#meaning that though it is functionally *my* book club I do not make sweeping rules or judgements

[half-orq]

Gonna rant for a second I've been anti-audible for a while --well over a decade, though it wasn't always a position of "Fuck Amazon" --I didn't see the point of paying for access to 1-3 audiobooks per month when I was reading that in a week for free from my library. Did I have to wait sometimes? Sure. but also I was reading 1-3 audiobooks in a week. There were other audiobooks to listen to in the week while I waited --and so I listened to my less popular series while waiting for the more popular series. (for context, the time I'm taking about I was working at a bakery that allowed me to have headphones in, as there were never customers (we worked in a warehouse and shipped to stores and restaurants) so I was listening to 40 hrs a week plus commute times, plus times when I was playing the sims) But what I especially hate is audible exclusives. I had (wrongly) assumed that if a book was audible exclusive, there would be no way to get the book in other formats elsewhere. I run a book club. We democratically select the books for the next year, as long as they are within a few guidelines (we have length requirements within the founding guidelines, we must be able to source them through the public library with the help of the ILL specialist, and I research each book for things like content, pacing, heaviness --so we don't have two slow somber books in a row, mostly, but also so I don't have more than one horror novel in a year type thing. Keeps the books interesting, and keeps the choices balanced.)

One book, requested last year by three members and so very much quickly made the list, ended up being an audible exclusive. I did not check for audible exclusivity when I was making the list --my club wanted to read a book, and I could see that we could get copies of the book, confirmed by the ILL specialist. Great!

Except!!! Except this is an accessibility issue. If someone, for any given reason, needs an audiobook to access this book club (as I often do as someone with adhd for ease but do not need need. I can get by with no audiobook if I must, but if someone has vision issues, well.). If someone needs it and does not want to or have the ability to pay for an audible subscription, they are locked out of that month's book club.

And man that fucking sucks.