Mad About Audio
AudioBooks are my current favourite think to YAP about and though people have mixed opinions on style and timing, I think we can all agree – The spoken word is consuming a story. I am not sure why I was slow to adoption here as my partner listens to audiobooks regularly to help him fall asleep or just relax before bed – If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon or worked out your listening medium yet – check out some ideas below to get you started.
I mostly tune in during my work commute and also on solo dog walks, trips to the grocery store. Its quite calming overall, I am less rushed in my commute and just generally. Often, I am so engrossed in my story, the dog gets lots of extra sniff time. It’s a win-win.
I also find it a great way to either
Listen to books that were popular a few years back (hello back catalogue TBR)
Testing out some new genres. I just tried a YA Fantasy which was nice, but I am happy I didn’t buy the book so its not adding to my physical collection.
I promise you will be listening at increased speeds sooner than you think. I recommend a nice 1.15x pace for people starting out. Ready to dive in? have a look at my recommendations below:
Feel Good Audio Books: these are my safe reccs for people just starting out.
The Briar Club – for those on the fence about the storytelling and looking to get back into reading. Both the book and the execution where fantastic with a story about female friendships in 1950s Washington DC.
Remarkably Bright Creatures – I may have developed a crush on an Octopus. A heart-warming, found-family low burn mystery.
All of My Mothers – a unique story of a girl looking for love and eventually finding it all around. Its lovely & uplifting, with just the right amount of heart ache. I cried happy tears.
AudioBooks on my TBR: these offer more complicated stories, crazy narration and are generally more theatrical.
Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman – apparently the story is wild and the narration makes it all the better. I’m nervous as its an 8 part series.
Lights Out, Navessa Allen – a dark romance with some spice – I don’t usually listen to spice so TBD
Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead – its popping up everywhere for me and the multi-layered story sounds something to sink your teeth into (its chunky).
Isola, Allegra Goodman – a young girl fighting for her life on an island…sign me up. There is nothing more empowering than a teenager coming of age and its based on true events.
Also, I haven’t even mentioned Memoirs – but they are always better when read by the author. Check out Green Lights (Matthew McConaughey, Wow, No Thank You (Samantha Irby) and Born A Crime (Trevor Noah).
Now to those mediums I recommend: Currently, I am using BookBeat which has a lovely offering for 20 hours at £6.99 a month. They also run introductory deals regularly so check them out and get some free hours HERE. I usually combine this with my free hours on Spotify Premium (15 hours/month) to finish about 2-3 audiobooks a month.
The Libby App is also a great way to get free audio books from your local library – just be prepared to wait and be flexible with your title requests.
Lastly, if you need some time to get into the world of audio, chat about the best books for your commute TBR or just want to steal a few moments to yourself, please join us at our next reading retreat weekend in Berkshire.
