I tried Audible on a whim last month when I decided I wanted to listen to my book club’s pick on audiobook. I’d redeemed a free book from Audible before, and couldn’t do that again, so I tried to give the free trial a whirl. And reader, I’m never going back to my pre-Audible days. Find out why I love it so much below.

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If you didn’t know, I’m a librarian, so I have a plethora of resources at my fingertips, including free audiobooks. Most of these I like to use on my phone or Alexa, so I prefer downloadable content to CDs. There are so many great apps you can download depending on your individual library to score free audiobooks from, and I’m still a fan of these apps and using my library! Before spending money, I always recommend the library. I wouldn’t be a librarian if I didn’t.

However, I’ve been listening to audiobooks a ton in recent months, and the ones I wanted (like book club picks) aren’t always available immediately through library rental. So I gave Audible a try. With Audible, you get one audiobook a month as well as two Amazon original audiobooks. During my first month, I was given the promotion of an additional audiobook. I listened to Lessons from Lucy for book club as my first book, and High Achiever, a book that had been on my TBR, as my freebie. Then I dived into the Audible originals.

Every month, you have access to six original titles, only available through Audible, and can choose two of them. During January, my trial month, I chose The Minuteman and The Power of Self-Compassion. Confession: I DNF’ed the second. And here’s where the only thing I don’t like about Audible comes in…

If you don’t like an original, you can’t trade it in. That being said, if you’re listening to your non-original choice of the month, you’re able to trade it in at any time. Even if you’re quite a few hours into your listen, the option to say, “Meh, I want something else this month” is still there.

One more great option for Audible is that you can buy more credits if you want to listen to more audiobooks that month. When you do so, you’ll still save money versus buying the audiobook without the monthly Audible subscription. Audible costs less than $15 a month, while most audiobooks tend to however around the $17+ range. And you have early access to the originals, which are available for all listeners the following month for $5-7. So if you listen to audiobooks religiously like I do, this subscription is more than worth it.

Overall, I think Audible is a great service. There are free options like the library, but those audiobooks are not always available on demand. For me, this is the way to listen to audiobooks, and I’ll never go back. In February, I’m listening to my originals (at least the first of which has already enraptured me), and Wild by Cheryl Strayed, our book club pick.

Check out all Audible books and originals here!

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