Is Audible worth it?

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RamistThomist

Puritanboard Clerk
I gather that if you pay around $15 a month for audible, you get a free download? Who here uses audible and what are your thoughts on it?
 
@fredtgreco was just asking this on FB the other day and I think he may have signed up. He may have some opinion after the holiday travel (he was asking for audible suggestions for travel today).
 
Only if you use it consistently. I find that I use it most at different times of the year. For example, I listen to Audible when cutting the grass and driving alone. Pre-covid I would have to drive far or fly for work so it was an extra benefit at that time. Some of my seminary books are on Audible so I like listening to them. Nothing can compare to reading the version for depth of understanding. You may find your mind drifting when listening for extended periods of time. Audible links with some Kindle books, so you can pick up reading where you left off listening. Overall, I find it great, especially listening to novels I typically wouldn't pick up and read cover to cover.
 
Only if you use it consistently. I find that I use it most at different times of the year. For example, I listen to Audible when cutting the grass and driving alone. Pre-covid I would have to drive far or fly for work so it was an extra benefit at that time. Some of my seminary books are on Audible so I like listening to them. Nothing can compare to reading the version for depth of understanding. You may find your mind drifting when listening for extended periods of time. Audible links with some Kindle books, so you can pick up reading where you left off listening. Overall, I find it great, especially listening to novels I typically wouldn't pick up and read cover to cover.

Thanks. About 50% of my book intake is through audio library apps, so I expect to use it a lot.
 
I like it, when I’m having to drive/commute a lot. I rarely use it otherwise. And it’s mostly for fiction books with good narrators, although I am fond of Rutherford’s Letters available in my library for LORD’s Day trek from church to home, etc. If there’s a period where nothing is forthcoming I’m interested in, I’ll cancel, then pick back up when something comes along.
 
I've been off and on with membership, but lately am using it more and more and decided to quit canceling every time I feel guilty about the monthly payment. It's more than a luxury per the benefit. You get one credit per month towards a book purchase.
 
I gather that if you pay around $15 a month for audible, you get a free download? Who here uses audible and what are your thoughts on it?

If you are an Amazon Prime member, I'm pretty sure you get an Audible point (=1 book) every month.
 
I usually subscribe when there's something I want and unsubscribe until I finish it if it's a large book. But last month I'm pretty sure they were offering a deal where it's like $8 a month for four months so I went ahead and re-subscribed for that time frame. I don't know if it's still being offered but you might check. They also gave me an extra credit for Christmas. I personally think it's a great resource but don't know if I'd be willing to spend more than $10 a month on it. Even that's a stretch when so much is free to listen to.
 
I usually subscribe when there's something I want and unsubscribe until I finish it if it's a large book. But last month I'm pretty sure they were offering a deal where it's like $8 a month for four months so I went ahead and re-subscribed for that time frame. I don't know if it's still being offered but you might check. They also gave me an extra credit for Christmas. I personally think it's a great resource but don't know if I'd be willing to spend more than $10 a month on it. Even that's a stretch when so much is free to listen to.

Is this it?
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For me, it is. Outside of reading for work, I consume a lot of books through audio.

Look into Scribd before signing up for Audible. I have both and use both.
 
I’ve had Audible for years and have more than 200 titles. If you are an avid audiobook listener, they are probably worth it. I prefer print and use audio only when I can’t read in the moment. There have been times when I’ve let credits accumulate over a few months but then I’ll binge. I listen to nonfiction at usually at 1.5x speeds. On a second listen I’ll go 2x. Some books, particularly ones with many tables and especially graphs, can be a slog. Often titles will come with a pdf supplement which is sometimes helpful dependent on the context of your listening.

I’m also a sucker at times. There are titles that I have audible, kindle and print. In so doing my part to sent Bezos into space.
 
Yeah that must be it. That might even be cheaper than when I saw it. There's a nice bonus to premium plus where you can listen to a decent amount of audible titles for free as well. So in theory you could subscribe, attack the freebies for the entirety of the three months and then listen to the books you have to buy with credits after you're no longer premium plus if you decided to unsubscribe. When unsubscribed you lose the free stuff but keep the books you purchased with credits.
 
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I gather that if you pay around $15 a month for audible, you get a free download? Who here uses audible, and what are your thoughts on it?
Right now, I am working through Thomas's Summa, which is excellently narrated, and about to begin Plato's Socratic Dialogues.

Both are only available through Audible. There's also an excellent narration of Augustin's City of God that is only on Audible.
 
Yeah that must be it. That might even be cheaper than when I saw it. There's a nice bonus to premium plus where you can listen to a decent amount of audible titles for free as well. So in theory you could subscribe, attack the freebies for the entirety of the three months and then listen to the books you have to buy with credits after you're no longer premium plus if you decided to unsubscribe. When unsubsribed you lose the free stuff but keep the books you purchased with credits.

That's probably what I will do then.
 
I didn't use it enough to keep it going. Not a big audio book guy though I have tried a few times to take up the habit.
 
I like it, but have to confess to turning around and buying the hard-copy books when materials demand more intense concentration. It is ideal for history and biography and we've used it for literature in school. (We all get to listen while Mom scoots around and makes dinner.)
 
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I got it. I do much of my learning on audio, so it seemed natural. Some of the books that I would get are cheaper when you compare the Audible fee vs. actually buying the book. The books I would actually study (Turretin type books) I would already get in hard copy.
 
I love Audible and use it everyday in the gym or car.

Many of the Christian books, however, suffer from horrible narrator choices. Why does Christian audio always want to sound like used car salesmen or peppy radio hosts. I prefer the narration found in many World War II and military history books.
 
I've grown to like the robot voice on my Kindle dx. It's featured as "experimental", but it works. I've used it to read out pdfs while on the road. Does fine with any books I put on it, too.

The only drawback is if your pdf has footers or headers on each page, you get to hear those, too. File names and dates, etc.
 
FYI: If you are only going to use Audible every second month and only want to pay for the same, consider the Silver subscription. They don't advertise it on the site, but if you try to cancel it pops up right at the end of the process. That is what I use.
 
I've grown to like the robot voice on my Kindle dx. It's featured as "experimental", but it works. I've used it to read out pdfs while on the road. Does fine with any books I put on it, too.

The only drawback is if your pdf has footers or headers on each page, you get to hear those, too. File names and dates, etc.

Does this work on Kindle or other formats? I've looked for a text-to-voice reader for the vast amount of material not available on Audible.
 
Does this work on Kindle or other formats? I've looked for a text-to-voice reader for the vast amount of material not available on Audible.
Any text. Even scanned Pdfs, if OCR has been done.

The old kindles would accept txt file formats, too. I don’t know about the new ones.

There are text to speech apps for Android and iPhones that do the same thing.
 
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