Earful of Books to Merge with Another Company to Accelerate National Expansion (7/01)

Earful of Books, the nation's first and largest audiobooks-only chain, and American Absorbents Natural Products, Inc., both based in Austin, Texas, have completed an agreement to merge.

Shareholders will now be asked to approve the adoption of the Earful of Books, Inc. name for the surviving company; an appropriate stock option plan; a reincorporation from Utah to Delaware, and the election of new directors. Earful of Books (www.earful.com) will retain corporate headquarters in Austin and will seek "EARS" as its new trading symbol.

Total shares of common stock outstanding post-merger are 17,804,579 of which Earful shareholders of record as of June 22, 2001 own 13,531,480 common shares and AANP shareholders of record on that date will own 4,273,099 common shares. American Absorbents Natural Products (www.aanpi.com) is currently traded on the Over The Counter Bulletin Board (OTC-BB) under the symbol of AMAB.

Earful will announce the selection of five investment firms as market makers to support the stock when the merger is finalized.

The eight-year-old chain, which launched an aggressive Franchising program in 1998, now has more than 200,000 members at 15 stores, including locations in Texas, California, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington. Earful currently has 32 new stores under contract in those areas as well as Florida.

Additionally, Earful of Books has co-located four units at premier Blockbuster Video (NYSE:BBI) store sites, and is approaching the first anniversary of a plan with Blockbuster that calls for up to 150 co-located stores by mid-2003.