A Beginner's Guide to Audiobooks

Until January this year, I didn't even consider audiobooks as a possibility in my life. However, what began as a curiosity has now turned into an essential part of my "reading", thanks in part to the lockdown. 

Audiobooks can be a boon if you get attuned to them. So here's a humble beginner's guide from this audiobook beginner. This is based only on my personal observations. So please feel free to rectify any errors, or to provide an additional information if you can on audiobooks, especially on the paid apps and the library apps because I have no personal experience with these.

What are Audiobooks?

Audiobooks tend to be regular audio files that you can play on any multimedia player, tablet or smartphone. Just make sure you have a good pair of headphones that are comfortable to wear for extended periods and you're good to go! A Bluetooth speaker or Alexa are good substitutes for headphones if your family doesn't mind. 😛

Audiobook files are usually mp3 or m4b files. mp3 files can be played in any regular media player while m4b files need an audiobook reader app such as Smart Audiobooks. This is only if you are downloading audiobooks (legally!) and not for purchased audiobooks, which open in their own app.

Not all audiobooks involve mere narration. Some audiobooks are proper full-cast narrations,. with many narrators and dramatized sound effects. I have slightly mixed feelings about these. While I enjoy the 'show', it feels more like I am listening to a play than reading a book.

Do you need to pay for Audiobooks? 

Not necessarily. There are enough legal resources available for you to try audiobooks without shelling out any money. However, the best audio productions and the latest titles would only be available through paid resources such as Audible, Scribd (Update: this is now called 'Everand') or StoryTel.

Audiobook Pros:

Audiobooks are a huge timesaver if you can train your mind to listen to books while doing relatively mundane chores such as cleaning, morning walks, cooking, commuting, etc. You can also use them when you simply want to rest your eyes. Slowly, you realise that you are zooming through your TBR without even taking out a separate & dedicated time for reading.

People say that audio books take longer to complete. But audiobooks are usually heard along with other chores. So faster or slower than reading doesn't matter when reading is not an option at that time. Whatever little you hear is still better than not reading at all.

If you listen to audiobooks at a faster speed (more on this below), you can knock down the time taken to complete an audio book.

Author-read narrations can be a mixed experience, but some authors greatly add to the charm of audiobooks. Neil Gaiman (Update: Not recommending him anymore!), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Khaled Hosseini, Michelle Obama, Trevor Noah... are fabulous at narrating their books. Even certain actors - Tom Hanks, Eddie Redmayne, Stephen Fry - are great book narrators. 

Audiobook Cons:

Audiobooks are an acquired taste. They work better for some genres over others. Getting used to audiobooks can take time, especially if you’re not accustomed to auditory learning.

Distractions are easily possible. If your mind tends to wander, suddenly the story can get past you before you realize what happened. Unlike in physical books or eBooks, you can't quickly or easily flip back to the last point of reading.

Audiobooks are heavily dependent not on the book content but on the narrator. If you get a fabulous book but being read by a narrator you don't connect with, the entire book experience goes for a toss.

Not all genres work well in the audio form, at least for me. Only personal experience can tell you which books you'll enjoy in the audio format.

Not every title is available as an audiobook for wide-ranging reasons. You need to be fortunate to find your desired books narrated by narrators with a comprehensible accent.

Checking for meanings or highlighting nice quotes is simply not possible in the audio version.

Audiobook reading is also reading, no two ways about this. But It is not the same as reading a book. No two ways about this as well.

Legal Audiobook Resources:

Audible - Paid app. 1st month trial is free, but they do have special promos that might offer longer or cheaper trial periods. An Audible subscription gives you 1 credit per month, which you can use to buy any book from their catalogue. You can't transfer credits to others. A sub-site, http://stories.audible.com (not an app but a website), is temporarily free until the lockdown is in effect in various parts of the world. It has a very good collection for children and a decent one for adults.

StoryTel (NO PERSONAL EXPERIENCE) - Paid app. StoryTel is cheaper than Audible & better because it gives access to unlimited books through their subscription plans. It offers a 14 day free trial too. StoryTell has a fabulous collection of titles in Indian languages, making it a better option for us here. Many of my friends vouch for it, and someday, when I don't have so many ARC obligations, I will ktake a StoryTel subscription.

Everand (Earlier name: Scribd): Paid app, but it is possible to get a free trial subscription for 1-2 months through member invites. Scribd has been mentioned in a lot of booktubers’ videos as a more affordable alternative that allows you to listen to more than one audiobook a month, but with a smaller selection. Most of the Scribd audio books I tried were very good in narration quality. One big disadvantage of this app is that if you listen to 4-5 titles within the first fortnight of the month, it restricts your access to the more popular titles until the next month. So for the remaining fifteen days, you are forced to choose from the limited titles they offer you, most of which will be unheard-of books. It's like it punishes you for being an avid listener. 

Spotify Premium - Has a decent selection, but offers only fifteen hours of audiobook access each month. This doesn't carry forward. If you run out of time, you need to buy extra hours or wait till the next month. Your usable hours are based on the time duration written on the audiobook and not the time you take to listen to the book. For instance, if you hear a 12-hour audiobook at 2x speed and complete it in 6 hours, Spotify still counts it as 12 hours. I am hence not a fan of this choice. But if you want to listen to music as well, then the subscription offers better value. 

