Let’s Talk Audiobooks
I love consuming books in any form available whether that be physically, via E-book or in audiobook form. My dad (hi dad!), knowing my affinity for audiobooks, suggested I do a post about them. I know there are a lot of people who are paper enthusiasts or only think of audiobooks as a tool for those who can’t read with their eyes so this post is in 3 parts: why I love audiobooks, where I listen to audiobooks, and some of my favorite audiobook productions (there are some books that I genuinely prefer to listen to rather than physically read!).
Why audiobooks: I first found my way to audiobooks when I was driving an hour (or sometimes more) to work and back every day. I wanted to read as much as I could so that time could be enjoyed and made useful rather than boring and soul-sucking as long commutes can often be. These days, I don’t have a commute, but anytime I’m working on a puzzle, doing some legos, playing simple video games, or even just taking my dog on a walk I like to have something else going on because sitting in silence doing a puzzle is way more boring than listening to something while I work on it.
For me, audiobooks have made it possible to increase the number of books I can read while just going about my normal life and doing activities I would want to spend my time on anyway and I’ve grown to really love them!
Where I listen to audiobooks:
Audible is the big one where a lot of people get their books from. I used to use audible and I didn’t have any issues with it. It has exclusive rights to a lot of books so it may be possible that it’s the only place you can find the particular book you want to hear. Audible is owned by Amazon and if you have both the kindle and audio versions of the book you’re currently reading (something I often do with really long fantasy books that take me a couple of weeks to read) then when you pause the audiobook and pick up your kindle to continue reading it just syncs at the place where you left off. It’s super convenient, but I rarely used that feature because I normally have my kindle on airplane mode to preserve the battery. Audible is a subscription based service where you can pay $15 a month to get a credit for an audiobook (which full price are normally well over that) and then you get a certain percentage (I think it’s 30%) off the price of any additional books you want to purchase. There are varying levels of membership but this is the most common.
Libro.fm is the site I currently use for audiobooks. I prefer to do my book shopping at local stores rather than Amazon and this site allows you to buy audiobooks from your favorite indie shop (mine is One More Page Books in Arlington, VA). It’s a similar price to Audible and works pretty much the same way where you pay $15 a month and get a credit for one book and a discount for any others. It won’t have any of the audible exclusive titles, but I generally prefer it to audible anyway.
Scribd îs another one of my favorites. It’s an app you can download. It’s less than $10 a month and has a ton of different books available at any time that you can just download and listen to whenever. There’s no limit on how many you can read, but it doesn’t have as wide of a selection as Libro.Fm and Audible. This is always the first place I check for books so I can save my Libro.Fm credits for books that Scribd doesn’t have, but I’m continuously impressed by the selection of books they do have available. They also have a really nice free trial period that you can use to see if this app is worth the $10 a month for you.
Finally there’s the library. Most libraries these days use apps for e-books and audiobooks that are able to be checked out as part of your membership. If a book isn’t on Scribd I always check the library next before buying it. As is the case with any library, there may be a wait for certain more popular books, but if you’re not sure whether audiobooks are for you and don’t want to commit to any paid memberships this may be a good place to start!
My favorite audiobooks:
Any memoirs (particularly those read by the author) are great to listen to. Most recently I’ve enjoyed A Promised Land by Barack Obama and The Answer Is… by Alex Trebek (which is actually primarily narrated by Jeopardy GOAT Ken Jennings). Memoirs generally have the great combination of audiobooks read by familiar voices and books that are not confusing or difficult to get into. There’s no new world or magic system you have to learn and it’s easy to just jump in and go.
Books with full cast recordings or multiple narrators like Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid or Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. It’s incredibly immersive to have a group of different narrators voice the characters and it almost makes you feel like you’re listening to a conversation rather than reading a book which is great for reluctant readers or those new to audiobooks. Also if you find a narrator that you particularly love (my favorites are Jim Dale and Will Wheaton) it’s worth looking up other books they narrate. A lot of narrators work regularly within similar genres and it may be a good way to learn about new books as well!
Funny books are also great to listen to. I laugh out loud way more often with audiobooks than books I read with my eyes. It’s something about the timing and the mannerisms of the narrator that really drives home the hilarity of certain scenes in the most enjoyable way. For this category I’d most recommend The Martian by Andy Weir and Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall.
Do you ever listen to audiobooks? Which are your favorites? Let me know!
