Favorite Things: Scribd

I am both frugal and skeptical, so when introduced to a new idea, I often question: "what's the catch?" or "what will go wrong?"

My situation is I wanted to listen to audiobooks, however, the public library, while having an impressive collection, did not always carry the titles I wanted. Amazon's Audible service had lots of titles, but you either had to purchase the title individually which was paying almost list price, or you bought credits in advance which was a little less expensive.

In researching alternative services, I came across Scribd which is like Netflix for books and audiobooks. It almost seemed too good to be true. For a fixed price, I could listen to or read as many books in their catalog as I wanted. I read mostly nonfiction (psychology, behavioral economics, time management, etc) and Scribd carried many of the titles I searched, so I signed up for a 30 day free trial. I don't understand their business model, but I feel like I get my money's worth of reading / listening for the annual fee. So I couldn't tell you "what's the catch."

All I know is it's been two years since I first signed up, and I just renewed my annual subscription to start my 3rd year, and I still love it. Here's a 60 day free trial link; if you end up signing up, I'll get a 30 day extension on my subscription.