Kubrick: An Odyssey

Similar to the Kindle Unlimited playbook, Audible first lured me in with a free trial month, followed by a discounted 12-month program ($94.87). My sister at one point gifted me several of her unused credits and as the unlistened books accumulated, I let my membership lapse until an Apple promo brought me back very briefly in 2023.

A separate promotion appeared in 2024 for three book credits at a dollar apiece, piggybacked by another promo for one free credit if I used my existing credits by a certain time. The promos worked and I ended up using Audible a lot in 2024 with what I assumed were typical customer retention deals. In retrospect, it seems like they may have been planning for the competition that Spotify’s audiobook program was about to pose.

Audiobook programs at these levels have been great. I’ve burned through a lot of books that would have sat in to-be-read purgatory without it. Graeber’s Debt, Hyde’s The Gift, Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The best book I listened to in 2024 was Robert P. Kolker & Nathan Abrams’s Kubrick: An Odyssey as narrated by Perry Daniels.

My brother-in-law clued me in that Audible lets you return books you don’t like and riding my year of promotions and bonuses, I tried this out with Kubrick, the first book to appear when I opened the app. I realized I probably hurt the creators and not Amazon. I take the blame and do not criticize the idea of a return feature. I’ve returned at least one book that I truly did not enjoy. The sample seemed fine, but 20 more minutes in I realized it was not for me.

Audible’s system of buying credits to exchange for books leads to anxiety about which book to select on the one hand and, on the other hand, buyer’s remorse for some books you do select. The book return option partially solves the remorse problem, but creates new problems like return abuse (sorry), and does nothing to alleviate decision anxiety. The 15 monthly hours offered by Spotify feels too short, but I feel no anxiety about freely dipping into (and out of) books at will.