I have got sucked into audiobooks and I have managed to "read" quite a few in the last 2-3 months. I get to "read" the 2 times 40 odd min whole I'm out walkies a day. I have also found that I can listen while doing other chores and still be engaged. Though the more light hearted they are the easier it is to do other things, other more serious books, like the ones about racism, I really had to just sit an listen.
I dipped into the audiobooks on Google Books, this is where I read most of my books anyway. I started with the random 99p or free offers but I had to bail out on a few as the voice of the reader just did my head in. I had to order the .epub or put on the want to read pile.
I was thinking about using Audible and tried one of these free month offers, but again I tried the preview and heard the voice of the reader and I just knew I couldn't handle their voices for 5-10 hours. I'm not paying a monthly subscription and then paying per book on top to be annoyed.
I might just be me, I don't read a book and make a voice per character. So having a reader making voices up to fit the new person in the book is just so cringe. There is a few books where they have a different reader for the main characters, this is much better, than a man trying to be a woman or a US reader trying to sound like they are from Cornwall etc etc.
I signed up to the local library and their online service and at least there I can hand back if the voice annoys me without the nagging knowledge of a monthly sub. And I really like their app too and that kinda nostalgic feeling that you had to read the book in time or you will be fined. Along with the placing the book on hold and the having to wait for others to finish. This is also silly that they have limits on how many readers on a digital book.
So this is what I have managed to read of late, nearly in order.
The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Afropean: Notes from Black Europe by Johny Pitts
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
And then I needed a rest after all these "thinking" books
Alive by Sharon J. Bolton
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Snuff by Terry Pratchett
The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson
I Found You by Lisa Jewell
Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
I liked how the The Bad Beginning had just the right amount of foley to make the book nice and silly. I have never really been into mysteries and thrillers ala Agatha Christie, but the two by Peter Sawnson and the one by Lisa Jewell I just binged, managed to "read" all in just over a week. Might be because I needed the rest from the books above.
Sadly this have cut into my podcast time.