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Ryan
(new)
Jan 26, 2016 08:50AM
Hi all, I'm excited to be part of this site as I recently (2-3 years) now have really begun enjoying reading/listening to books. I have an issue though. At work i can listen to about 6 hours of an audio book a day and at that rate, I've kinda burned through the books at my local library. I know Audible is out there but as i understand you get 1 book a month and i will finish that book in 2-3 days. That leaves a lot of bookless days in my month. I don't have the money to buy them and I don't like torrenting. Any suggestions?
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I've seen some books on "kick@ss" website for Torrent download, but I think torrent is illegal in some countries.But give it a try, it might work!
Watch out for scams and viruses though.
Audible has different plans. I buy my credits in advance, which is pricey, but ends up being about $10 per credit (24 yearly credits to be used whenever) instead of $15 per month for one monthly credit. Once you are a member they have a lot of sales and deals. They often have 3 books for 2 credits or sometimes 2 books for 1 credit deals or a bunch of books offered at $5 each. They also have daily deals, which is a book of their choosing offered at a discounted price for the day, typically $2-6. You can always buy 3 more credits for $36 too. My biggest problem with Audible is that I buy too much! The prices are lower for members, so if a book costs less than my credit did, I buy it outright and save my credits for pricier books. I can't think of anything better off the top of my head. It can get expensive though. I know there was a site where you could get audio books free for review, but I can't think of what was called right now. If I find it, I'll come back and post again.
Librivox https://librivox.org/ does audiobooks of public domain material. All classics and read by amateurs but some of them can be very good. They are also often really long, so they might last you a little longer.
Oh, that's right! Also you can get free audiobooks through SYNC in the summer - 1 YA and 1 classic each week. Link is here: http://www.audiobooksync.com
Kristie wrote: "Oh, that's right! Also you can get free audiobooks through SYNC in the summer - 1 YA and 1 classic each week. Link is here: http://www.audiobooksync.com"Thank you. That sounds very good. Ill check that out.
Dawn wrote: "Librivox https://librivox.org/ does audiobooks of public domain material. All classics and read by amateurs but some of them can be very good. They are also often really long, so they might last ..."
Ill have to check that out. amateur readings can be rough but beggars can be choosers right. ;)
Libravox is hit and miss but there are some real good ones I would suggest not limiting yourself to books. Find some podcasts to follow. There are thousands of them out there and I have noticed most audiobook listeners eventually pick up some pod casts. Most are free amd a good way to stretch book dollars by cutting back
Ryan, I do all of my audio reads through Overdrive connected through my library. They have improved the app and it's much better now.
Welcome, Ryan. I use librivox. It's great to listen to classics.
If you have an ereader, there are websites that offer books for free (mostly classics I think, but I forgot the name, something with Gutenberg in it?) or for free or just 99 cents (like Kindle deals, you can subscribe for daily emails at bookbub or bookgorilla), all legal. Through bookbub and bookgorilla I get offers for free ebooks everyday.There's also tuebl.ca for free ebooks, but opinions on whether this is legal or not vary.
Not free, but through bookfinder.com you can find very cheap copies of real books. I often got books for 1 cent and 3 euros for shipping, but I live in the Netherlands and the books come from the UK or the US, so maybe it would be even cheaper for people from one of those countries.
Through Netgalley you can request new titles in exchange for writing a review.
Or something like Oyster? You have to pay a subscription fee but then you can borrow as much as you like (I think... I once looked into it but it wasn't available outside the US. Don't know if that has changed).
I'm kind of assuming here that you're also looking for books to read, besides listen. I don't know anything about audio books, sorry!
Welcome Ryan! Check out your library as you guys in the States seem to have awesome audio book options through your libraries. We use Downpour instead of Audible, so have a look at that to see if it's cheaper.
Also agree with Travis. I listen to podcasts like Sword and Laser (sci fi and fantasy) when I'm between books to catch up on recs and book gossip.
So glad you've joined us, and look forward to what you end up finding and reading.
I'm a member of three county libraries which gives access to all three online audio book systems as well as being able to take out the ads from the local libraries. is it possible for you to join another one?
