Audiobooks are just such an amazing tool. Whether I am reading for school or for pleasure, I love using audiobooks. Now, as a disclaimer: audiobooks are not for everyone. I’m an auditory learner, but that doesn’t mean everyone is. But for those of you who like audiobooks, some of my favorite audiobooks/uses for audiobooks:

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I know this isn’t a currently reading post, so I won’t go on and on about how absolutely AMAZING this book is (but seriously, read it… or listen to it, I guess), but all I’ll say is that this book lends itself perfectly to audio. Owens is very descriptive, especially in very intense moments, which makes the audiobook very striking. I spent this summer working on resources for people with low vision in an art museum, and I see definite similarities between the kind of verbal descriptions of the artworks they do and Owens’ writing. You get lost in her words and the voice of the narrator. The words being whispered into your ear construct an entire world in your mind’s eye. With the audio experience, you can clearly see every play-by-play and scene as if it were happening in front of you. There were times listening to this on the bus when my pulse quickened for reasons that had nothing to do with my surroundings and everything to do with my AirPods.

Audiobooks are also a fantastic tool for school books. Older and classic books can often be found free online if you just google “[title] free audiobook.” You can also go to https://librivox.org/ for audiobooks that are in the public domain. I listened to school books such as George Elliot’s Silas Marner and Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse on this website (in short, if you are in English 2121, this website is about to become your best friend). Taking Shakespeare I this semester, I imagine I’ll be using this website quite a bit this semester.

Now, I know the exorbitant price of audiobooks. I don’t pay $15 a month for Audible or buy them from Spotify for $20.99. The answer is the public library. 

As a slight aside, if you don’t have a library card, get one- even if you don’t like audiobooks. It takes two minutes to get a card at any branch and it’s free. There is literally no downside, and even if you only use it once, it’s worth it. The Brooklyn Public Library, and other libraries if you don’t live in Brooklyn, have audiobooks online. There’s a waitlist, unfortunately, because otherwise they couldn’t have books that are still under copyright, but it is still such a great resource. Once you check out an audiobook, you can listen to it with the mobile app Libby, which links with almost any library account. You have three weeks to listen to it and you can renew it if you want. It is free and so easy. They don’t have every book, but they have most books. That is how I listened to Where the Crawdads Sing, among other books. It is the best way to access high-quality audiobooks.

So if audiobooks interest you, whether for school or for pleasure, check out the free links above! (And seriously, read/listen to Where the Crawdads Sing… you’ll thank me later).