I reviewed Audible on my daily commute — you can try it for FREE with a 30-day trial

Full disclosure: I’m not an audiobook person.

I’ve always viewed them as a bit of a cheat; books are meant to be read, not listened to.

But reading on my daily commute has become a new challenge since I moved house and traded in a smooth, easy train ride for an often-chaotic bus journey.

So, I had a simple question: could Audible make my commute a little less naseous and perhaps change my mind about audiobooks?

Given that the service offers a 30-day free trial, it was the perfect time to find out.

I’ve done an Audible review to see if it can change my mind.

I’ve been testing Audible for a few weeks to see if it can change my mind on Audiobooks[/caption]

Get 30 days of Audible Premium Plus FREE

Pros:

• Free credit every month means it’s probably cheaper than reading actual books
• Premium Plus Catalogue contains a huge list of free-to-access books
• Streamlined, unfussy app is easy to use
• Impressive collection of exclusive content
• Attractive introductory offer for new customers

Cons:

• No biggies from me — it’d be nice to have a more widely available TV app
• Some customers have complained about the customer service

Rating: 9.5/10

How I tested Audible

I’m a keen reader — I have been since I was a child, before doing an English Literature degree at uni. As an adult, I’m a card-carrying book-clubber and read every day.

For this review, I downed my usual paperback and tried Audible for a few weeks to see if it offers a good, reasonably priced and easy-to-use service for book lovers.

Audible review: The Nitty Gritty

First impressions

The Audible Plus Catalogue gives subscribers free access to thousands of titles, many of which are exclusive to the service[/caption]

Get 30 days of Audible Premium Plus FREE

Getting set up with Audible is incredibly easy, especially if you’ve already got an Amazon account.

Simply log in with your Amazon credentials, then activate your subscription.

Audible generally runs attractive deals for new customers — usually, prospective members can get their first 30 days free, and there are often even better offers for Prime members during events like Prime Day and Black Friday.

Last Prime Day, Prime members who weren’t already Audible subscribers could get a massive 3 months free.

You don’t have to go down the subscription route — you can just purchase individual audiobooks — but the subscription bags you a free audiobook every month, while purchasing an individual audiobook can run you up to £20 or even more.

So if you’re going to be listening to a book every month or two, it’s certainly the cheaper method.

The subscription also grants you access to the Premium Plus catalogue, a library of thousands of audiobooks and podcasts, many of which are exclusive to Audible.

Does it deliver?

The app is super easy to navigate and there’s a dizzying amount of content available[/caption]

Prime Members get 3 months of Audible FREE for Prime Day

In short, yes.

Audible celebrates its 30th birthday this year, and it shows: there’s a dizzying amount of content to be discovered.

The official number of titles is 800,000, but in short, you’ll find any book you might fancy.

There’s a regularly-updated list of bestsellers, which tends to comprise a mixture of self-improvement books, celebrity authors (Richard Osmen, Bob Mortimer and David Mitchell are stalwarts) and, somehow, still, the Harry Potter series. (I’m no hater, but The Philosopher’s Stone came out nearly 30 years ago).

Of course, there’s also centuries’ worth of classics to be discovered, given new life by narration from A-List actors: The Great Gatsby by Jake Gyllenhaal; Alice in Wonderland by Scarlett Johansson; The Wizard of Oz by Anne Hathaway.

However, where Audible really comes into its own is its extensive library of exclusive content, which you won’t find at any other provider.

One of my first downloads, for instance, was an Audible-exclusive rendition of George Orwell’s 1984 (one of my literary blind spots), narrated by a frankly astounding cast of actors: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott and Tom Hardy are the first four names on the list. There are six Oscar nominations between those four names!

Left: The cast list for Audible’s version of Orwell’s 1984, which includes several Oscar-nominated actors Right: The Stephen Fry-narrated Sherlock Holmes collection, which clocks in at almost 72 hours and is free for Audible subscribers[/caption]

There’s also a version of Pride and Prejudice coming out with a cast led by Harris Dickinson, Glenn Close and Bill Nighy, while bookworms will love Audible’s exclusive version of the Sherlock Holmes collection narrated by Steven Fry.

And it goes without saying that, after three decades and with a parent company as big as Amazon, Audible has got the app sorted — it’s unfussy and simple, and even the least tech-savvy people should have no issues getting to grips with it.

People who love listening to an audiobook on the road will also love the driving mode, which further simplifies the display to make the app easier and safer to use on the go.

I liked the fact that there’s a driving mode, which makes the app easier and safer to use while on the go[/caption]

Prime Members get 3 months of Audible FREE for Prime Day

My only small complaint is that there’s no Audible TV app unless you have an Amazon TV or Fire Stick, which would have been handy for when I’m cooking or tidying the living room.

How much is Audible?

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few routes you can go down.

Unless you’re only planning on getting through a book or two a year, the best course of action is the Premium Plus Subscription, which costs £8.99 per month after the 30-day free trial.

Each month, you get a credit to use to buy an audiobook of your choice, meaning that, if you’re getting through roughly a book per month, the £8.99 monthly cost is all you’ll need to spend.

That’s pretty much the same as buying a paperback every month.

If you’re a real bookworm, then you can pay a smidgen extra — £14.99 — to get two credits per month, or you can make use of Audible’s Premium Plus library, which contains loads of books that you can listen to completely free of charge.

Audible alternatives

Audible has been in the game so long that it has something of a monopoly over the audiobook industry.

There are a couple, though, including Libro, Xigxag and audiobooks.co.uk, although I haven’t tried these services.

Presumably, in an attempt to get a leg up on Audible, a couple of them run more attractive sign-up offers.

If you have a subscription to Spotify or Apple Music, you can get some audiobooks through those, which can be helpful if you don’t want to double up on subscriptions.