Urgh. Sorry. I completely misread what you said about the library, Ryan. Been a long day *pours another glass of wine*
If you Google "narrative podcasts," you'll find various lists of favorites. Some overlap but i'm thinking there's some real gold here.I don't/ haven't done much audiobook listening. But i realized when Travis mentioned podcats - good one- that i love narrative radio programs. Like This American Life. The Moth. Radiolab. TED Talks.
Now i see that there's a lot more out there i could listen to. The Serial sounds really good. As does The Memory Palace. Vintage Static. The Vinyl Cafe. The Thrilling Adventure Hour. Many more.
There's also scribd . I've heard good things about it, but haven't used it myself. You pay $9 per month and have unlimited access to what they offer (audio and ebooks). Anyway, there's a 14-day free trial so you may just check if you like it.
Oops, sorry, I missed the library comment as well.
I listen to most audio books through my library via Overdrive on my iPod. I find that a lot of popular titles are in use, so I get in line with the Hold option. I cannot imagine blowing through over 4 thousand titles available to me on Overdrive, nor all of the CDs available for books at my library that are not listed on Overdrive. If you have a CD player to listen with, your options are almost endless. Even if my library does not have a title I want to listen to, they will get it if I request it, even out of state. I do have an Audible account and buy books I cannot find elsewhere or ones I really want to listen to, but the majority of my listening comes from my library. I have explored the other free sources, but do not use them as much.
I have an Audible account, too. What I think is the most disappointing about it is that you cannot stop paying monthly fees for a while for fear that your whole library would disappear. That's unfair, I think. Otherwise, I'm very happy with the variety and quality of books offered there.
Teanka wrote: "I have an Audible account, too. What I think is the most disappointing about it is that you cannot stop paying monthly fees for a while for fear that your whole library would disappear. That's unfa..."Why would your library disappear? Those are books you've purchased. I have a bunch of audiobooks that I've bought when they are on sale that I haven't gotten to yet. I just assume they'll be there whenever I'm ready.
That was the impression I had when I wanted to quit a few years ago and I didn't, but I hope I was wrong. Maybe it's just the free credits that are gone? I just pressed 'cancel membership' and only got the warning about losing the credits I have accumulated.
Teanka wrote: "That was the impression I had when I wanted to quit a few years ago and I didn't, but I hope I was wrong. Maybe it's just the free credits that are gone? I just pressed 'cancel membership' and only..."Oh! I had no idea. I'd be so mad, if I lost all my titles or even the credits that I'd paid for. Not that I have any plans of canceling my membership right now.
Right now, I wouldn't want to cancel, either. But a while back I had a lot of unread audiobooks and thought I could just stop buying new ones for a while. I don't understand why it isn't possible to take a break. I never wanted to 'cancel' my membership.
I agree. You should be able to 'pause' your membership, but that isn't an option. Good to know.
As far as I know you keep your books if you cancel but you can lose credits if they get over a year old I think. I've never had credits to roll over but I know use em or lose em kicks in at some point.
Re Audible Credits: Use them or loose them does kick in, but I cannot remember the exact time frame. (They send out an email.) My daughter always calls me to ask if I want anything special, if it is my turn to pick a book if we are at risk of loosing a credit. We share the account. She is the one who signed up, but I am the one who pays for the account and the books now. :o) We usually compromise on what we both will listen to.
Good to know you keep your books. And yes, I am aware that you may lose your credits, also if you have too many at the same time (i.e. you can't roll over more than 6 with the "golden" 1 book per month membership).
If you cancel your membership on Audible, your account stays there with all your books intact. You will be able to log on to access your books.As for "use or lose", it depends on the type of membership you have as to how many you can roll over. Also, If you are on an annual plan, your carry over is based on the year. If you are on a monthly plan, your carry over is based on the month.
I'm on an annual plan and buy 24 credits at once. I can roll over 12 credits for as long as my membership is active. Once I have reached my roll over limit, and have new credits to be applied to my account, I will lose any credits over the limit. Right now, I have 10 credits. If I still have 10 credits at the end of this year, I won't lose any. But if, at the end of next year I have 15 credits left in my account, I will lose 3. I can only carry forward 12 credits.
