Audio books - what is the best way to access them?

Through your local library . Ours uses borrowbox but there are other apps I believe just depends which one your local library uses . You have to type in you library card number to set it up . You Sometimes have to wait for popular books but theres a reservation system .

Borrowbox -which is free. Choose a book and it automatically downloads to my phone or whichever device I booked it on.
Click the program icon in your screen, find the title and press play.
Audible or Kindle audio are not free, but you don’t have to queue to get the book.
I do have to download them to my phone before I can listen.
Currently listening to the Complete Radio 4 version of The Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency over 26 hours of great listening.

Borrowbox is free, but often I find there can be long waiting times and the catalogue isn't that extensive. I subscribe to Audible, I think it's £7.99, one book a month of choice, they also have quite a few "free to Audible" books, not ones you may necessarily want to listen to though, but they're probably ok for getting off to sleep. I subscribe to Spotify for music, although there's 15 hours a month of books (of your choice) with that subscription.

I meant to add, I download and listen on my phone with ear buds if in bed.

I have a huge library of audio books, through audible. I’m not a great tv fan so listen in the evenings, usually through my Amazon Alexa device. I can just say, ‘Alexa, read my audible book,’ and off it goes. If listening in bed you do have to tell Alexa to stop reading after ** mins, or it will just carry on until you wake up. It will also read direct from the Audible app on your phone or iPad, so it’s great if you’re out walking or gardening, etc. I have an annual subscription which is cheaper than a monthly one.

I subscribe to Audible as it suits me best. There are several titles included in your subscription and you receive 1 credit per month to exchange for a paid for title.

I use BorrowBox too through the library for free.
I have an annual subscription to Audible which works out cheaper than monthly, and I recently took advantage of a free 3 month trial on Spotify and listened to 3 books from there.

Borrowbox for me too. I think the titles available are dependent on your local authority. Ours has a great selection and if I have to wait, it’s usually not too long. I download to my iPad but recently have found using my phone is more convenient. I tend to listen when I’m doing the housework or when I’m on my exercise bike. I also listen on flights as my eyes become too sore to read. The negatives for me are that it’s difficult going back if you want to check something, it’s also impossible to skip bits.
Happy listening!

If you have difficulty reading books, for any reason, there is a wonderful charity called Listening Books. For a small yearly subscription you can have up to 6 books a week. Many books are recorded especially for the charity.

www.listening-books.org.uk/

I use BBC Sounds, their podcasts have Dramas, short stories and serialised books. All for free.
Some of the documentaries are interesting as well.

I am happy to queue up my choices in Borrowbox.
You can have 10 in the queue but I put some others into my "saved" corner and then I can rotate them in/out.

It's nice when one you'd forgotten you had reserved just pops up.

I still haven’t subscribed to Audible because I still think I will start reading all of the books I carry around with me (but never do). I think listening to podcasts has made me lazy, reading wise and it saddens me that reading, one of the lives of my life, seems to be a thing of the past. I think there’s something called The Read on BBC Sounds that I listen to sometimes. I know that once I subscribe to Audible there will be no going back it also has some podcasts that I want to access eg my teenage diaries.

YouTube, full versions of books and costs nothing. hugs

Another advocate for BorrowBox 👍

For works in the public domain, you can find a number of them on YouTube. LibriVox, for example, is the audiobook organization that complements Project Gutenberg (the latter is an organization that makes written works in the public domain available free online). They have a number of lovely recordings of classics.