The music industry has long since stopped using cassettes, and now the pokey old book industry is quitting them, too. Hatchette just released their last audiobook-on-cassette-tape, reports the NYT. Meanwhile, cassette players built into cars have dropped from 23% to 4% in just three years. However there are still a few consumer holdouts who want books on actual tape: truckers.

Cassette tapes' tendency to hiss - and to melt in the summer and snap in the winter - turns off audiophiles. But for audio books, the cassette is an oddly elegant medium: you can eject it from your car, carry it home and stick it in a boombox, and it will pick up in the same place, an analog feat beyond the ability of the CD. At Blackstone Audio, which produces cassette versions of its roughly 340 annual titles, Josh Stanton, the executive vice president, said there was still demand from libraries and truckers, who buy them at truck stops. But he could forecast only that his company would produce cassettes through 2009.

Other uses for cassettes: they make a great toy for cats when you unwind all the tape! [NYT]