Why I Was Wrong About Audiobooks, and How to Get Started for Free Today

Listening to audiobooks is easier than ever. Take my hand, and join me in audiobook bliss.

Hi! Lifelong reader here, brand new baby in the audiobook world. Truth be told, I could never get into audiobooks. It never clicked for me, for the following reasons:

1. Audiobooks are cumbersome. Carrying around CDs (Or in the older days, cassette tapes) is a bother. I've heard you can get them on your phone or tablet, but how do I assign which device it goes to, and how does it get there? What a hassle!
2. I can't pay attention to audiobooks. I'm not an auditory learner, and never will be.
3. Audiobooks aren't “real” reading. There's that certain je ne sais quoi to the experience of holding a book in your hands, turning the pages… plus that indescribable smell of paper and ink wafting in the air. Divine!

I'd accepted the above audiobook facts for decades. So what's changed?

After adding two children to the household in the last 4 years, I'd never gotten back into reading regularly. I hated this! I tried a few different methods to fix it, and squeezed a title in here or there, but it wasn't working. I decided I wasn't going to magically find more time in my day for reading — something big needed to change.

I decided to give audiobooks another try. And in the last three weeks, I've listened to a dozen audiobooks. That's MORE books than I've read since I had my first child. I knew I was onto something awesome. If I can do it, you can, too!

Thanks to audiobooks, and the Libby App, I've rekindled my love for reading.

Enter the game-changer, the Libby App. “Did you know your local library has thousands of ebooks and audiobooks? You can borrow them, instantly, for free, using just the device in your hand.”

I'd tried a different audiobook app before, but Libby is different. It's user-friendly and remarkably simple to sign in. First, it guides you through finding your local library. After that, you put in your library card information, and presto — you're in!

It recommends popular titles from the start, so you have no excuse not to check something out right away. Click borrow, plus a confirmation button, and you're done. You can listen right then and there on your device.

Thanks to the Libby App, I debunked all of my audiobook “facts.”

1. Audiobooks are easy. No CDs, no cassettes (how do you work those, anyway?). Everything you need is on your smartphone or tablet, ready to listen offline, or stream from the cloud if you need to save space on your device.
2. I can pay attention to audiobooks. It turns you CAN learn to listen to audiobooks. If you're new to audiobooks (like I was), I suggest starting with some of your favorite things you've read before, or some lighter reads. For example, I put on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Journey to the Center of the Earth to listen to with my kids. Over time, you'll notice it gets easier to listen. And just think, you're learning a new skill! Your brain is gonna love you for it.
3. Audiobooks aren't “real” reading, but they have their own perks. Yeah, I'll admit it — audiobooks don't have that certain je ne sais quoi associated with traditional reading. But audiobooks have some perks of their own. They do an incredible job jazzing things up during routine household chores like cooking, cleaning, and yard work. They're also perfect while winding down at night before bed when I don't have the energy to pick up a book, and screen-time is shown to be detrimental to a good night's sleep.

Off you go! Download the Libby App today, and let me know which book you pick first.

About the Author
Kimber Thompson is a Lead Moderator for SimpleK12 webinars and a Contributing Editor for SimpleK12.com. She writes frequently about education topics and is passionate about tools and techniques that inspire young learners. You may reach her with ideas and comments at editor@simplek12.com.