What is the first place you think of going to for books?
Libro.fm and My Obsession with Audiobooks
The library?
OK, so that’s the obvious answer… But after that, where do you go?
I tend to fall asleep pretty quick when I crack a book open, so the way I get around that is I LISTEN to most of the books I consume these days.
AUDIOBOOKS FTW, Y’ALL!
I listen in bits and pieces in the car, for a few minutes before bed, when I go on a walk or run… when I work in the garden, or getting ready in the morning, or when I’m making dinner…
For a couple of years I got my audiobooks through Amazon’s Audible. It was fine and good and very handy, but then I learned about an equally fine and good and very handy option that ALSO benefits local bookstores. The service is the same as my monthly subscription at Audible but this little golden treasure is Libro.fm!
Libro.fm is just like Audible – with an extensive selection, at the same price-point… for credits and for audiobooks. A monthly subscriptions gets one credit-per-month (which is the *cost* of one book)…beyond the credit you earn for your subscription fee, audiobooks purchased at Libro.fm are priced the same as Audible. And their selection is very competitive. You can read more about their offering on their membership page here.
What’s the big difference?
Supporting local. Supporting independent booksellers is the difference!
Libro.fm is the first audiobook company to directly support independent booksellers.
Aaaaaaand… when you sign-up you get your first month free – click here!
When you purchase a subscription to Libro.fm you also get to choose a bookseller to support through your purchases, and you can change that selection at any time!
I have chosen my local independent Liberty Bay Books.
Booksellers can *personalize* their site on Libro.fm and make bookstore-specific recommendations. You can see Liberty Bay Bookstore’s categories below, as well as examples of a few others I found (Papercuts JP in Boston and Spellbound Bookshop in Asheville, North Carolina – it’s fun to see what other booksellers across the country are highlighting)!
Here’s how important audiobooks are to me… of the 18 books I have read and listened to this year, 16 of them have been audiobooks.
SIXTEEN out of EIGHTEEN, y’all.
Most of the year my audiobooks were through my previous audiobook membership, but once I learned of Libro.fm, I used up my other credits and made the switch. The shift was seamless. The big difference is, now… the money I was already spending using the other service is money that now benefits my own local bookstore.
Libro.fm audiobooks I have under my listening belt so far are:
- The Alchemist (LOVED THIS ONE… I don’t do books, again, but I this one I definitely will)
- The Paris Secret
- Tangerine
- The Woman in the Window
- now listening to: China Rich Girlfriend
Other audiobooks I’ve listened to this year:
- All the Light We Cannot See
- The Martian Chronicles (this was a strange selection… not sure how I ended up choosing that one, but I listened to it all!)
- Artemis
- Ready Player One
- The Secret Garden
- Girl Wash Your Face
- Frightful’s Mountain
- Between Shades of Gray (a WWII era novel, not anything remotely like the other Shades of Gray books, none of which I have read)
- The Four (FASCINATING READ, BTW)
- The 5 Second Rule
- Children of Exile
- Touching the Void (OMGOSH the human will to survive is AMAZE)
Let’s make that recommendation list easy… here’s my playlist over there on Libro.fm!
(You can check-out my Summer Reading List from a couple of years ago here, when I was with the other audiobook service. You could add these to your Libro.fm Wishlist! The Elephant Whisperer is still one of my all-time favorites…)
I am all over the map when it comes to book choices… I love historical fiction & non-fiction, I love sci-fi, I really enjoy mystery, WWII era novels are particularly interesting to me, but I have to be careful… That era is such a tragic season of history, but so important to learn about and remember.
One genre I don’t like at all? Romance. BARF. Sorry friends. I just don’t. Never have. A little romance woven within, fine, but only as a thread of the theme. Not the basis of an entire book. YAWN. It’s me, not you.
I do like self-help-ish books, but find I prefer to read those with book and highlighter-in-hand.
So… What have you been reading lately. Are you a book listener or reader? Have you tried Libro.fm?
*I have not been compensated by Libro.fm. I was contacted by a Libro.fm associate who shared the benefits of the subscription with me, and offered a handful of Libro.fm credits which helped motivate me to make the jump and investigate Libro.fm on my own. All opinion and testimony of my experience is my own. Some links found in this post are referral/affiliate (which means if you subscribe using my link, I will receive a book credit… which you KNOW will be put to good use).
