This week my Word of the Week is: Books!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

If you had told me this time last year or even this time last month I would be obsessing over books, I would have laughed in your face. Me and books haven't been a thing, not since I was a teenager. Life is busy and I could never sit still long enough to turn pages and get fully sucked into a book. For years I just gave up on the dream of being a reader but then Audiobooks happened!!

I don’t even remember what made me try one properly this year but once I did, that was it! Audiobooks are a total game changer. I don’t have to sit still, I don’t have to stare at words and give them my full attention, I can just listen and somehow that works with my brain in a way reading never did. I can be doing something else and still get completely pulled into a story.

The first time I properly got into an audiobook was when I was sorting out my wardrobe. I had my headphones in and while folding my clothes I had a story unfolding into my ears. It didn’t feel like I was doing a boring job that I had been putting off for ages. I started listening while cooking tea, while walking, while folding laundry and even while sitting at my laptop blogging. Instead of rushing through jobs I don’t enjoy, I am now looking forward to them because it means I can carry on with whatever book I'm listening to.

I’d been using Spotify for audiobooks because we already pay for Spotify Premium and I thought audiobooks were just part of the deal. I got through a few books fairly quickly and was feeling very pleased with myself. Then Wednesday happened! I was in the kitchen cooking tea, headphones in, happily listening to The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson when the story suddenly stopped and I heard a voice say something about "You have reached your listening limit." I had no idea there was a limit but Spotify only gives you 15 hours of audiobooks a month and it resets when your bill is paid. Our bill goes out mid-month, which means I’ve probably listened to about 30 hours already in January without realising.

I wasn’t ready to give this up. I was enjoying listening to books far too much, so I did what I always do when something annoys me. I went straight to Google. There were lots of options for audiobook apps, most offering a free trial and then charging around eight or nine pounds a month. Which isn’t terrible but I really didn’t want to add another subscription to my life. So I started searching for free audiobooks and I found quite a few but not really the sort of books I wanted to listen to and then I came across BorrowBox.

BorrowBox is a free app that lets you borrow audiobooks and ebooks from your local library and download them straight to your phone or tablet with no payment, no subscription and no hidden limits. How did I not know about this before? I do wonder how many other people are missing out on this too?

The only thing that nearly stopped me was the thought of joining the library. The last time I even thought about it, you had to take ID and proof of address before they would issue a library card but I checked the website on the off chance and it turns out joining is now simple. I didn’t need to prove anything. I just filled in my name, email address, home address, chose my local library and that was it. So I went back to the BorrowBox app, signed in with my new library card details and suddenly I had access to so many books, way more choice than Spotify, too! New releases, familiar authors, books I’ve heard people talk about for years and never got round to reading.

The borrowing system works just like a proper library. You borrow a book for a set amount of time, which is around 20 days and when that time’s up it automatically returns itself. Some books weren’t available straight away, which confused me at first because it’s an audio file, but then I realised libraries work on licences, so only a certain number of people can borrow each book at a time. You can reserve them though.

I now have a list of about 15 books. I haven't reserved any apart from the one I'm listening too but they’re all new to me, which makes it feel exciting. So sorry Spotify Audiobooks, you’ve been dumped. Well almost. I’ll be back once my hours reset so I can finish the last hour of my current book and then we're through.

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m a reader now. Not in the way I imagined, I’m a reader while being busy and instead of reading the books with my eyes, it's with my ears!

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!