Audible book listening service: a review
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Rebecca675
- Posts: 23
- Joined: 14 Sep 2016, 22:40
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- Latest Review: Audible Book of your Choice by Amazon
Review by Rebecca675 -- Audible Book of your Choice
[Following is a volunteer review of "Audible Book of your Choice" by Amazon.]
4 out of 4 stars
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I reviewed the Audible book listening service by Amazon. The service is very easy to sign up for, even offering a 30 day free trial to those who are unwilling to commit to a paid membership.
I was unsure how I would like the service since I am a die hard paper book reader and, although I have enjoyed audio books in the past and love my e reader, I don't think anything can compare to holding a book in your hand and flipping pages. Also, that smell?! Nothing better. But I was committed to trying it outso, I signed up for the free trial and downloaded the app.
The book I chose to listen to was an old favorite, I loved that with the thirty day free trial you also got two free books! Even if you go in with the intent of cancelling your subscription before the end of the trial, provided you enjoy listening to audio books, you can still enjoy a couple free books!
At first I was not a fan, I hadn't listened an audio book in a long time and, like riding a bike, I was rusty at first. I rebelled against a stranger's voice narrating one of my favorite stories and giving voice to characters I loved. I also struggled with what is probably a problem for many of us in this age of technology, just sitting and listening to my book with no phone (or book!) to occupy my hands. I was bored.
Then I realized how awesome it was! The farther in I got the more I liked it. It taught me to relax, instead of constantly scrolling on my phone I was able to just sit there. My pinkie didn't go numb from holding my book open for too long, I didn't get a cramp in my neck from sitting in one position for so long while staring down at the pages, and I didn't have to awkwardly juggle my baby in order to turn pages, I got to just sit! Hooray!
While I appreciated the lesson I received in setting down my phone and just enjoying my book, I found it really convenient that you could browse the web and, in general, use your phone while the story would play on in the background. A couple times the story would cut off if a video ad started playing on a screen I opened but that just meant I'd have to navigate back to the app and hit play again, no big deal. The audio paused itself in the case of an incoming call or text message and automatically started itself back up, that was really convenient. I liked that I could send and respond to text messages as I thought about them without interrupting my "reading". It made the experience more enjoyable since I wasn't worried about forgetting to do something once I was done listening for the day.
Consider yourself warned though, just because you can surf the web and “read” at the same time doesn't mean that you should. Several times I caught myself more engrossed in my Facebook feed than the story with no idea what was going on and had to rewind and recommit to just listening.
Speaking of rewindingthe, Audible app is very easy and intuitive in terms of controls. The main buttons include play/pause, fast forward thirty seconds, and rewind thirty seconds. If you explore around a bit you can change the pace the reading is delivered at and you can also make bookmarks and clip sound bites, however I didn't really use those functions and imagine they would be mostly for research purposes or studying. Still handy though.
When your phone's screen goes dark a quick access panel of buttons will pop up upon wiggling the phone that you can use without unlocking the screen. This is really handy if you want to stop the reading quickly if you are interrupted or someone starts talking to you. Your phone's volume buttons also control the volume so you don't need to open the app to change that, which is really slick.
My favorite part of this app was the fact that I could multitask while “reading”. How often can you make dinner while reading a book? Take a walk? Weed your garden? That is an awesome perk! My least favorite part was no fault of the listening service, but I am an extremely fast reader and, given endless amounts of free time, I could have read a paper version of the book much faster than listening to it. However, the convenience of being able to listen to it and do other things probably almost negated any time difference and I think I actually finished listening to the book faster than reading it when you factor in my lack of free time to just read.
I definitely give Audible a 4 out of 4 stars! I thoroughly enjoyed my trial and at such a time in my personal life that budgeting isn't such a big concern I would definitely subscribe full time.
******
Audible Book of your Choice
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Rebecca675's review? Post a comment saying so!
4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
I reviewed the Audible book listening service by Amazon. The service is very easy to sign up for, even offering a 30 day free trial to those who are unwilling to commit to a paid membership.
I was unsure how I would like the service since I am a die hard paper book reader and, although I have enjoyed audio books in the past and love my e reader, I don't think anything can compare to holding a book in your hand and flipping pages. Also, that smell?! Nothing better. But I was committed to trying it outso, I signed up for the free trial and downloaded the app.
The book I chose to listen to was an old favorite, I loved that with the thirty day free trial you also got two free books! Even if you go in with the intent of cancelling your subscription before the end of the trial, provided you enjoy listening to audio books, you can still enjoy a couple free books!
At first I was not a fan, I hadn't listened an audio book in a long time and, like riding a bike, I was rusty at first. I rebelled against a stranger's voice narrating one of my favorite stories and giving voice to characters I loved. I also struggled with what is probably a problem for many of us in this age of technology, just sitting and listening to my book with no phone (or book!) to occupy my hands. I was bored.
Then I realized how awesome it was! The farther in I got the more I liked it. It taught me to relax, instead of constantly scrolling on my phone I was able to just sit there. My pinkie didn't go numb from holding my book open for too long, I didn't get a cramp in my neck from sitting in one position for so long while staring down at the pages, and I didn't have to awkwardly juggle my baby in order to turn pages, I got to just sit! Hooray!
While I appreciated the lesson I received in setting down my phone and just enjoying my book, I found it really convenient that you could browse the web and, in general, use your phone while the story would play on in the background. A couple times the story would cut off if a video ad started playing on a screen I opened but that just meant I'd have to navigate back to the app and hit play again, no big deal. The audio paused itself in the case of an incoming call or text message and automatically started itself back up, that was really convenient. I liked that I could send and respond to text messages as I thought about them without interrupting my "reading". It made the experience more enjoyable since I wasn't worried about forgetting to do something once I was done listening for the day.
Consider yourself warned though, just because you can surf the web and “read” at the same time doesn't mean that you should. Several times I caught myself more engrossed in my Facebook feed than the story with no idea what was going on and had to rewind and recommit to just listening.
Speaking of rewindingthe, Audible app is very easy and intuitive in terms of controls. The main buttons include play/pause, fast forward thirty seconds, and rewind thirty seconds. If you explore around a bit you can change the pace the reading is delivered at and you can also make bookmarks and clip sound bites, however I didn't really use those functions and imagine they would be mostly for research purposes or studying. Still handy though.
When your phone's screen goes dark a quick access panel of buttons will pop up upon wiggling the phone that you can use without unlocking the screen. This is really handy if you want to stop the reading quickly if you are interrupted or someone starts talking to you. Your phone's volume buttons also control the volume so you don't need to open the app to change that, which is really slick.
My favorite part of this app was the fact that I could multitask while “reading”. How often can you make dinner while reading a book? Take a walk? Weed your garden? That is an awesome perk! My least favorite part was no fault of the listening service, but I am an extremely fast reader and, given endless amounts of free time, I could have read a paper version of the book much faster than listening to it. However, the convenience of being able to listen to it and do other things probably almost negated any time difference and I think I actually finished listening to the book faster than reading it when you factor in my lack of free time to just read.
I definitely give Audible a 4 out of 4 stars! I thoroughly enjoyed my trial and at such a time in my personal life that budgeting isn't such a big concern I would definitely subscribe full time.
******
Audible Book of your Choice
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Rebecca675's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: Audible Book of your Choice by Amazon
