Books on Tape (sometimes abbreviated BoT) is an audiobook publishing imprint of Random House which emphasized unabridged audiobook recordings for schools and libraries. Prior to the acquisition by Random House in October 2001, the company was founded in California by Olympic gold medalist Duvall Hecht in 1975 as a direct to consumer mail order rental service for unabridged audiobooks on cassette tape. It was one of the pioneering companies in the fledgling audiobook business along with Recorded Books.