Maria and I listen to a lot of books together, and I listen to my own books while running or walking outside. I thought it would be useful to detail the tools we use to listen.

Smart AudioBook Player is an app available for Android. I’m not sure of its Apple equivalent. This app conveniently organizes all the audiobook files you add, collapsing multiple audio files into one book seamlessly. You can have multiple books in your library, which you rotate between as needed. The total remaining time of the book is easily displayed, and there are pause, jump forward, and jump back (10sec or 1 minute) buttons. You can easily grab the book cover to display in the app from an embedded Google image search in the app. We use the full version, which costs about $2. The full version allows you to alter the playback speed, and we listen to most books on 1.2x or 1.4x. I have not altered any other settings.

To get audiobooks to load, we check out audiobooks from our library. I then burn these CD’s to my computer. The benefit of burning them (instead of just listening to the CDs) is that I can keep a library of available books to listen to that does not depend on library due dates, and I never have to return a book in the middle of reading it. The audio files are then transferred to the phone, which allows the app to add them. To be specific, I have Google Drive on both my phone and computer, so I share the files that way. Once the files are in Google Drive, I can access them and move them on my phone, so I copy them from Google Drive to my phone’s memory (“My Files” app). I have an audiobook folder that I add them to on the phone.

Each audiobook is about 0.25-1.25 GB of data. I keep about 5 books on the phone at once, though I have a backlog of 10-20 books on my computer ready to be added as we finish books. If your phone has lots of storage, you could keep many books on it.

To listen to the books, we just use my phone’s speaker when we are seated together at the kitchen table. We typically listen to books during breakfast. If we want to listen in the car, we need a louder speaker to hear over the engine. We use the UE Boom 2 bluetooth speaker, wirelessly connected to my phone. You can turn the volume up or down on the Boom with your phone’s volume switch (which I find more convenient) or the speaker’s volume switch. When I go out for walks or runs, I use bluetooth headphones or wired headphones to listen to the app.

I typically listen to two to four audiobooks at a time. The first is the one Maria and I are reading together. I also have my own audiobooks for contemplative lunchtime walks (typically something philosophical), exercise (typically something related to sports or hobbies), and/or drives to work (content could be anything, and I typically just use the CDs from the library in my car instead of using this app). Audiobooks have overtaken physical books for the thing I read the most over the last two years; perhaps 60-75% of the books I read now are audiobooks.

We used to use the hoopla and Overdrive apps, which let you quickly access audiobooks, but they tended to be “returned” before we finished with them and I would have constant issues streaming the books. By having the files on the phone, there are no streaming issues as you listen to them, and you do not need a data or wifi connection. I have not tried Audible or other fee-based options, as everything I have discussed in this post is free (besides the $2 upgrade to the full version of the Smart AudioBook Player app). Let me know if you have other suggestions of how to listen to or read more books!