Naturally after my freebie audiobook, I forgot to cancel the monthly audible subscription fee. Like gym membership, this is how they get you hooked in.
I had credits stacking up and grabbed a couple of titles which sounded decent.
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J K Rowling: The Casual Vacancy
17 hrs and 49 mins
My first J K Rowling (no I haven’t read any Harry Potter, judge away!)
I liked this quite well – even enough to listen to here and there at my desk at SML.
Quite decent characterisation. Alternately funny, touching, frustrating, heart-rending. Occasionally emotionally manipulative, occasionally ham-fisted.
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Anthony Horowitz: Magpie Murders
15 hrs and 47 mins
If you’re all about flagrant historical inaccuracy, dreadful anachronisms, poor writing and heavily telegraphed endings, you’ll love this.
I hated it. HATED! I really wanted to abandon the whole thing, but kept going because I’d paid $14.95 for it. Yes, that’s less than $1.00 per hour. Honestly, I hope my time is worth more than that! Sunk cost fallacy anyone?
Little wonder the publishing industry is in its death throes.
After I’d finished, I received the following email:
To: carolbaby
From: dontreply@audible.com.au
Subject: Are you enjoying Magpie Murders?
We hope you’re enjoying Magpie Murders. Not loving it? No worries. We all make bad choices at times – remember MC Hammer pants? With our Love It or Swap It Free guarantee you can swap any audiobook any time.
And even though I’d painfully listened to the whole thing, you’d better believe I returned it for a refund.
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I’m still undecided about whether audiobooks something I want to pursue on the regular. Unlike a printed book (or let’s be real, an ebook), audiobooks are this all encompassing thing which make me oblivious to what’s going on around me – in most cases this is a very good thing, others not so much.
And although this is not a problem – they also take rather longer (I think I’d probably read a book in 1/2 to 2/3 the time) and require much more attention – I can’t pick up, read a couple of sentences and wander off to something else or fall asleep in the middle and still have my place kept for me.
I’ve now stacked up five book credits. I need to either put the membership on hold while I catch up or to download five books and cancel it. Realistically I’m not going to listen to one book a month, so maintaining the subscription is probably not worthwhile.