If you listen to audiobooks, your choice has been mostly limited to Audible.Com. The book purveyor is owned by Amazon which seems in a race with China to possess the world. My money is on Amazon. Audible’s selection is very good and it’s not hard to find a good listen. The main problem is that it costs about $14 monthly for a credit that will allow you to add an audiobook to your library. Once it’s there it’s yours forever. You can buy additional credits, three at a time for about $12 each.
Chirp is a new, at least to me, audiobook seller that offers a different model. There is no routine fee. Books go on sale every day and remain at a special low price – typically $2-4 – for a few days. Other books are offered at much higher prices. As is true for Audible, once in your library it stays there. I have only bought two books from the service thus far. The quality of the narration is quite good on both. The books themselves vary markedly.
Doublecross by written by Ben Macintyre and narrated by John Lee is a wordy account of British disinformation designed to confuse the Germans as to the landing site of the invasion of France in 1944. There are so many different names for the same characters that I gave up trying to make sense of the tale and moved on to Dickens The Pickwick Papers. The book, of course is one of the English language’s greatest masterpieces. It’s deliciously read by Patrick Tull. It deserves the highest possible rating.
If you’re looking for an alternative to Audible, Chirp might be for you. It’s certainly worth a look. The only technical problems I’ve encountered are two. To listen on your phone you need an app that you can download from Google or Apple. It took several attempts before I was able to get the app to work on my phone, but eventually it did. The other problem remains unsolved. As is true for Audible, you can listen to a five minute sample of the any book on sale, but only on your phone. The preview doesn’t work on Chirp’s website though it’s there mute and immobile.
