Recently, I’ve been trying to narrow down my book subscription services, mostly because it makes no sense to have like 5 going on at the same time when I’m in a reading slump. (Though somehow having 5 television subscription services at the same time is okay even though I’ve watched like 4 movies and 10 episodes of TV shows in the past month but that’s an analysis for another day lol; also, I don’t pay for those myself)
Anyway, I decided to make this poll and even though there was a clear winner, I still didn’t quite know what decision to make. Perhaps making an unnecessarily convoluted analysis of various services will help me decide. Or maybe it’ll just make it harder for me ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ We’ll see.
I’ll be talking about three different categories of services: Digital, Physical, and Not Actually A Subscription But I’m Including It Anyway. This installment will focus on the first and biggest category.
Digital
Scribd
- User Interface / app vibes: Okay
- Content: Top notch
- Price: $8.99 per month gets you unlimited access
I’m new to Scribd, though I did use it for a brief blip back in 2016 so I could print out some elusive sheet music, but on the whole, I didn’t start actively using it (especially for books and audiobooks) until October of 2019. During the time since, I’ve listened to five (only finished two) audiobooks on it and have yet to read an ebook on there.
First off, the app is kind of ugly. I’ll say it.
While the individual details are nice, I find the formatting awkward and a little clunky. Maybe I’m just too much of a Material Design Android diehard, but the iOS aesthetic it’s got going on is low-key hideous to me. Besides that, you can’t control the reading speed a whole lot, only in intervals of 1, 1.2, 1.5, 1.8, 2, and so on, which for me feels very limited, though I’ll admit it has more control than a lot of other apps. Maybe I’m asking too much š¤·āāļø It has all the other hallmark features of an audiobook app (again, I haven’t read any ebooks yet so I can’t say how those are formatted). It’s just the design of it feels clunky to me. And it always adds a little notification dot over saved whenever I save a book, as if I wasn’t the one to just add it.
I’m a big fan of the selection available. There are even some self published books, which I wasn’t expecting. It’s entirely unlimited, except for when they take some books off, presumably because I have way too many saved, and hold them hostage for like a week. Plus, I’ll tell you here and now that it beats everyone else on price. It’s less than Spotify! I almost feel like I’m committing a crime using this!
Verdict: Probably keep.
Kobo
- User Interface / app vibes: Design nightmare
- Content: Garden variety
- Price: $9.99 per month gets you one credit
I’m actually not subscribed to this anymore. I signed up for the free trial because it was one of the only places I could find the Tim Curry narrated audiobook of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, but that glitched and skipped an entire chapter towards the end, so they gave me a refund for my credit. I used it to get The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. Still haven’t read it lol
The UI is deceptive. It tricks you into thinking it’s Material Design, when in reality, it’s on par with those superstore apps that one half-paid, sleep-deprived intern made overnight, probably. To use the store, you have to load it like a webpage, and it takes forever, usually crashing. The audiobook reader (again, no ebook data since I’ve only listened to audiobooks here too) is nice looking but if you accidentally touch the screen, you run the risk of launching yourself deep into the audio. At least the speed control gives you slightly more options.
The selection is mostly okay. It’s essentially what’s available everywhere else so it’s nothing to write home about, and the price is steep for what you get for it compared to other, similar services.
Verdict: I still haven’t resubscribed and I don’t ever see myself doing so.
Kindle Unlimited (Kindle App)
- User Interface / app vibes: Not my cup of tea but perfectly functional
- Content: Less than you’d expect
- Price: $9.99 per month (multi-month bundle plans exist though)
The name’s false advertising. I’ll say that first to set the record straight. It’s actually the most limited of all the digital services I’m analyzing. You can only have up to 10 titles at once in your library and the selection therein is only open to select titles. Plus side is that a lot of self published standalones and series can be found in their entirety on Kindle Unlimited, but the downside is that sometimes they’re the only titles you can find besides classics and books that used to be popular a decade ago.
I do like how you can sometimes access Audible audiobooks for free and have them sync up to the text as you read (it’s actually my preferred method of reading in general), but that’s a Kindle feature, not an Unlimited one, so it hardly counts as a plus for the service.
Monetarily, it’s fairly standard, and they often have deals going on to cut the price down, but I’ve only encountered them when I’m about to unsubscribe and they drag me back with a three month $4.99 offer. I’m just not sure it’s worth it given the content constraints.
Verdict: My biggest crux.
Audible
- User Interface / app vibes: As ugly but also as functional as Kindle
- Content: Better than expected
- Price: $14.95 per month gets you 1 credit and your pick of any 2 curated Audible Originals
This is basically Kobo but with exclusive content (aka audiobooks only available from Audible, usually popular titles or books published through Amazon) and the ability to exchange your already purchased audiobooks with other ones without spending anything. I’ve only ever gotten one Audible Original because the curated list usually doesn’t have anything I find even remotely interesting, but they had Peter Pan a bit ago so I got that. Haven’t listened to it yet but I will. Unfortunately, though, it’s not Tim Curry.
I do appreciate that you have more control of the narration speed, in intervals of 5 up to 3.50x (though it lacks the 0.2 and 0.8 that Scribd has)
The price is the part that gets me. I love the features and the content, and given it’s all audiobooks (which average around $20-$30 each), it really is a steal. But I’m cheap lol
Verdict: Skip until there’s an Audible exclusive I’m dying to read.
Conclusion
As far as paid services go, I’ve decided to drop all but Scribd. I feel pretty good about this decision, and I’ll only go back to the others if there’s something exclusive to it that I’m dying to read. Next time, I’m gonna talk about the services for physical books (book boxes, etc.) and those that aren’t paid at all but are relevant. See you then!
PS What services do you use, if any? I’d like to know!
BookSelf 