Audio books at the fingertips with BookBeat

I’ve always loved books, in fact I’d go so far as to say that they have been a passion for me since I was younger. If I’m honest I really like Sci-Fi and murder mystery books. They transport me to a world that is totally separate from my own, nothing like the day to day humdrum that I have come to know and that is really what I want from a book. I want to feel like I’m diving head first into another world, watching from the safety of the sofa but battling dragons and investigating terrifying murders. I want to feel immersed and I truly believe books do this in a way that TV has never, and will never, achieve.

We teach our kids that sticks and stones can break our bones but words can never hurt us – but this isn’t true, words are so powerful, so emotive, and that is what books rely on – the author’s ability to emote.

I think my deep seated love of books comes from my mum reading to me so much when I was younger. Mum is truly a book lover and as such she would read book, after book, after book to me. I remember being given all the Harry Potter books and refusing to read them, I just didn’t want to. So mum started reading them, just a chapter a night, and after the third night I was reading the books on my own so that I could know what happened next.

Thanks to such good memories of being read to, and after a nasty eye laceration from Edith when she was tiny, I had have a love of audible books too. Sometimes I spend too much time staring at words on a screen that I can’t read well and my eyes are sore/dry so instead of being a relaxing 20-30mins before bed, reading becomes something I have to focus on and struggle with. A few weeks ago I took some headphones to bed with the intention of finding an audio book subscription that would suit me, but everything I looked at seemed either very high in cost with little to offer or you paid a monthly subscription AND had to buy the books. What the hell? Anyway, needless to say I gave up.

Enter: BookBeat.

I can’t sing the praises of BookBeat enough, truly I can’t. It is packed with books and the best part is that you can listen to them (and keep them) without having to buy them on top of your subscription – which is only £12.90 per month (considerably less than leading brands where you have to buy everything and pay a subscription). I’ve downloaded a few books so that I can listen while I am dozing on an evening, and I’ve downloaded a few to listen to whilst I’m working – self help books and the like. I would NEVER read a self help book – for all my love of books, I struggle with self help. I really do. I want to lose myself in a book, and self help just smacks me in the face with LIFE. What I can do though, and this is something I love to do because I feel inspired, is listen to self help or motivational books. I can listen and get the same “YES!!” Feeling I get when I attend a conference, the same “get up and do” attitude. There is no better way to utilise my work time than to have books like 13 Things Mental Strong People don’t Do by Amy Morin bleating away at me when I get a nasty case of self doubt.

If that isn’t enough of a reason to buy yourself a subscription (and I truly believe it is) I have already downloaded 3 David Walliams books for the kids and guess what we have been listening to in the car? Hook the stereo up to the phone and away we go. Have you ever sat in a car with children while they listen to a story? It’s like a miracle. They don’t fight. They don’t shout. They hardly distract at all. Heaven. The boys have been stealing my phone and sitting together to listen to the books together, in the bath and at dinner time, turning away from the TV in order to listen to words. I still insist on reading to them myself at night, but the fact that they have the option now to really embrace books in a way that is accessible to them as they can’t competently read solo yet… well, that’s golden.

And if you’re still not convinced that you should part with your hard earned moola, you can use the code tobyandroo to get a FULL month to test drive the service and then decide if you want to keep it on. No strings. GOOOO!!

H 🙂