Tuesday 27 August 2013

Talking books? Well, fancy that!

After much humming and hawing of the "yes, but will I actually use it?" variety, I've recently signed up with Audible, taking advantage of their introductory offer.

In essence, it's £3.99 per month for the first 3 months and £7.99 per month thereafter. For your monthly fee you get a credit which can be exchanged for any book in their catalogue, regardless of retail price (or length of audiobook). You also get access to their catalogue (which, seeing as they are now owned by Amazon, is extensive) with most audiobooks significantly cheaper than their normal retail price. Whether I will remain a subscriber after the introductory period is over I've yet to decide but for now, at least, I'm finding it excellent value for money.

The first book I chose was "Portrait of a Spy" by Daniel Silva and whilst there was nothing particulary noteworthy about the story itself (it was a good, but not great, addition to the Gabriel Allon series) the narration by Simon Vance was nothing short of masterful. I cannot recommend him highly enough. If audiobooks are your thing, do yourself a favour and pick one from his back-catalogue (he's got something like 240 titles on Audible alone). He was the reason I chose that particular book.

As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, one of my recurring self-inflicted tortures is my inability to choose what to read next and, unsurprisingly, when I signed up with Audible I was once again struck with indecision. With such a large catalogue, how was I ever going to choose what to listen to first? Then I remembered an audiobook I had listened to several years ago (one of the Captain Alatriste novels by a Spanish gentleman with the richly-evocative name of Arturo Perez-Reverte, possibly "The Purity of Blood"). I remembered the particularly excellent narration by Simon something; after a swift spot of Googling I had his name and, armed with this, something to search Audible for.

Anyway, I've kept you long enough. Go read (or listen). Oh and, as always, if you have any recommendations, please do pass them on (to me, obviously, not to John Randombloke).

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