It’s time for another installment of Things We Love. This week one of the things we love is Audiobooks. So let’s get to it.
Like most of you, we’ve been aware of audiobooks for a long time. But until recently, we primarily enjoyed books the more “traditional” way: reading a physical, paper copy or via a device like the Amazon Kindle. A couple years ago, without any real prompting or much thought other than “let’s give it a try,” we instead started listening to books using Audible.
And much to our surprise, we really enjoyed it. In fact, with life’s time pressures (and other distractions) it’s often easier, at least for us, to listen to a book instead of taking the time to sit and read. Audiobooks are also very useful during times such as driving the car when you’re going to and from work or on a longer road trip (if you’re doing that right now).
For our audiobook needs we primarily head over to Audible. Of course, there’s other places to find audiobooks. And some of those places are less expensive, or even in some cases, completely free.
Some of these alternatives include Libro.fm, Scribd, Chirp or, if you’re an Apple user, Apple Books. You can also get audiobooks from, you guessed it, your local library. Check to see if your library uses apps like Libby, Overdrive or Hoopla.
If so, free books are just a few clicks away. Heck, they may even have books on CD to check out. That is, if you have a way to play them like a CD player in your car or home.
Fortunately, we do. Even so we tend to prefer the convenience of something like Audible, or another digital service, where you can download the book to your phone or tablet. This makes it more portable and easier to bring several books at a time.
Some of the audiobooks we’ve been enjoying lately include Project Hail Mary and The Martian by Andy Weir, Dune by Frank Herbert, Yearbook by Seth Rogen, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, Foundation by Isaac Asimov and Red Rising by Pierce Brown.
Of those we especially enjoyed The Martian due to the reading/performance of Wil Wheaton (yes, him) and also Project Hail Mary, as read and performed by Ray Porter. The others are very good too, but these two really stand out.
We can recommend both, and the rest too. Or, if these aren’t to your taste, there’s thousands more to choose from. The only limit is your imagination.
Cliche’? Maybe. But also true. There’s a lot of books out there. You’re sure to find one you love.
If you do decide to check out some audiobooks, let us know down below in the comments what you start with. Or, if you’re a veteran listener, let us know some or your favorites.
Until then, happy listening!
Artwork: Will Staehle for Penguin/Random House
