Today I wanted to talk about why, even though I listen to lots of audiobooks, I don’t use Audible.
Money
The biggest and most obvious reason is that Audible costs money to subscribe to. That subscription is separate to what people already pay for Amazon Prime (which I do have) and Kindle Unlimited (which I do not have, for the same reason I do not have Audible).
On top of my several TV streaming service subscriptions, that’s a lot of subscriptions slowly eating away at my hard earned money every month!
Choice
Believe it or not, but the biggest reason I don’t use Audible actually comes down to choice.
There is simply too many options on Audible.
There has been research done about how too much choice is often overwhelming for people. Faced with 20 different choices of jam, for example, it’s hard to narrow down which one would be the best for my investment. What if I pick the wrong one?
But if you narrow down your choices, it’s not so overwhelming and you can pick which jam you want with more peace of mind.
Reading is an investment for me, because not only do I have a full time job and am studying on top of that, I also have several other time consuming hobbies beyond reading.
On average, people only read around 2500 books in their lifetime.
(That’s 50 books a year for 50 years. I KNOW SOME OF YOU READ MORE THAN THAT SHUT UP.)
In Audible’s extensive library, I can’t pick which book to listen to. The options are overwhelming.
So to makes things easier for myself, I simply don’t use Audible.
Instead, I use my library
I borrow my audiobooks for free.
My library has a much smaller collection of audiobooks than what is available on Audible, but it’s really decent, especially for YA.
This limited choice helps me to narrow down what I want on my wishlist (which is about 150 books long), but of course I can’t borrow a book if someone else is borrowing it. If I want something right away, I find books no one else has checked out.
Of course, if there is something I really do want to listen to, but someone else has it checked out, I can put a hold on it and it will be mine in 3 weeks or under.
To be totally fair, I live in a small state with an older population, and an excellent library system that only a small population of the public utilise to the best of its ability.
Limiting my choices to books in the library system not only saves me money on subscriptions, but it saves me from the stress of making a choice with too many options.
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About Nemo
A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.
