Letter of Recommendation: DRM-free Audiobooks From Libro.fm
Over the past several months, I’ve settled into a routine that involves reading one book at a time on paper or on the Kindle and listening to one book on audiobook. This way, I can switch back and forth without feeling like I am abandoning one book for the other. Right now, I am most of the way through James by Percival Everett on audiobook and just (finally!) started Craig Mod’s fine-art edition of Things Become Other Things. (Both are about very different kinds of journeys.)
For the last three years, I’ve been been getting my audiobooks through Libro.fm. You can listen through their app or download DRM-free mp3 or m4b files to listen in the app of your choice. They are a social purpose corporation, 100% employee owned, and partner with local bookstores to offer audiobooks & share profits. They don’t have every title because of Audible’s strategy of locking up exclusives (like Emily Wilson’s translations of The Iliad and the Odyssey), but they have most of what you’d want to read. They also make it easy to gift audiobooks to friends and family (and I suppose, enemies and strangers if you want?)
Just in the past few months, I’ve listened to:
- All Fours by Miranda July. This is one of those books that’s better as an audiobook. July is an actress as well as an author and the audiobook is more like a performance than a reading.
- James by Percival Everett. Already mentioned this one, but the narration by Dominic Hoffman is superb and emphasizes some of the vernacular differences that are key to the story that might be tougher to express in print. (Hoffman also narrated James McBride’s Deacon King Kong and Ted Chiang’s Exhalation.)
- Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. This is the definitive account of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster and a great companion to HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries.
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. A fun sci-fi story that presents an alternative version of Groundhog Day-style time travel.
You can purchase individual audiobooks through the site or sign up for a membership where you get one free credit a month and each credit to good for one audiobook, regardless of price.
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This is fantastic timing. I just heard (today!!) the the Mpls library is ending Overdrive support in 2 weeks and forcing us to use Libby, which appears to be DRM protected. Definitely going to check this out. Kottke.org FTW yet again!
Perfect timing. I was on the cusp of gritting my teeth and getting a damned Audible sub as I couldn't think of any other way to get affordable audiobooks, and here this is. Joined.
(My first one will be Erik Davis's High Weirdness which has been staring at me from the shelf with it's many pages of tiny type, daring me to try to read it...)
Libro.fm has been a godsend for independent bookstores. As books-on-cd went the way of the dodo, many people were suffering through a variety of platforms. As an independent bookstore owner who partners with Libro.fm for my customers, it’s been a great way to offer audio to folks in an easy-to-use format. Plus, the owners genuinely want to help bookstores and customers connect and have made these partnerships easy to do. I also recommend “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride. Got me through several states on a road trip last summer.
I'm a big fan of Libro.fm: the team is smart and committed to books, and they put out a great product.
+1 recommendation for the underrated and excellent The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and of course the phenomenal James.
I did not know about Libro.FM, thank you
Ted Chiang's work is excellent aware, thoughtful sci-fi.
I highly recommend anything by Becky Chambers. Her Monk & Robot and Wayfarers series' are just wholesome and such a breath of fresh air.
Midnight in Chernobyl was fantastic. There’s another longform article by Higginbotham called A Thousand Pounds of Dynamite that appeared on The Atavist but is also available as an audio book/short that is also worth checking out. And his book on the Challenger disaster is also on my list.
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