“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemingway

I have a broad definition of reading. I often get asked as the youngest member of my local book club for the ‘Millenial’ opinion on things, and I think a lot of people would assume that us 18-35s would prefer not to read at all, as we’re far too busy on Snapchat taking selfies.

I have always loved reading in the traditional sense of having a physical book in front of you, but my consumption of stories has really taken off in the past couple of years since I moved to Gloucestershire. This is when I truly discovered the magic of audiobooks, thanks to the free use of the mobile library app BorrowBox that Gloucestershire Libraries provide to all their members. I have since also used Audible to get to a wider range of books I can’t wait to have, but for a free service, I couldn’t recommend BorrowBox enough. Existing Gloucestershire Library members just need to login with their borrower number and pin once you’ve downloaded the app.

It probably does help that I’ve always been an auditory learner, and would rather listen to music than watch TV.  I can focus on an audiobook easily wherever I am and even up the narrator’s speed to 1.25-1.5x times faster than the preset to match my natural reading speed of around 60 pages an hour. But even so, to go from a robotic Hawkinesque voice of the first Kindle text to speech functions to this audiobook apps like these within under a decade has been nothing short of a revelation to me. I love the versatility of being able to press play on my book at any time, when I’m resting, on my commute, or even just mooching around the flat doing chores. I’m able to ‘read’ so much more thanks to audiobooks that I think it’s worth even the most cynical bibliophile having a look into alternative reading formats as a way to expand their reading capacities. There are still some books that are better digested in their physical form to get all the textual reference, such as inventive modern novels with elements of screenplay/theatre, such as Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed.

Like a true library, BorrowBox only lets one reader, (or I suppose listener), loan out a audiobook at any one time, for a duration of 2-3 weeks at a time.  Loans can be ‘renewed’ for a maximum of 3 times, providing that no one else has reserved your book. That being said, there are a number of new releases regularly uploaded, so if you get in quick you can get to the latest must-read for free.

I’ve also read/listened to a lot of contemporary Australian fiction I wouldn’t have otherwise come across with Borrowbox being an Australian app. That means for those of you who have not come across the masterful writing of Richard Flanagan, who won the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, there really is no excuse not sample the best of what the Antipodies has to offer.

Other BorrowBox highlights I’ve found so far include:

• The Sleeper and The Spindle by Neil Gaiman – a kick-ass feminist fairytale reboot from one of the best modern fantasy writers today.
• Nutshell by Ian McEwan – Hamlet retold by an unborn foetus. Weirdly compelling.
• The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cotterell Boyce – A bittersweet coming of age story about immigration and embracing other cultures from a Liverpuddlian child’s perspective.
• The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera – Made also made into an award-winning film, Ihimaera’s powerful Maori fable about family, tradition, and the struggle between  embracing the modern world whilst paying due respect to the past.

So to surmise, I won’t just be reviewing audiobooks, but undoubtedly they will be making a regular appearance on this blog in between my other reviews and posts. They might not be for you, but my message is that if you love stories, don’t be a format snob just for the sake of being a purist – you could be missing out on your next favourite read!