If you’re anything like me lately – which is, unable to stand still and relax, sometimes even for reading – or if you’re looking for a way to “optimise” your chores/gym/stroll time, you may *wink wink* want to keep reading.
For me, everything started with a reading slump. I had been going through a very though period, and could not concentrate for more than 10 seconds, definitely nowhere enough to understand a single sentence from a book. At the same time, I was missing it, and for it I mean the power a book has to carry you away, into another world, and escape from reality.
However, I considered myself a “book fundamentalist”, completely against anything that was not a printed book, because let’s face it, there is nothing as good as the old, good, black and white printed paper.
So, to get distracted but, at the same time, entertained, I started listening to podcasts on Spotify. I would listen to them during my commutes to work, while doing house chores or while cooking, and they did help distract me. And it was then that I started to think that maybe I would enjoy listening to a book too. After all, I loved listening to my grandma stories about her childhood, Greek myths or, I don’t know, Red Riding Hood (yeah, she’s that eclectic). So much for being a book fundamentalist.
Long story short, I came across an Audible AD on Instagram and I said “Why not? First month is free!”.
For those who don’t know, Audible is a membership service from Amazon that gives you one credit per month to purchase your audiobook, plus it gives you access to its immense catalogue of audiobooks, podcasts and Audible original products.
The first month is always free for a new subscriber, and then you receive 1 credit per month – 2 if you have an Amazon Prime Account – to “purchase” your book.
Now, the best thing about Audible is that you can unsubscribe at any time at all, and you get to keep the audiobook(s) you purchase with your credits – which is why every October I re-listen to Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco. And that’s how I became hooked to audiobooks.
However, I have to say, I am a greedy reader, and an even greedier listener, so I wasn’t that satisfied with just one book per month. This is when I started doing some research.
Now, since I am Italian, I follow a few bookstagrammers and influencers from Italy (hello tegamini!) and they always mentioned a platform called Storytel. Unfortunately, Storytel is not available in any English speaking country, but if you’re reading this from anywhere else, I do recommend it.
Just like Audible, you can have a free trial with Storytel which lasts for 14 days, and then you get to decide whether you want to keep it or not. The best thing about Storytel is that you can listen to everything on their catalogue, regardless of your selected preferred language, and there are LOADS of English audiobooks (does the ACOTAR series ring a bell?). Plus, you can download any title or podcast episode, so you don’t have to have an internet connection to be able to listen to it.
Lately, they have also added ebooks to their offer, and I have to say that’s a very welcome addition! As I said, unfortunately Storytel is not available in UK, US or Australia, but you can try and download it while you’re abroad – my account works pretty fine whenever I am in the UK.
On the other hand, there’s one other platform that made audiobooks available for their UK, US, CA, IE, AU, and NZ users, and very recently! Spotify has indeed added audiobooks to their offer, but it’s limited to their web player – plus, they only offer 15 hours of free listening to Premium subscribers, while everyone else has to buy any title they want to listen to.
Last but not least, if you own an iPhone, a Mac or an iPad, you might have already noticed that some books and audiobooks are free for you to grab on the Books app – they’re mostly classics, but hey, they’re free!
Do you know of any other platform for audiobooks?
And, if you’re an audiobook listener, what’s the main thing you’re looking for when listening to a book? For me, it’s background music and the number of readers – if the music is too loud and there’s more than one reader, it’s a big NO!
Some links in this article are connected to my Amazon Associates profile, which means I will earn a commission should you choose to proceed with a purchase.