen to name but a few all being available.

On offer are free samples of the books before you buy, where the goods can then be downloaded in parts ranging from £1 to £3, or as a whole from £5 to £10. All this will be accessible from the network’s customer portal on the handsets, Planet 3.

Downloading these audio books are fairly fast over their 3G network we’ve been told, or even quicker if you opt out for the text eBook version instead. Hurrah!

There’s no doubt the likes of podcasts have facilitated as a stepping stone the success of audio books, in the public’s eye. As with hardware such as the Sony eBook reader and iRex’s iLiad devices have spurned on the recent success of eBooks within mass adoption. We’ve even recently seen one of the iRex eBook readers, with an embedded Orange SIM card delivering content straight to the device.

With this new 3 service no longer will you be alone with dark, dark thoughts on the way to work first thing in the morning. Now you can have someone else’s piped straight into your head instead.