I decided to finally suck it up and listen to an audiobook for the first time. I know. It’s a shame that it took me this long to give in to the audiobook craze, but I’m stubborn so here we are. I’m a bit of a print snob and expected myself to hate audiobooks, so I simply ignored that they exist. As I dove more into the world of books online, it seemed that readers everywhere were hooked on audiobooks. So I downloaded audible to see if it’s worth the hype. 

I want to focus on three main things in this post. First, I’ll be going over what I expected listening to an audiobook would be like and how much I expected to enjoy the experience. Second, I’ll cover how I feel about audiobooks now. Last, I’ll be giving my thoughts about the Audible platform specifically and whether I think it’s worth a try. 

1. My Audiobook Expectations

I’m going to be frank. My expectations for this were low. I’m a hoe for a good print book, and I really didn’t expect to feel satisfied by audiobooks. Auditory learning is not my strong suit, so I really expected that I would have a more difficult time processing the more minute details of the book and lose some of the complexity along the way. I was also concerned about audiobook length. Have ya’ll ever looked at the total length of the average audiobook? The average is around 10 hours long. Others are over 24 hours of listening time. I assumed that I would be extremely annoyed with the amount of time required to listen to the entirety of each book. On a lighter note, multiple friends stressed just how important a great narrator is to the audiobook experience, so I was looking forward to finding a really well-narrated book to listen to.

2. Actual Thoughts on Audiobooks

I chose two different books to listen to for my Audible trial. The first was Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. I’m a huge fan of Trevor Noah and have been meaning to read this book in print for a really long time. After finding out that Trevor Noah narrates his own book and hearing rave reviews from friends I figured it would be the perfect choice to dip my toes in the audiobook world. It’s a fairly short comedic autobiography with a total listening time of 8h 44m. The second book that I chose was an audible original that was available for free this month called How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe. This short fantasy had a total listening time of 5h 28m.

I have three main takeaways from listening to these two books.

  1. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed actually listening to the text of each book read aloud as they were supposed to be read. There are so many moments, especially in fantasy, when it’s unclear how a word/words should be pronounced. And while I’m a firm believer that imagining the characters and settings while reading is one of the best parts of the book, understanding the author’s intentions with words from other languages or even the tune of a written-out song can seriously increase the overall reading experience!
  2. Listening to books while I was working gives me mixed feelings. I did most of my listening while completing other tasks. Some home-related others work-related. Unlike with a print book, I felt too restless simply sitting on my couch and listening, so I had to keep myself occupied with other things simultaneously. On one hand, it was super great to be able to listen to books while I was at work. I usually spend my work hours listening to music and podcasts and often wish I had more hours that I could dedicate to reading. It was super awesome to be able to continue reading at work especially once I got to the last chapter of Born a Crime #iykyk. On the other hand, trying to work and listen to books at the same time was a challenge for me. If I focused too much on the book, I ended up making careless mistakes in my work tasks. Other times I would be focusing heavily on work and forget I was listening to a book in the first place. 
  3. Last, listening to an audiobook doesn’t feel quite as special as sitting down with a physical copy. I love the feeling of being so engrossed with a book that the world around me disappears and I didn’t feel like I could do that with an audiobook. Again, feelings of restlessness kept me from focusing solely on the audiobook. Overall they felt too passive when compared with reading a print book. 

3. My Thoughts on Audible

I think Audible is a great deal if you really enjoy listening to your books. The monthly rate after the free trial is only $14.95 and includes one book credit and free access to a select number of Audible Original books. So so many of the books that you can choose will cost you way more than $14.95 in the bookstore, so you’re saving money. Plus, I was super excited to find out that books you buy are yours forever even if you cancel the membership. I was under the impression that this was structured like a library service, so this was a huge deal. I probably won’t keep my subscription, but I will be able to listen to Born A Crime or any Originals I’ve selected at any time in the future which is awesome! 

Let’s talk about Audible Originals. Audible Originals are audiobooks that were written and recorded just for the Audible platform. Think Netflix original tv shows, but the audiobook version. I was super stoked to try these out in the beginning because a friend recommended an original that she really loved. I quickly found out that you can’t choose from just any audible original as your “free” choice. It has to be from a select number of “free” titles for that month, and they seem to rotate. This was a bit annoying if you’re paying for the service every month, but would be good for getting out of your comfort zone in terms of genre. The Audible Original title I ended up listening to (How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps) turned out to be in the Literary RPG genre. I definitely wouldn’t have picked that for myself, but it was nice to try out something new. Another thing I noticed is that most Audible Originals books (or at least the ones available for free with membership this month) were shorter than average. How to Defeat a Demon King was under six hours of listening time, and I wish they had longer options available in their original content. 

Let me know in the comments how you feel about audiobooks/audible and if you have any favorites! I’m always open to good recommendations!

If you want to hear my specific thoughts on the two audiobooks I listened to, keep an eye out for my May Reading Wrap Up in a few weeks!

Follow along with all of the different books I’m reading, or hoping to read, by checking out my Goodreads page! 

Much Love,

Taylor