Audiobooks: One Year In Review

For the past year I have been lucky enough to have a BookBeat subscription and within that time I listened to around 32 audiobooks so I think I can give you a well rounded opinion on not only the BookBeat audiobook service, the app and my experience of listening to audiobooks but also my picks for some of my favourite audiobooks as well. If you want to keep up to date with my reading and ratings, let's become friends on GoodReads.

BookBeat 

Let's start with the service on the whole which I'll be honest and say that I adored! When I was contacted about trialing the BookBeat services/app, I was very excited but a little apprehensive as I hadn't tried audiobooks at all before then but the app (including the layout, the style of the service etc) was fantastic.

One of the main things I love about BookBeat, as well as the easy to navigate app and range of audiobooks, is that you don't have credits or a fee per audiobook - you pay a monthly fee of £12.90 and for that price you can listen to as many audiobooks as you want which is amazing and much more freeing and flexible compared to the other audiobook services out there.

Additionally, the app is free and it's so easy to use and browse! There is a great range of audiobooks from children's books and YA to non-fiction, fantasy, classics and every other genre in between. I love how easy the listening experience is, how you can switch between audiobooks and you can rate each audiobook when you've finished - it also keeps a log of the audiobooks you've finished.

Experience of Listening To Audiobooks

As I've mentioned, this is my first ever experience of audiobooks and my thoughts on audiobooks before I started using BookBeat was that it seemed almost like cheating...I have no idea why I thought that as audiobooks still take time to listen to and they require concentration and attention. My favourite things about audiobooks have to be that they contribute to my GoodReads reading goal so it means that I far surpassed my yearly goal last year and I can listen to audiobooks in situations where I can't read a physical book, for example, when I'm cooking, baking, cleaning or taking blog photos.

Favourites Audiobooks

My audiobook experience has been amazing overall and I've listened to some fantastic audiobooks that I'd definitely recommend but there have been a few flops; however I think that is to be expected as we can't expect to like every single book and I've found that certain genres just aren't for me in audiobook form.

My favourite audiobooks from the past year have to include: Spellslinger by Sebastian de Castell, Shadow Show edited by Sam Weller, Victorians Undone by Kathryn Hughes, Ancient Wonderings by James Canton, Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Borne by Jeff Vandermeer.

Sadly, my least favourite audiobooks include the History/Philosophy In An Hour series which I think is a great idea and they're very quick reads but these very short non-fiction audiobooks just aren't for me because they seem pointless as they are too short and very forgettable.

Use the following link to get a free one month trial! 

Overall, subscribe to BookBeat, you won't regret it! I will definitely re-subscribe in the near future!

Have you tried BookBeat? Do you listen to audiobooks?