Google Play Books (Android) (NO PERSONAL EXPERIENCE) - Free App with free and paid books. If you use an Android device, chances are that Google Play Books is already preloaded. The app gives you access to a large selection of books ­both free and paid. Once you open a book, you'll be able to see the option to 'read aloud' when you zoom out to the page selection screen.

iBooks (iOS) (NO PERSONAL EXPERIENCE) - The Apple exclusive iBooks has recently acquired support for audiobooks. You can easily browse and download through the app. However, they have to be either author created audiobooks or have the 'Made for iBooks' tag. The bookstore also has a dedicated section on audiobooks now -to easily search for and download audiobooks.

Librivox - Free android app. LibriVox has an extensive collection of audiobooks that are narrated by thousands of volunteers. Along with books in 30+ languages, LibriVox also has a selection of Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Sanskrit audiobooks. One of the drawbacks of LibriVox is that since it only contains audiobook versions of books in the public domain, you won’t find audiobooks of new releases. Further, since the audiobooks are recorded by volunteers, you might find that one chapter of the book has been read in a British accent and another in a German one.

OpenCulture - Free audiobooks website. Open Culture lists (and links directly to) a collection of over 1000 audio books that you can download immediately. Open Culture has done all the hard work by wading through several websites, such as YouTube, Spotify, and Librivox, to compile a list of free audiobooks. It’s a little difficult to navigate because there are no filters. However, if you are willing to spend some time going through the list, you’ll find some interesting content like audiobook versions of poetry by Maya Angelou and Charles Bukowski, a YouTube video of Neil Gaiman reading Coraline, and one of Tolkien reading chapters from The Lord Of The Rings. 

Digitalbook - Free audiobooks website. Digitalbook has over 1,00,000 free e-books and audiobooks. It has a rather clean interface and allows you to brows audiobooks by genre. You can choose to download the audiobook in its entirety or by chapter. Alternatively, you could also listen to it as a podcast on iTunes. The distinct feature of this website is that it lets you adjust the speed of narration according to your preference.

Internet Archive - Free audiobooks & eBooks website. Internet Archive is a non-profit library containing public domain books, digitised material, and archived websites. With over 18,000 audiobooks in its collection, this website gives very specific filters, such as language, topics, creator, etc., to help you browse more efficiently. Here you will find classic collections too. 

Lit2Go - Free audiobooks website. Lit2Go is an online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Lit2Go sorts books according to the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level index, a readability test which categorises books according to ease of reading.

LoyalBooks - Free audiobooks website. Classic literature lovers should head to  where you can start downloading instantly without creating an account. Books are organised by genre and you can choose from a variety of categories like Historical Fiction, Fairy Tales, and Philosophy. Books are available in several languages, such as French, Italian, and Japanese. LoyalBooks has over 7,000+ free audiobooks.

Oodles - Free android app that contains loads of free legal audiobooks, including books from Librovox. The app is very wellcoded and the book variety is great.

Free Books - Another free android app . Decent quality. If you're lucky, you can find fabulous narrations. I prefer Oodles.

Overdrive (NO PERSONAL EXPERIENCE) - Libraries often offer audiobooks as part of their membership—overdrive is a handy app that connects you to your local library and its vast collection of audiobooks. So you can check with your local library if they have a tie-in with Overdrive. Unfortunately for me, India has no public libraries, so I cannot use such apps.

Smart AudioBook - Free android book reader app. Smart AudioBook doesn't store books but reads aloud audiobooks saved on your device. So it is a reader app for m4b and mp3 files. It allows you to change the reading tempo and the pitch just like the professional apps do.

Text -To-Speech (TTS) - Strictly speaking, this isn't an app. But the Kindle app comes with an 'Assistive Reader', option which you can use to make it read a book aloud to you. The TTS voice is quite robotic, and is definitely no replacement for a human narrator. But it is one way by which you can turn your Kindle books into an audio experience and blaze through that TBR faster. 

PocketBook - Free Android app. This is a very special app in this list because it is not at all connected to audiobooks directly. BUT.... if you have an epub file on your phone, PocketBook can read that file aloud to you. it also allows you to choose the reading tempo, pitch and accent (based on the TTS voices you have in your phone). Yes, the reading is slightly robotic, but if you want a file to be read and you can't find an audio version of it, PocketBook can be your saviour.

Tips:

Begin with genres you are comfortable with and only then experiment with newer arenas of reading.

Remember, narrators & accents matter the most. If you don't click with the narrator within the first few minutes, don't listen to that audiobook because you'll end up spoiling the book experience.

Use the tempo change option to your advantage. The speed at which you read an audiobook is the function of the app you are using and not a function of the audiobook. Try 1.25 speed for a quicker reading experience. Some apps jar at higher tempos, but the professional apps such as Audible do a great job.

Search for dramatised audiobooks if possible as these work better for beginners. In most audio books, one person reads for all the characters. if this is badly narrated, the effect is quite plain. And quite boring. But dramatised versions can work wonderfully in adding to the effect.

Make sure you check the audiobook information to ensure that you have the complete book. A proper unabridged audiobook will have the complete novelisation. But there are many abridged audiobooks as well, and the covers don't always indicate this fact. Checking the time duration and correlating it with the number of pages in the physical book might help., A typical 350-400 page book will be about 10-12 hours on audio.

Immediately switch to the physical book or eBook if the audio version isn't working out for you. This can help salvage the book.

Most importantly... Don’t get discouraged! It can take a few audiobooks until you find your groove, or a narrator that works for you! And if you just don’t like listening to audiobooks, that’s completely okay, too! Some people best retain information when they’re physically reading a book while others are auditory learners. Everyone is different. As long as you’re having fun, it’s all good!