Libby

The going rate for an audiobook membership from for-pay services such as Audible is around $15 per month. But there are plenty of great sites out there that let you stream or download audiobooks for free if you’re willing to put in a little bit of effort.Here’s a short list of sites to check out before you pony up for a monthly membership.HooplaArguably your best choice if you’re looking for a nicely curated selection of popular audiobooks, Hoopla offers 21-day access to thousands of audiobooks to anyone who has a card…

Starting on May 1st, OverDrive app users who still use it to digitally access a library’s collection will need to upgrade to Libby, a newer app from the same company that also lets you rent library ebooks for free.OverDrive’s digital platform started in 2002 and continued to operate separately even after Libby launched in 2017. OverDrive is often accessed via a library’s own OverDrive website instance, but the app effectively has the same purpose of distributing publisher books digitally for free, just like Libby. The…

Photo: Andrew Liszewski | GizmodoWhen it comes to choosing an e-reader, for most users it comes down to which device has easy access to the books they actually want to read, and the answer is usually either the Amazon Kindle or the Rakuten Kobo. There’s now a third option, the Boox Leaf 2 from Onyx, that lets users buy books from the competition’s e-book stores, without having to settle for either company’s locked-down devices.Unless you’re as obsessed with E Ink devices as I am, or live outside the United States, Onyx…

Spotify’s new audiobook lineup requires you to visit the Spotify webpage in order to make the purchase, putting them in a strange place compared to the wide slate of existing audiobook apps.Photo: Fabio Principe (Shutterstock)Hey, you. Yeah you. You like listening to things? Listen to this. You now have access to audiobooks through Spotify. You still listening? Listen closely. At the end of the day, there’s really nothing that makes it worth listening to an audiobook on Spotify versus any other app, at least not yet.Last…