![]() From one profile to the next, the moral threads swing wildly: Subjects include a Syrian arms dealer, a criminal defense lawyer specializing in the most heinous cases, and the chef turned globe-trotter Anthony Bourdain. “Rogues” compiles 12 years’ worth of long-form articles Keefe has written for The New Yorker, revealing his predilection for the margins of what we consider acceptable society. With ROGUES: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks (Random House Audio, 15 hours, 28 minutes), we’re treated to the same level of journalistic rigor, and the same passion for breaking open mysteries, in an unmistakably bingeable package. In between his regular contributions to The New Yorker, he has published an exposé of the Sackler family and an account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland that’s so thrilling I listened to all 15 hours in just three days. The journalist Patrick Radden Keefe has made a career out of deep dives into fascinating characters - and he’s very good at it. Case in point: These three new audiobooks might make you reconsider the categories into which publishers divide what we listen to. As the soundtrack to my daily life has continued unabated, I’ve recently started to wonder: How do we compartmentalize so many competing stimuli? How does the brain organize it all? As both audiobooks and podcasts continue to surge in popularity, I’d argue it’s becoming less and less clear where those classifications fall - and whether classification even matters. Audible delays that penalty by allowing a limited number of rollover credits but if you hit the limit, you’re paying for nothing.At any given time, I’m usually listening to at least one audiobook, half a dozen podcast series and a handful of new music albums. The killer cost with Audible, as with any subscription service, is paying the monthly fee when you don’t use the service. If the Play Store price is less than the price you pay for an Audible credit, buying the audiobook is cheaper but it may shorten the time before you hit your rollover limit. If you listen regularly to audiobooks and want to pay the least for the pleasure, you’ll have to spend time checking prices on Audible and the Google Play Store every time you want to listen to a book. If you consistently listen to more than two audiobooks a month, go with Audible for the first two and either use a rolled-over credit or compare prices for purchasing the additional books. As always, the cost-benefit disappears when you hit the rollover limit. The average book price for the monthly platinum subscription is a few cents less than $11.50 and two full price audiobooks from the Google Play Store could easily cost four times as much. If you listen to two books each month, Audible looks even more attractive. If you listen to books steadily, but take a little longer than a month to finish a book, Audible is still the best option until you hit the rollover limit. If you listen to one book a month every month, Audible’s $14.95 Gold plan is likely to be cheaper than buying the audiobook from Google, although this will depend on both the price of the book and whether either service has it on sale. Of course, the unused credits roll over with Audible, but sooner or later you’re going to hit the rollover limit at which point you’ll be paying for nothing. With Google, you pay nothing if you don’t listen to a book, while you pay the subscription fee whether you listen to a book or not with Audible. If you listen to less than one audiobook per month, Google’s audiobooks are the cheaper option. In general, however, Audible is the cheaper of the two options. It depends on how many audiobooks you listen to each month, the regular purchase price of the books, and whether or not the books are on sale. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to the question of whether Google audiobooks or Amazon’s Audible is the cheapest way to listen to audiobooks.
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