My Audible Experience

Last updated: Dec 21, 2015

Ever since I can remember reading has not been a past time that I have particularly enjoyed. I always found it tedious and boring. Perhaps it’s because I’m a slow reader, but I think it’s a catch 22 of sorts. I’m a slow reader because I don’t like reading, and I don’t like reading because I’m a slow reader. Added to that, outside of biographies I have not found a genre that peaks my interest. I actually don’t remember the last book that I read that wasn’t an autobiography or biography, or a book a book that hasn’t put me to sleep after 10 pages.

When I started at D2L, our new VP of Marketing handed out a sales book to us all called The Challenger Sale. Nothing says read me like a book I have been given and told to read about a subject I have no interest in… Needless to say it didn’t move from my desk. Shame on me… The next book he suggested to everyone was Behind the Cloud, by Marc Benioff which chronicles how he started Salesforce.com and turned it into one of the most successful companies of the Internet age. Again I wasn’t jumping at the chance to read it. However, for a while I had been seeing ads on youtube videos for a service called Audible (an Amazon company) which provides high quality audio books. Even better, the first book is free when you sign up with no commitment to use it further. I figured this was a good time to give it a try.

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I had tried downloading audio files for the biography Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson. I had received the book as a gift and took it with me to Europe to read on the bus but I got about 150 pages into the 656 pages. To get to that 150 pages I probably spent 5 hours over 4 weeks. Slow, right? These audio files however didn’t allow me to keep my place. So I either had to finish a whole chapter or find my spot again later, not easy. This issue was taken care of by the Audible app. Once you download the audio files it always remembers where you have stopped so you can continue later. And because you download the whole book you can use the app even if you don’t have a data connection!

When I first looked at using Audible I was still using a BlackBerry and wasn’t sure if the app would work. However, because they worked with Android apps it worked fairly well outside of a little lag when it first starts. But the overall playback was perfect, you can even slow down or speed up the audio (I chose to go with 1.25x regular speed). Speeding it up a little and still felt natural but also meant I completed books slightly faster. The other great thing about having it on my phone is I could connect it to my car through Bluetooth and listen in my car when I drive to work. I could also listen to it when I walked into work since I had about 20 minutes of walking to and from my car each day. When I switched from my BlackBerry to an Android the Audible experience got an upgrade. Now I can start and stop my book from the notification bar, I don’t even have to go into the Audible app directly.

I download my first book in January and thought I would just use it for the first free month. When I went to cancel they kept asking if I was sure and eventually gave me a discount for the next 3 months, so I suggest after you use your first month you do something similar. For me it cut about $5 each month, for a saving of about $15 (or a full months subscription). So then I had 3 more months and 3 more books.

Since January I have finished 11 books, I know for a fact that I have never finished that many books in 1 year let alone 10 months… EVER! In total I have listened now for a total of 4 days, 3 hours and 46 minutes. Way more efficient than reading these books myself.

The books I have listened to have been focused mainly on businesses or business people, business concepts and of course golf.

Audible Business Books

Behind the Cloud - Audible

Behind the Cloud
Buy Now

Steve Jobs - Audible

Steve Jobs
Buy Now

Delivering Happiness - Audible

Delivering Happiness
Buy Now

Multipliers - Audible

Multipliers
Buy Now

The Everything Store - Audible

The Everything Store
Buy Now

The Challenger Sale - Audible

The Challenger Sale
Buy Now

The Challenger Sale - Audible

How Google Works
Buy Now

Rule the Room

Rule the Room
Buy Now

Audible Golf Books

The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods - Audible

The Big Miss
Buy Now

Who's Your Caddie - Audible

Who’s Your Caddie
Buy Now

Putting Our of Your Mind - Audible

Putting Our of Your Mind
Buy Now

Zen Putting - Audible

Zen Putting
Buy Now

Other Books

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
Buy Now

Outliers: The story of success

Outlier: The story of success
Buy Now


Overall I have been very happy with my Audible experience and would recommend it to anyone. Although the on-going monthly fees can seem a little high at times there are constantly deals that you can take advantage of for cheaper credits or cheap books.

If you are interested in trying Audible out for yourself click the banner below.

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Erik

The Father

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