May 19, 2022

Daily Diary, Day 627: Good walk this morning, and I took a photo of this odd bloom that seemed so perfect it felt almost artificial, see below.

Listening to The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman on my walks now. As I have mentioned, I didn’t start listening to audiobooks until I started walking during Covid. But not only has this made walking a lot more pleasant, I am really enjoying getting to listen to books that I read decades ago.

Hillerman’s series about two Navaho policemen is one of those series. I discovered Hillerman around 1980, while living in Albuquerque, so I really fell in love with the beautiful job he did with the setting and native culture, which was all around me. He was one of those authors who I always bought every new book they wrote. I love mystery and science fiction series, and I often would binge reread an entire series during holidays and vacations (something I did recently with the series by William Gibson and Kris Rusch.)

However, about five years ago, I got rid of all the print editions of my favorite authors (actually got rid of all my fiction) because I found I no longer enjoyed reading print. Either these old favorites were cheap paperbacks that fell apart in my hands and made me sneeze from decades of dust, or they were hardbacks that hurt my arthritic wrists when I held them. So, I decided that if I felt the need to reread any of them, or in some cases if new books by these authors came out, I would buy as ebooks. Part of the motivation was also that I wanted to make room for my husband’s books because he is definitely not ready to give up his print books. Since then, I have only bought print for my research books.

Unfortunately, I found I wasn’t doing much recreational reading--certainly not rereading books, because if I have a nice solid hour free, I’d rather be writing. That is where listening to audiobooks the hour or more a day that I walk (and clean, and so some of my exercises) has been so wonderful.

And that’s where I have also learned to appreciate the two places, Chirpbooks.com and Libro.fm, where I get these audiobooks. Frankly, it is hard for me to buy a audiobook for $24, when I can get it for at least half that amount as an ebook, especially if it is a book I’ve already read.

However, Chirp is doing a great job of doing frequent deals on both indie books and the back lists of traditional authors—with the books generally $3.99 and under (cheaper than the ebooks!)

This has let me try new authors, but more importantly, to go back and reread books by Tony Hillerman, Carl Hiaasen, Dick Francis, Donna Andrews, Nevada Barr, and Katherine Hall Page, Laurie King, and Deborah Crombie (all old favorites.) I also tried for the first time and enjoyed early works by Ann Cleeves and Jacqueline Winspear.

When there isn’t a Chirp deal available, I then turn to Libro.fm. Libro is a subscription service like audible (you pay a monthly membership fee and you get one free credit a month) and most of their books are discounted from what you would pay on Audible (although I’ve always spent my credits instead of buying.) But for my purposes, what is best about Libro is that unlike Audible, your credits never expire.

As a result, when when I find an author I am enjoying through a deal on Chirp, I then go and use one of my Libro credits for other books in that author's series. In addition, since Chirp is providing me with so many discounted books to listen to, there hasn’t been a time when I didn’t have multiple credits to spend on Libro whenever I wanted I also have used these credits to spend on books that I hadn’t started on Chirp, like Dune, Tolkien, and the Sara Paretsky’s I have been reading.

So, I’m reading (ie listening) to more mysteries and other light fiction than I was doing, for less money, and less eye strain—important given that I am using the computer all day--and I am getting exercize and cleaning done at the same time! A definite win-win situation.

What about you all? What are your favorite strategies in regards to affording fiction? Libraries, used bookstores for print, ebooks, audiobooks with subscription serivices?