So far, my blog posts have been about printed material and, occasionally, e-books. But, I have come across a new audiobook service, Chirp. Affiliated with BookBub, Chirp offers an alternative to Audible. A variety of genres are available in a range of prices. Being a lover of Sherlock Holmes, I purchased The Valley of Fear for $1.99 (plus New Jersey sales tax). The narration of this work is excellent. I noticed that prices for the daily deals ranged from $.99 to $4.99. Plus, there is no monthly or annual membership fee. That makes audiobooks thrills for your ears–and your wallet.
The likes of Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon), David Baldacci (The Fix, Total Control), and Michael Connelly (The Night Fire) are but a few available. I also noticed titles by James Patterson, David Sedaris, Charles Dickens and even Geoffrey Chaucer amongst the offerings.
Others, such as Audible, Scribd and Spotify, offer audiobooks, but at a price. To get the most of these apps, you need to have a membership (Audible, Scribd and Spotify) plus maybe pay for the audiobooks (Audible). At Chirp, the only monetary outlay is for the audiobook itself. With Chirp, you own the audiobook, but who knows what will happen if Spotify decides to discontinue offering them. There are other sites, like LibriVox, that offer free audiobooks, but the narration quality is spotty. Your local library may have books on CDs and offer audiobooks through OverDrive and Hoopla, but do they really have what you want to listen to? And how long is the wait list?
So far, I’m happy with Chirp for the selection of audiobooks, the quality of narration and the price. I’ll continue to scour the digital book world for other audio options. In my opinion, Chirp can bring thrills to your ears, and wallet.