Kristie wrote: "Audible has different plans. I buy my credits in advance, which is pricey, but ends up being about $10 per credit (24 yearly credits to be used whenever) instead of $15 per month for one monthly cr..."So you don't have to have a monthly membership to use audible? Any time I have ever looked into signing up I'm turned off because I listen to more than one audiobook per month and the monthly subscriptions seem sort of high for the larger plans. Maybe I need to look into it again.
The one I'm on - Platinum - gives me 24 credits all at once and it's an annual membership. There's another that gives you 12 credits all at once and is also annual. Those are the cheapest memberships per book. The Platinum works out to approximately $9.50/credit. You can't even buy a paperback for that price.
I'm on the same plan as Janice. I just switched this year because overall it costs less. It's one lump payment for the year. You can still use Audible without a membership, you just pay more for audiobooks and don't get the sales that are based on credits.
I get 24 at once too and used to renew 3-4 times a year except now aydible offers me 3 credits for like 28.50 when I am down to about 2-3 credits so I just buy 3 at a time rather than dumoing all the coin at once.
I also buy a lot at sales to bring my yearly cost to more like $6-$7 a book
My to-listen-to shelf has grown pretty high since I increased to the Platinum and I'm thinking I should go back to the gold. The only problem was, I did like Travis and kept renewing during the year or buying the 3 credit offers when I was on the gold plan. This year, I'm rationing my credits to 2/month. I've also been buying during the sales.
I kept buying the 3 credit offers too @ 3 for $36. I figured I'd try out the 2 per month and see if I could limit myself that way by rationing them out. I also buy a lot of the sale books, so, like Travis, my overall cost is less per book. I'm hoping to make it through the year with using only my 24 credits and buying the less expensive sale books.
So far, I've been doing well. I haven't used any of my credits and have only bought, I think, 2 sale books since changing my membership over. Of course, it's only been about 2 weeks and I have plenty on my wish list...lol
You might look into paperbackswap.com to get free audio books. It costs to join and you have to mail books to others to get books in return. But it's a relatively inexpensive way to get books on CD.
If you are willing to do CD's, BetterWorld Books sells those. They have almost 8000 titles for under $5, free shipping with no minimum. http://www.betterworldbooks.com/audio...
Thanks for that link, Bella. I didn't know about that site.
Lanelle wrote: "You might look into paperbackswap.com to get free audio books. It costs to join and you have to mail books to others to get books in return. But it's a relatively inexpensive way to get books on CD."I am an active user of paperbackswap. I actually just mailed out an audiobook this morning and requested another.
Another good place to get CD's is audiobookstand.com They have a lot of audiobooks for only $6 and some for $5 on occasion.
KimeyDiann wrote: "I am an active user of paperbackswap. I actually just mailed out an audiobook this morning and requested another."I joined paperbackswap six years ago. Yesterday I received Airs Above the Ground that I plan on reading for the Geocaching challenge. I think it will fit the Austria task.
We have something similar to paperbackswap here. It's called readitswapit which is used to be a member of. I had some excellent swaps on there. I only ever swapped papaerbacks - not sure whether they do audio on there or not.
Ryan wrote: "Hi all, I'm excited to be part of this site as I recently (2-3 years) now have really begun enjoying reading/listening to books. I have an issue though. At work i can listen to about 6 hours of an ..."Ryan, a suggestion i just learned about...
For $100 a year you can join the New York City public library and access their huge collection of audiobooks and ebooks.
The Philadelphia Library in Pennsylvania does the same thing for $50. I did it for about two years, mostly for the audio books on Overdrive. They had a good selection, but the ones I always wanted to read were on hold at the same time as at my library.
Are you able to access Hoopla with you public library card? Recently i'm finding more and more ebooks available instantly thru Hoopla. I'm having some difficulty with the app on my android tablet so that's interfering with my reading of ebooks via this site. Hoping i can get it debugged soon.
Sarah wrote: "We have something similar to paperbackswap here. It's called readitswapit which is used to be a member of. I had some excellent swaps on there. I only ever swapped papaerbacks - not sure whether th..."Interesting, Ill look into that. thank you.
