Anyone with audible?

[Gumnast2014]

Must say I do like audible.

I listen on the long commute to work and really grateful for it.

But I know have a stack of 8 to go and lots of credits to spend.

If you cancel do you loose all your books?

[minsmum]

You keep your books but you can't return them if you don't like them.I have just cancelled my subscription as I need to catch up. Also you lose your credits so you need to spend them first. They also offer you the chance to suspend your membership for three months and that means you don't buy any more credits but your membership continues

[Gumnast2014]

Brill might do the suspension till I catch up! Many thanks!

[Cherrypi]

Any recommendations? I've mostly been listening to BBC comedies but fancy a book for a change.

[Gumnast2014]

Ah loads I loved the goldfinch
Just finished the fault in our stars which was a great short one.

Gone girl. All amazing.

Got northern lights, secret history, return to love, shock of the fall, conversations with god all three and life after life waiting for me!!!

[GoingToBedfordshire]

Recently enjoyed Jenny Eclair's Life, Death and Vanilla Slices, Jojo Moyes The Girl You Left Behind and Tracey Chevalier's The Last Runaway. Alan Partridge's I, Partridge is hilarious.

[Gumnast2014]

Do you think it's worth the money? I have money guilt but do love it!

[timeforanappychange]

When do you listen? I don't commute so never seem to find time to listen to fiction.

Audible's customer service is amazing, I must say.

[Theas18]

Suspend it for a bit!

I love audible. Get all the shardlake books.

[FiveHoursSleep]

Has anyone got any great Audible recommendations? I like to listen to long books as I listen while I walk the dogs and do housework.
Recently I've enjoyed Americanah and The Bone Clocks. Am listening to The Rosie Effect atm and it's fun but I want something more epic!

[sunnybobs]

Have you tried overdrive? All connected to your library and I love it - you get each audio book for 14 days & it's all free! Probably not as big a choice as audible but still lots of choice and a great service.

[upandawayy]

Recommendations of books I've loved:
Catch 22
The cuckoos calling
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch

If you want something really long then Tale of Two Cities read by Martin Jarvis is really good.

[von1471]

Do you mean the Audible books via the Amazon website or are there other others. I have a Kindle but when I listened to an audible book a couple of years ago I didn't like the stilted monotone reading, has it changed since then?

[CalamitouslyWrong]

I buy audiobooks for the kids from audible. I find they vary depending on who is reading them. They're often really good, but sometimes less so. Maybe you chose a particularly duff one von1471.

[DuchessofMalfi]

I also enjoyed Americanah. Wonderful narration.

I've been working my way through Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series. Now on final one . Has been very good. Another great narrator, Steven Pacey.

My next book, next month, will probably be the new one by Colm Toibin, Nora Webster. Have also got Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 in my wishlist - very long book. Also lined up is Vanity Fair, Dracula, and Trollope's Barchester Chronicles.

[FiveHoursSleep]

Von, the kindle books are read in a very monotone voice. Audible, the Amazon service, is quite different.
Thanks for the recommendations Duchess and Upandaway.
Sunnybobs, I haven't tried overdrive- off to take a look. Thanks!

[damepeanutbutter]

If you cancel your audible membership you still get to keep and listen to all the books you have downloaded. I cancelled mine for several months so that I had time to listen to all the books I had bought and then I just paid up again when I needed more books. Beats going to the movies.

I am the world's biggest Audible fan. I have to say that I don't know what I would do without Audible. I cannot get to sleep at night now without listening to a book and setting the sleep alarm to 15 minutes. I listen whilst ironing, whilst preparing the supper, whilst going on long power walks. I love love love it.

Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything was fab and I want to Listen to that again. I also loved The Real Me Is Thin by Arabella Weir, anything by Bryce Courtney, The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill, The Unlikely Pilgramage of Harold Fry, Gone Girl and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, The One-Hundred Year Old Man, Moranthology by Caitlin Moran, The Humans (wow - what a book) and Apple Tree Yard (couldn't tear myself away from the headphones)

At the moment I am engrossed by Ken Follett's Century Trilogy. Fall of Giants (First World War setting) was all encompassing with hours and hours of listening for just 1 credit. Now am on the second book Winter of the World (Second World War) which is just as gripping and just as long. I cannot wait to go to bed tonight to hear the next 15 mins installment. And to think there is a third installment waiting for me! Yippee!

[FiveHoursSleep]

DuchessofMalfi Just a quick post to say I've now started the Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler books and LOVE them. I just wanted to thank you and recommend them to anyone else liking a good crime story.

[DuchessofMalfi]

You're welcome Five . They are a great listen.

I would also recommend Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, also narrated by Steven Pacey. Another opportunity for him to show a range of voices and brilliant narration.

I've got Alan Bennett's Talking Heads on my iPod at the moment. So far wonderful stuff.

[Mouldypineapple]

What do you all use to listen on? I'm tempted but don't have an iPod or similar.
Do you have to pay for each book on top of the £8/month?

[DuchessofMalfi]

I use an iPod Nano, but a Shuffle or any other mp3 player would do. Doesn't need to be expensive, but I use mine for music too.

The £7.99 a month buys you one credit which you use to get one book, regardless of its price, so you could use your credit for a book listed at £30 and you get it for £7.99. Good value. I tend to go for big ling books to get my money's worth.

Sometimes they have 2 for 1 deals as well

[DuchessofMalfi]

That should read long not ling, and no idea where those funny A things came from. Stupid autocorrect

[LadyWithLapdog]

I've tried the Overdrive but can't work it out. I seem to be going round in circles and nothing is available. I'm not the most technologically minded but I'm fairly competent.

£8 a month sounds a bit much for just one book. I get mine from the library, so it works out at £6-10 a month but at least it's several. Old books usually, nothing new.

[confusedandemployed]

Audible is my one big treat. Some of my faves:
Elly Griffith's books
Peter James's Roy Grace series
Deborah Harkness trilogy
Robert Galbraith books (I know it's really JKRowling but I didn't when I first started listening. Really like them)
My guilty pleasure is listening to Martina Cole books - they really suck you in!

[DuchessofMalfi]

I use Overdrive when borrowing audiobooks from the library, and only ever buy books I can't get from there.

It has worked out well so far and I have used the Whispersync with Audible to get reduced price audiobooks to go with the kindle book - works for the classics and I have had some free.

[Nessalina]

I love Audible!
The fact that you can return a book and get your credit refunded, no questions asked, is just brilliant. I've even done it halfway through a book before (Jonathan Strange & Mrs Norrell - dull dull dull!).
I wasn't sure what happened if you cancelled, so that's good to know - I've got three credits and three books waiting to read, so I'm ok for now!

Books I'd recommend:
The Stand - Steven King (epic, 50hrs plus, but so so good. Not 'horror' in my book, just bloody good writing)
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt (also good value for money as long, but I gobbled it up, fantastic)
The Hundred Year Old Man Who... Etc (great narration, very funny)
The Blackhouse Trilogy - Peter May (Blackhouse/Lewis Man/Chessmen - crime drama with a more personal touch, and lovely Scottish accents!)
The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult (different to her usual, three excellent narrators, dramatic holocaust survival story, just excellent)
The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans (cheesy but romantic - love this book)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (beautifully crafted epic book set in Japan, excellent)
Wolf Hall/Bringing Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantell (v.accurate Tudor historical fiction, very well narrated, quite a hard book to read IRL, but I lapped it up on audible)

Currently on One Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon which I'm enjoying a lot.
Got a bit carried away there! Thanks for book tips up thread, got some good ideas what to spend my credits on now!