Last summer I moved across the country and because of that, my book collection has dwindled significantly. My shelves of books have been reduced to a handful of favorites while the rest have stayed behind to grace the moving boxes of my parents’ basement. Though this would normally be troubling, I’ve been able to continue my reading habits without the stacks of books that I’d once carted around through Scribd’s subscription service. I tried Oyster– which is unfortunately no longer around- earlier last year and loved the selection that I could access without having to pay for each individual book. Once my trial ended with Oyster, I decided to try a new service that I’d been hearing great things about: Scribd.

Scribd and I have had an interesting relationship since I first started using it months ago. When I first began my account, I had unlimited access to ebooks, comics, and- most importantly- audiobooks. While I’ve read my way through dozens of ebooks and comics, it was the audiobooks that sealed the deal for me with Scribd. Moving and unpacking is serious business but listening to new audiobooks while I did it made it so much more bearable.

Shortly after I switched over from my free trial to paying for my account, Scribd changed things up. Rather than having unlimited access to all of the audiobooks in their collection, I was introduced to a credit system. Much like Audible, Scribd’s audibooks now cost 1 credit. A credit is added each month when my subscription renews and I can save up to 6 credits at a time. I have to admit that I was a little frustrated during this transition. I had been spoiled with my unlimited access to audiobooks that would have cost me much more than my $8.99 subscription. However, I quickly realized something. Once the mind numbing days of moving were over, there was no way that I would be able to listen to more than 1 audiobook a month without neglecting the physical copies and ebooks that I needed to read. And, if I somehow managed to zoom through my accumulated credits, I could still purchase another credit for $8.99. Pretty cheap considering how expensive audiobooks can be elsewhere.

Needless to say, I’m happy with Scribd and have continued my subscription with them despite the changes. I’ve enjoyed listening to new books as well as reading through their collection of ebooks and comics on my train commute each day. Sometimes the Android app can be a little finicky but usually that’s because I’ve skipped an update.

You can try a 2 month free trial of Scribd using this link. It doesn’t hurt to give it a try and hopefully you can find something to start your reading year off right!

Happy reading and listening!