# Are there affordable ways to get audiobooks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891 "2020-04-02T15:59:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/1 "2020-04-02T15:59:27Z")
The public library is shut down for physical audiobooks. I have the libby app where I can get digital audiobooks for free, which is nice, but they don’t always have the ones I want. Audible sounds nice, but its $15 a month which is kind of pricey for a service where I just want a few books that I can’t get for free at the library. Are there ways to get audible cheaper, or alternatives to audible that people like with a good selection? Supposedly audible had deals on prime day for $5/month, but I missed that one. Is there a site where you can enter the name of a book, and it tells you how much it costs for the hardcover or audiobook version from various websites and services ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/2 "2020-04-02T16:08:30Z")
Right now, Audible is streaming a selection of kids’ books for free. [https://stories.audible.com/start-listen](https://stories.audible.com/start-listen) When you say “libby app,” you mean for your library, right? Because at first I thought you were referring to [Librivox](https://librivox.org/), which offers free recordings of public-domain books read by amateur volunteers. You can sometimes find cheap copies of used audiobooks on Amazon, ebay, etc. [Chirp audiobooks](https://www.chirpbooks.com/home) offers some good deals on sale-price audiobooks. Their selection is limited, and keeps changing, and you have to use their own app to listen, but I’ve gotten a few good deals there. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/3 "2020-04-02T16:19:36Z")
If you do go with Audible, make sure you know what you’re getting. It’s not a subscription service. That $15/month (or whatever it is) buys you one book per month of your choice to keep, plus a few other benefits (such as the opportunity to buy other audiobooks at members’ prices and, sometimes, at deeply discounted sale prices). In past threads other Dopers have mentioned [Scribd.com](http://Scribd.com), which _is_ a subscription service (i.e. you pay a set fee per month for unlimited temporary access to whatever they have available), but I have no experience with them. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/4 "2020-04-02T16:33:11Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > If you do go with Audible, make sure you know what you’re getting. It’s not a subscription service. That $15/month (or whatever it is) buys you one book per month of your choice to keep, plus a few other benefits (such as the opportunity to buy other audiobooks at members’ prices and, sometimes, at deeply discounted sale prices). > > In past threads other Dopers have mentioned [Scribd.com](http://Scribd.com), which _is_ a subscription service (i.e. you pay a set fee per month for unlimited temporary access to whatever they have available), but I have no experience with them. And Audible is one book per month, but the book “ticket” doesn’t expire for 6 months. So what generally happens is that we splurge on 3-4 books every couple of months. But our audiobook consumption and cost is dwarfed by our bookstore purchases. We like authors and reading and want to keep them going! ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/5 "2020-04-02T16:33:20Z")
Some public library systems partner with [Overdrive.com](http://Overdrive.com) to allow you to borrow a wide selection of audiobooks over the internet for free. ---
**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/6 "2020-04-02T16:55:53Z")
Libby is part of overdrive. Its their newer interface. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/7 "2020-04-02T17:08:20Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > Some public library systems partner with [Overdrive.com](http://Overdrive.com) to allow you to borrow a wide selection of audiobooks over the internet for free. Yup, I love my public library system. However sadly they don’t always have the books I want. It just seems kind of excessive to pay $15/month for the small number of books I can’t get via the library. Normally I could get physical media audiobooks at the library but its shut down due to the virus. ---
**Author:** ![vonespy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vonespy/32/6204_2.png) [@vonespy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vonespy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/8 "2020-04-02T17:42:32Z")
[The Internet Archive](https://archive.org/) has a surprising number of public domain audiobooks and lots of other interesting stuff to read, listen to, play in one of their emulators, etc. You should be able to find a few years worth of entertainment there. Some of my faves: [K-mart in-store music tapes digitized](https://archive.org/search.php?query=kmart%20in%20store%20music), [the Crap from the Past radio show archives](https://archive.org/search.php?query=crap%20from%20the%20past), [1722 emulated video games from the 70s through the 90s](https://archive.org/details/internetarcade?&sort=-downloads&page=2), an[even larger collection (140K) of emulated computer games and programs from the early days of personal computers,](https://archive.org/details/vintagesoftware?&sort=-downloads) and [14000 audio books read by volunteers](https://archive.org/details/librivoxaudio). I know a lot of this is not exactly what you’re looking for but there are so many rabbit holes there ([vintage concert posters anyone?](https://archive.org/search.php?query=concert+poster)) that you could spend years digesting everything they have there. Kind of like getting caught going down the rabbit hole of threads here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/9 "2020-04-03T03:27:36Z")
Kindle Unlimited is $10 a month (two free months with Amazon prime) and they have a rotating selection of audiobooks taken from Audible for you to listen to for the duration of your subscription. ---
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/10 "2020-04-03T04:22:10Z")
I posted about this a few month ago and didn’t really get much response. I like audio books for cycling and commuting and I was looking into Audible as well. On an individual book basis, I found Audible is generally about 40% more than Apple Books, so I’ve been using Apple lately for spot purchases. I also use Libravox and download them via Apple podcasts. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/11 "2020-04-03T12:27:00Z")
You don’t need an audible subscription. Just keep an eye open for audiobooks that are on special. Especially if you already own the ebook, you can sometimes get really good deals on the audiobook, like from $1.99-$7.49. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/12 "2020-04-03T12:52:06Z")
It does require the desire to purchase 24 audiobooks, but the price goes under $10/book on Audible if you buy the annual membership. ---
**Author:** ![Sandwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@Sandwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandwood)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/13 "2020-04-03T12:56:10Z")
I do like LibriVox for free audiobooks, but finding readers that you enjoy and that have sufficiently good recording equipment can be a bit of a challenge sometimes. Here are a two narrators that I liked: Karen Savage [https://librivox.org/reader/103?primary\_key=103&search\_category=reader&search\_page=1&search\_form=get\_results](https://librivox.org/reader/103?primary_key=103&search_category=reader&search_page=1&search_form=get_results) Stewart Wills [https://librivox.org/reader/196?primary\_key=196&search\_category=reader&search\_page=1&search\_form=get\_results](https://librivox.org/reader/196?primary_key=196&search_category=reader&search_page=1&search_form=get_results) ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/14 "2020-04-03T14:40:29Z")
When I search from my podcast app, I often find free audiobooks. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/15 "2020-04-03T15:38:28Z")
\*\*19 Best Places to Download Free Audiobooks \*\* > **[16 Best Places to Download Free Audiobooks](https://www.lifewire.com/free-audio-books-the-15-best-sources-online-1357952)** > > These are the best websites for free audiobook downloads. Find thousands of titles for your computer or phone at no cost, completely legally. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-affordable-ways-to-get-audiobooks/850891/16 "2020-04-03T16:25:21Z")
Try [Chirp](https://www.chirpbooks.com/home). Low-priced audiobooks. I subscribe to the newsletter and get suggestions by email.