I enjoy stories, but years of reading for college have taught me the bad habit of skimming through paragraphs rather than reading slowly and enjoying the process. That’s why I love audiobooks: I can get the full impact of the story without skipping ahead. And, I get the added benefit of being able to do other things while I listen.
Audible is a great and inexpensive source for downloadable audiobooks. The best way to use Audible is to sign up for a monthly subscription: You can get one credit a month for $15/mo, or two credits for 23/mo. Most books on Audible cost one credit, though some longer works like Neal Stephenson’s Anathem cost two.
If you buy an audiobook on CD, you will pay a lot more than $11.50 for it. You’ll likely pay more than that for a hardcover edition of a book.
The books are downloaded to your computer and added to iTunes or whatever other media software you use. They have a huge variety of books, from current best-sellers to the classics.
They’re also great about sponsoring podcasts like Escape Pod. Sign up through the sponsor link on their sidebar, and you can get an audiobook of your choice for free. The books you buy with credits remain yours even if you cancel your subscription, and you can re-download them at any time.
I’ve been really pleased with the service since I signed up more than a year ago, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
