Audible is currently half-price – here's why I recommend you sign up

Independent

18-02-2025

Immersing you in other worlds, vividly imagined characters or incredible true stories, audiobooks have never been so popular. From A-list actors narrating romantic novels to tell-all memoirs read by the writers themselves, the industry is booming. Last year, for example, bookworms (or earworms?) spent £1bn on audiobooks.
It's not hard to see the appeal. A grown-up version of parents reading to children before bedtime, the spoken word is tinged with nostalgia – there's a reason why they thrived during the pandemic when many of us found solace and company in an audiobook.
For others, audiobooks go hand in hand with chores – think walking the dog, long train journeys or skincare routines – occupying a side of the brain that's busy doing something else.
Among the most popular genres are crime, thriller and fantasy. Richard Osman's latest cosy crime caper We Solve Murders is consistently in the top 10 charts, while Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing series uses multiple actors to throw you right into its mythical land of dragons.
Non-fiction is one of the fastest-growing genres, with memoirs, history books and biographies all proving popular. Clips of Prince Harry narrating his memoir Spare went viral, while Matthew Perry's 2022 autobiography, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing is now a poignant listen following the actor's death.
Appealing to those who might not otherwise pick up a book, services like Amazon Audible mean you download a new title and start listening within a minute (no book shop trip or next-day delivery order required). It's never been easier to dive into a new tome.
If you're looking to widen your audiobook listening in 2025 or embrace the spoken word for the very first time, you can currently save 50 per cent on your first three months of Amazon Audible. Usually costing £7.99, you receive a credit each month that buys you an audiobook. If you want to buy more than one a month, each title tends to cost around £10. But owing to the length, it usually takes a couple of weeks to get through each one.
I've been an avid audiobook listener for years, so here's some book inspiration to get you started, from memoirs to fiction.
Known for his New Yorker essays and This American Life programs, the American humorist and essayist David Sedaris is at his best when narrating his own writing.
Me Talk Pretty One Day is arguably his best collection of personal essays and in turn, his best audiobook. Whether he's exploring his move from New York to Paris and attempting to learn French from a sadistic teacher, ranting about posh restaurants, recounting his childhood guitar lessons (you won't ever forget his tutor Mr Mancini after listening to the essay) or reflections on his idiosyncratic family, it's laugh-out-loud funny thanks to Sedaris' pitch-perfect comedic timing. The collection of essays is perfect for dipping in and out of as if you would a podcast.
Barbara Kingsolver won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Women's Prize for Fiction for her 2023 novel Demon Copperhead. A retelling of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, it's a powerful reimagining set amid America's opioid crisis.
Narrated by Charlie Thurston, the actor's regional accent transports you right to southwest Virginia, where the story is set. Thurston's narration is just as emotive as the novel itself, which centres on young Damon Fields, who is born to a drug-using teenage mother. A hero against the odds, we follow him through school and into young adulthood, just like in Dickens' novel. Owing to rich character development and life-affirming but often tragic storytelling, it's the kind of book you grieve once you've finished listening.
Author of Rodham, American Wife and Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld novels are a guaranteed good time. Her latest, Romantic Comedy, is a joyous listen, following A TV scriptwriter who develops an unlikely crush. Working on A Saturday Night Live -type show, Sally Milz is successful but long over finding love. That is until she meets Noah, an attractive young pop star who is making a guest appearance on the show. Funny, warm and witty, Kristen Sieh's narration is the perfect lighthearted companion for dog walks and chores.
Narrated by the icon that is Miriam Margoyles herself, the actor's memoir This Much is True is a rollicking ride through her life. From her blissful upbringing and time at university in the Cambridge Footlights to hilarious sexual escapades and gossip on Hollywood A-listers Warren Beatty and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Touching on the highs and lows of her life, she's candid on her stint as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter franchise and her work in Call the Midwife, while also exploring her 53-year relationship with her partner Heather. Unsurprisingly, it's hilarious but equally a fascinating and emotional portrait of a life well-lived.
Read by the SAG-nominated Bridgerton actor Adjoa Adoh, the audiobook of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's epic novel Half of The Yellow Sun is as much of a masterpiece as the novel itself.
Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, the evocative story is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, when a civil war was raging in which a million people died and thousands were massacred. Following three people whose lives intersect as they're swept up in the violence, the novel explores everything from moral responsibility to the end of colonialism. The characters and story stay with you long after you finish listening.