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I enjoy reading books and free things, so I tried the unlimited book and audio-book collection on the streaming service Scribd for a few months. And I have to say, I would recommend trying their 30 days long free trial to anyone who has a New Year resolution to read more this year.
Scribd review
Actually, I started using Scribd around a month before the New Year, when I got a free trial together with my purchase of The Genius Bloggers Toolkit from Ultimate Bundles. There were several tools included in the bundle to help bloggers to grow their blog, monetize it, create their own products, and learn more. And Scribd was one of the tools that I decided to try.
The trial version of Scribd gives unlimited access to the content available on their platform, and there are different types of things that I tried:
- Books
- Audio-books
- Magazines – TIME, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, People, and more.
- Documents – templates like Business plan, Social media strategy, different academic papers.
- Sheet music – there is even sheet music for vocals, guitar, piano, and other instruments. I didn’t actually try it, but it would be fun to dust off my piano and try to play “Let It Go”, “Hallelujah”, or “Mission: Impossible Theme “.
Books
From all of the unlimited content on Scribd, books were the most interesting. I really like to read, and I tend to do it on different devices.
When I’m at home, I read either on my laptop or on an iPad, and Scribd is equally easy to use on both. Sometimes during the day I randomly have some free time in public transportation, where I like to use my Android phone to quickly read a chapter or two. And the cool thing is that all of my devices synchronize, and after I get home I can continue to read on my laptop exactly where I left off on my phone.
There is a wide choice of books available on Scribd, and I like their recommendations feature, which often suggests me something that I haven’t read yet.
There is a feature for saving books, so I currently have a wish list of books to read, just need to find some time to fit them. These are some of the books on my wish list:
- The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
- Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
- Fahrenheit 451
- The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World
Reading experience
I really like the small details in the reading window that make reading easier. There is a progress bar to see, how far in the book you are, which is nice. However, the indicator of how many minutes are left until the next chapter is what I find really useful, as I can plan my time better that way.
There are a bunch of settings to choose from as well, e.g. background color, text size, scrolling to the left or downwards to get to the next page to mention a few.
Audio-books
I used to think that I don’t like audiobooks. My impression was that I pay attention while I’m reading, but with just listening my mind tends to wander off with other thoughts.
However, recently I had to drive for a few hours with my boyfriend on an extremely boring road, and we tried to listen to an audiobook. It was a good experience, as it required just enough attention not to get boring while driving.
I downloaded the audiobook from Scribd to my phone while the network was still available, as I knew that there were some spots along the way without any mobile network. And I wanted to save my mobile data a bit.
We listened to 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson, and we went through a few chapters during our ride. It felt quite informative and productive to spend time this way.
Now I have also been listening to audiobooks while I cook and do some repetitive household tasks, and that way I’m less bored and can make progress with my book list.
Scribd membership
With this link, you can try Scribd for 30 days for free. There is nothing to lose, as you can cancel anytime.
After the free trial has ended, it costs $8.99 for a month, and you can also cancel anytime you want.
And you can also share the joy of reading with friends by sharing a link to Scribd – that way you can get one more month of free reading, and your friends will get a 6
Check out Scribd yourself free now!
Great source of info! I’ve been aware of Scribd but never thought they have an Audiobook. I hope more reviews from you guys Wandernity.com