Don’t you just hate when you finally got some time to sit down and read for an hour or two and then something comes up where you have to drive to? Well for all the people that are “to busy” to read, get the app named Audible! According to the Audible website, Audible is “A library of over 180,000 audio books and podcasts”. So if you can’t find that series that you wanted to read or listen to, you will definitely find a series that will make do for the mean time. Have you ever been driving in the car wishing you could just relax, sit down, and read a book to take your mind off of life? Audible can totally change your life if you are always on the go. I myself have been using the app to reread my favorite series The Immortal tales of Nicholas Flamel. Something else that is very unique and also makes it easier to keep track of where you are in the book is each book is broken down into chapters so if you just want to listen to the first chapter of a book just click on chapter one and click play, its that easy! An amazing feature is the recommendation tab. The way this works is whenever you search for a book, under the recommendation tab it will show books that are similar to books that you have purchased and also added to your wishlist. This makes finding new series that you potential might be interested in easier to find and easier to enjoy. Another amazing feature is that you can download these books (with a membership) to your device so you can listen to the book offline anywhere. According to Geekritique.com, “Your average audiobook is a 15-20+ hour investment.” This means you have 15-20+ hours of entertainment for essentially $15. Why go to the movies and spent $20+ for at most a 3 hour movie when audible offers an audio book for $15 that can last 15-20+ hours. Something else I had not realized at my first read was the date in which this article was published. The time stamp on the site says May 12th, 2015 which means that this website and the review was from an earlier version of the app. Now while this review is still very accurate as the app has changed very little. That is less than a dollar an hour! That is a steal! If you aren’t sold yet I don’t know what will.
If you are a student and have Amazon you are eligible for free Amazon Prime, the reason I mention this is because Audible is an Amazon company and if you have Amazon Prime you have access to free audio book libraries. The free version is exactly what you would expect from a free version. Very limited selection of content. However the content has a few sections or genres of the books making it easy to find the genre you love to read, you might even find a new series you like. Unfortunately if you want full access they have a monthly subscription based payment required in order to access the full website. However, they do offer a 30 free trial so you can figure out if the investment will be worth it. Something I didn’t find out until I signed up for the 30 day free trial is that the way you listen to some books that are not free cost money or you can use your monthly credit. The way the credit system works is that every month you get a free credit, you can use this credit to exchange it for a book of your choice or you can pay for the book in cash. These credits will roll over until you have 6 credits stocked and then you won’t get anymore until you spend the credits. I decided to research a tad bit more into audible to see if there was another way to get more books a month. I found that there are 3 different tiers of membership. The cheapest and most basic one was the one I was describing earlier. The Gold membership or the cheapest is $14.95 a month and you get one credit a month with a 6 credit roll over limit. The next tier is the Platinum membership. This tier costs $22.95 a month and you get 2 credits a month with a 12 credit limit making this tier only $11.48 a credit which is cheaper than the first tier by about $4. The highest tier is the Gold Annual tier. This tier is $149.50 a year which is $12.46 a credit and gives you 12 credits all at once. The roll over is 6 credits making the platinum the better deal if you are a casual user and not buying a couple of books all up front. According to the website, if you purchase a book not using credits you have a 30% discount with a membership over the full price for non-members.
I find that Audible has a very easy to use website and app. This makes finding books easier for their users and makes them happy and wanting to continue to use it. I think I will continue to use audible at least until my 30 day membership is up because it has my favorite series on it so I can listen to that where ever I am and whatever I am doing. I will most likely listen to a chapter a night before I go to bed because the narrators have soft and smooth voices (at least for my book). If you are a reader and have a hard time finding time to find a comfy place, sit down, and read a book then audible might be the perfect solution. Audible is a fantastic app for any reader to have and use just because of the convenience.
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