I have been recommending Audible to anyone who will listen to me. I have loaded the ipod for my friends, bought gift cards, offered computer lessons, and done all manner of proselytizing to get my loved ones to listen to more books. I don’t much care what books they pick, but I find it so freeing and life changing to have Audible that it makes me preach. And so I thought I would share just a small fraction of the reasons I have come up with for why I love Audible with one tacky nod to Shakespeare I begin:

Oh, Audible. How do I love thee, let me count the ways.

• If the book sucks, no bother. I listened to it while cleaning, driving, exercising, or other mundane tasks that had to be done. I accomplished exactly what I needed to in that moment. I didn’t devote precious reading time alone to a crappy book.

• It makes me less judgmental and more willing to risk listening to a book. Knowing I will be able to multitask while listening to E=MC2 is the only reason I downloaded the history of the science equation. It was great, and supplied me with months of inane science facts that serve me to this day.
• Who has the time? Some of my friends in my book club find it difficult to read our one book in a month. These are all dedicated, lovers of books. I have a well known addiction to Audible and can usually find the extra time to “read”/listen to as many as 5 books a month. This volume of reading makes me an insufferable nightmare of useless knowledge that changes constantly, but it hasn’t stopped me.
• I am a legacy member of Audible from September of 2001 and as such have a plan that allows me 5 books per month. I went to cancel it once, and the customer rep told me I was crazy. “No one can get this plan anymore, and if you cancel you’ll lose it.” He offered a 3 month break at which time it would restart, and I have been loving the resource ever since. Even though you can’t get the legacy plan with 5/month, most don’t find themselves envious of my plan. There are plenty of good deals and plans to keep the less addicted satisfied.
• Listening to Scott Brick read anything is like eating a Cold Stone MudPie Mojo in the Love It size. Heavenly! His voice is absolutely made for thrillers, and even better when he’s telling me the piles in my office are actually a sign of intelligence in “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder”

        -        Parents – Are you trying to get your kids to read more? Audible on their iPod or iTouch is fabulous. My son listens to books while he does his math homework, and so far this year has “read” Inkheart, Inkspell, 3 Cups of Tea and Freakonomics. What 13 year old reads a book about economics? And that is 4 books in addition to his reading assignment for school (I don’t let him listen to the book for the Accelerated Reading Goal. There is a difference to listening and reading the words from the teacher’s standpoint). I haven’t hooked my 8 year old yet, but give me time. I’m quite the influencer, and a benevolent dictator. I see book reports in her future. HooHAHAHa.

        -        Have you ever wanted to read a book that seems a bit embarrassing? You know, like “He dumped me, now what.” or “How to talk to your pets”. Who wants to advertise to your seatmates on the plane you’re reading and allow them to engage you in small talk unnecessarily? With Audible I can listen to that book, shut our my seatmates, and dampen the jet noise all at the same time with my Bose Quiet Comfort 3 headphones.

        -        Vocabulary and Pronunciation: When listening to a complex book with foreign phrases, all the pronunciation is done for you. You learn the way it’s supposed to be pronounced and at the end of the book I feel much more educated or not. At the least, I can get through all the French names and places in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas without stumbling through the lines. Completely enjoyed that 56 hours or so of a book during my commute.

        -        Not for everyone, BUT if you are borderline ADD and can’t stand to listen to books on audio because they seem to read to you at a snails pace, then here’s just the trick. Get an iPhone (I think everyone should convert – quite the fanatic on this one too) or an iPod will do. Then adjust the reading speed to 2X on the iPhone or “Faster” on the ipod. I admit that at first putting the iPhone audiobook playback at 2X brought back reminders of mickey mouse, but your brain will adjust. Now you can listen to books in half the time, while multi-tasking. What is that, a quadruple in productivity? Well, probably not, but listening to audible on my laptop is now out of the question. It sounds like someone over annunciating their words for a child. I have to put it thru the iPhone on double or forget it.

        -        In the Author’s own voice. This one is a two edged sword. I loved the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy that was 5 books read by Douglas Adams. There’s something magical about his British accent, and deadpan, sarcastic delivery of some of the adventures that just makes the whole experience a joy. The other side of this is something like “Stones From The River” by Ursula Hegi. I couldn’t finish it. It was for book club, and her monotone delivery was just too depressing. There are times when the author should step aside and let Scott Brick do the reading.

        -        The stock got crushed when it was publicly trade. I saw it down at $9.00 and figured that since I was such a fan, I just had to by a little. It went down even more, but then about 3 months later, Amazon.com bought them out at $13.00. Cool. Made enough for a few more years of service! Love them.

I strive to find the easiest (or laziest) way to accomplish anything I want to do. Audible.com does this. Get it.

Lisa

Tweet This Post