I just finished “The Help” and it was by far my favorite ever audiobook. The narration was amazing. I’ve also finished (and greatly enjoyed) To Kill a Mockingbird, Water for Elephants, Hidden Valley Road, The Martian, Ready Player One, 1984, Animal Farm, Inside the O’Briens, the DaVinci Code, Hour of the Witch. I’ve enjoyed Many Diane Chamberlain and Jodi Picoult books in the past as well.

If anyone has any ideas on how to listen to audiobooks without using an Amazon subscription or something other than Libby, PLEASE recommend.

Thanks

So, I recently got the libby app and have been browsing this subreddit for recommendations but most of the books that are recommended have a long list of people who've placed a hold on the book. So here is your chance to recommend your favorite audiobooks that are more niche or underrated, preferably something that is currently available on libby. Thank you!

Just got it and trying to figure out how to always have an audiobook I’m able to listen to.

Do you just put a dozen books on hold and listen to them as they come in?

I’ve been testing it over the past few months and it seems like every single audiobook I listen to on Libby is not good quality. It’s audible and I can understand the narrator, but it’s nowhere as clear as audio coming from Audible previews or YouTube videos. It sounds muted and somewhat crunchy. Has anyone else had this issue?

Edit: turns out I wasn’t going crazy. I reached out to Libby support about it with a video comparing Libby to Audible and this is the response I received:

The marginally lower audio quality that you're experiencing is due to the way we compress our audiobook files in order to streamline downloads for our users. It's not currently possible to adjust the audio quality for the audiobooks that you have borrowed in Libby, but I’ve shared your feedback…

First off, I'm a huge Audible fan, and I recommend Audible enthusiastically. But a few months back I started exploring Libby, the audiobook app for libraries.

I'm now using Audible and Libby side-by-side. Audible is great for finding new authors who aren't big enough to be be in libraries yet, like Dennis Taylor (Bobiverse), backlog titles that haven't been picked up by libraries (Swan Song), or anything you aren't willing to wait for. Libby is great for higher profile backlog titles.

A few aspects to Libby and Overdrive feel a little complicated. The good news is it's all free. Below are some things I've figured out that might be useful to someone else. Please add any other tips you have found -- I'm definitely still learning!

Overdrive and Your Library

Overdrive seems to be like a master database for libraries to use. If you go to www.overdrive.com, you can see the full catalog of all books that Overdrive is aware of. You can browse a bit without creating an account, but you need to create a (free) account to search for books at your libraries.

Once you enter a library card, you can then go to that library's Overdive page and search its collection directly. It will look like www.<libraryname>.overdrive.com.

The whole relationship between Overdive and individual library pages feels a little clunky to me.

Finding Books

When you are at a library's page, if you want to find something you can check out right now, go to "Collections" > "Audiobooks" > "Available Now." From there, you can narrow your search by genre.

When you are at the Overdrive home page, you can search for a book and it will tell you what libraries have the book, based on your location. This is a good way to find other libraries with good collections.

The Libby App

Libby is the App that Overdrive uses to play audiobooks (and ebooks). I use Libby on my phone. It has options to stream books or download them.

Some things about the Libby app are great.

• It has a lot of fine control for "playback speed" and the sleep timer.

• There are multiple ways to move back and forth within a book.

• It shows you how much time is left in the book, but will also show you an estimate for how long until you finish the book, based on your listening rate so far.

A few things are annoying.

• Within the app, you can only search the catalog of one library at a time. For this reason, I usually search for a book at the Overdrive home page on my computer first to figure out what library actually has it.

• I have problems with the app in my car. If I use my car's radio to change the volume, Libby often pauses.

• There have been a few times where the app kept playing after I thought I had stopped it. I had to go back to find my place.

Limited Licenses

Library audiobook copies are limited by the number of licenses the library has purchased. As a result, there can be lengthy wait-lists for popular books.

• On the one hand, this makes no sense: It's a digital file. It can be copied endlessly for free. It should be available for everyone!

• On the other hand, this make perfect sense. Authors need to get paid. ;)

I've been able to deal with this by using multiple libraries and managing my holds.

Multiple Libraries

I felt a little bit like I had "leveled up" when I realized I could add multiple library cards to my account. I live in Colorado and now have four library cards from across the front range. For most of them, you have to stop by in person to get a card, but as long as you have a Colorado address, they are happy to give you a card for free.

Managing Holds

When you put a book on hold, if you use the default settings, it will be automatically checked out for you when it's available, based on your place in the queue. This can be a terrific surprise, like Christmas in July. But it can also be a moment of crippling stress. "Wait, I'm not ready... I haven't finished my last book, and now I've only got two weeks to finish this new one!"

The secret is to go to "Manage Holds" in the Libby app and "suspend" your hold. I suspend them all for six months. That way, my spot in line continues to progress until I get to the front of the queue, but the book is never checked out for me. If the book becomes available, it goes to the person behind me in line. When I'm just about ready for a new book, I change the hold state to "active" on a couple of books. As soon as one gets checked out, I go back and suspend the others.

I currently have about ten books on hold, with positions ranging from the front of the line to an eight week wait. Figuring all of this out was another big "level up" moment for me.

Check Your Format

A couple of times, I put holds on ebooks by mistake (instead of audiobooks). Then, when the book was finally checked out for me, I was frustrated because I couldn't figure out how to make the damn thing play. Double-check your format!

Returns

When the book is due back, it gets removed automatically, which can feel a little jarring. I've had one book returned before I finished it, and I stayed up late to finish another (with a faster than normal playback) the night before it was due.

If you finish a book before it is due back, you should return it manually to avoid very bad karma.

Again, I hope this is helpful to someone out there. If you have more tips, please add them.

Best,

Geoff Jones

Author of The Dinosaur Four

(Narrated by Nick Podehl)