Audiobooks are amazingly useful. There are so many situations where your hands and eyes are occupied, but your ears are free. Driving. Exercising. Standing in line at a coffee shop. Being able to read in all of these situations drastically increases the amount of reading you can do.
Audible is the largest platform for audiobooks in the world. Its massive library of hundreds of thousands of audiobooks allows you to listen to just about any book you can think of. With such a catalog, you may be wondering where you should start. Well, fear not. We’re here to recommend the best works of fiction currently available on the platform.
The Count of Monte Cristo
A novel of epic intrigue
This amazing reading of an amazing translation of an amazing novel transports you to 19th-century France to follow the story of a mysterious count as he takes revenge on the people who betrayed him.
Written by all-time-great author Alexandre Dumas and read by the excellent Bill Homewood for Naxos Audiobooks, this story of intrigue and revenge follows the young Edmond Dantès, a resident of 19th century France, as he escapes unjust imprisonment and seeks his revenge on those responsible for it. This isn’t afantasy novel or a period piece. The book is just that old.
It’s a riveting tale, and it’s made even better by the excellent voice acting on display here. This novel has hundreds of characters. Many actors would make some, if not all, sound the same, but Homewood is able to give every single one of them their own voice. Parts of the novel that could’ve been dry on the page or in the hands of a lesser voice actor are elevated by his performance.
Dune
The founder of modern space opera
This classic work of science fiction is brought to life by a cast of a dozen voice actors in this amazing audiobook adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune.
This amazing adaptation bringsDune, the sci-fi classic that served as the basis for one of this year’s biggest films, andthe beginning of one of the most epic sci-fi sagas of all time, to your ears in its complete, unabridged form. If you’re interested in experiencing this classic work, but are intimidated by its length and density, this audiobook is a great way for you to experience it.
The principal draw here is the book itself, but, like the other books on this list, it’s elevated by the amazing cast of twelve actors. The main narrator does an especially good job, his voice injecting energy and emotion into some of the book’s slower bouts of exposition. If you’ve never experienced this book, this is a great way to do it.
Lolita
Light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.
Read by the legendary actor Jeremy Irons, who played the protagonist in Adrian Lyne’s 1997 adaptation of Lolita, this audiobook brings this controversial classic’s amazing prose to life.
Lolita is an amazing character study, and a powerful meditation on the nature of evil and the people who perpetrate it. Its protagonist is, objectively, a despicable person. We learn very early on that he is a murderer, and that is not the most disturbing of his crimes.
Few writers would be capable of making the perspective of such a despicable character enjoyable, but this book pulls it off. Using some of the best prose ever written in English, Vladimir Nabikov makes Humbert Humbert come across as charming, charismatic, funny, poetic, and sophisticated, and the fact that we find ourselves tempted to like such an awful character is as disturbing asany horror novel. Lolita understands that monsters can have a human shape and human thoughts.
A Christmas Carol
A happy story, yet an extremely smart and nuanced one
Part of a series of classic books read by well-known actors, this audiobook brings the vocal talents of Tim Curry to one of the greatest, and most heartwarming, novels of all time.
Part of the Audible Signature Classics series, in which famous works of literature are read by equally famous actors, this iteration of Charles Dickens' famous novel A Christmas Carol is read by legendary actor Tim Curry. His deep, gothic voice goes great with the playfully dark but ultimately heartwarming source material, making for an amazing listen.
A Christmas Carol is one of the most famous and frequently retold stories in human history, and there are a number of very good reasons for this. It’s not just a happy children’s story about magic and Christmas. It’s an extremely thoughtful character study full of depth, wit, wisdom, and pathos, worth listening to any time of the year.
The Handmaid’s Tale: Special Edition
It’s both a smart book and a wise one
This audible-exclusive reading of perhaps the greatest dystopian novel ever written contains bonus material that can be found nowhere else.
The Handmaid’s Tale is not a happy book. Not one little bit. It’s about a world where America has been taken over by religious fascists, (even more so than in real life). It tells the story of a single enslaved concubine under a government that views every man, woman and child in its domain as a resource.
This point should be stressed. This book isn’t just a feminist or progressive screed. It’s about how environmental catastrophes and mass infertility create a world where everyone’s value is reduced to how their bodies can serve that society’s rulers. The way this society uses men as soldiers and workers is no less objectifying than the plight of the handmaids. Gilead is a dark mirror that shows us how many of the values we consider traditional were invented cynically for the benefit of powerful people, and it ends on a somber note that suggests that fundamental fact may never change, no matter how enlightened we try to become.
Alias Grace
Based on the true story of a real woman
From Margaret Atwood, the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, comes a dramatic retelling of the true story of a “fallen” woman in a bleak prison. It’s just as thoughtful as the Handmaid’s Tale.
Another Atwood novel, Alias Grace also about an imprisoned woman living in an unjust society, just not a fictional one. This novel takes place in Canada, in 1843, and is based on the story of a real woman, Grace Marks, who really was imprisoned under the circumstances featured in this book. We won’t say more for the sake of avoiding spoilers, but suffice it to say that everything in this novel is compatible with the historical evidence available to Atwood through her research, though she didn’t mind making things up to fill in certain gaps.
This novel is good for most of the same reasons the Handmaid’s tale is good. It has the same wise, insightful voice, the same eye for tragic detail, and the same oppressive atmosphere. 19th century Canada is not as brutal as Gilead, but what this novel loses from that, it gets back by being more grounded. Its scope is smaller, but that allows everything about it to feel extremely real.
1984: New Classic Edition
An extremely insightful book
Probably the most popular, and commonly referenced, dystopian novel ever written, the true greatness of 1984 is appreciated only by those who have actually taken the time to read it. This audiobook makes that easier than ever.
1984 is the most populardystopiannovel ever written, and for good reason. Unfortunately, in some ways, it’s become a victim of its own success. Most modern discourse surrounding 1984 consists of people who haven’t read the book using their limited, second-hand understanding of it to accuse their political enemies of resembling its dystopian government. That’s a damn shame, because this book is a lot less partisan and a lot smarter than those conversations give it credit for.
1984 is not about whichever of the two American political parties you most dislike. It is an exploration of the flaws inherent in all systems of government. The point is not that our society will become Oceania. It’s that, in many ways, we are already a lot like them, as has been every conventional government in human history. Every state propagandizes. Every state is incentivized to survail its citizens. Every state uses the word “peace” or “defense” in the name of its warmaking body. 1984 is not a prophecy. It is a mirror, held up to the whole of human society.
The Lake House
Extremely well-thought-out and well-executed
This excellently crafted mystery novel is a love-letter to the genre. It’s self-aware and plays with numerous tropes, while, at the same time, executing many of those same tropes flawlessly.
If you’re remotely a fan ofmystery novels, The Lake House is going to be an excellent read for you. Not only is this book written by a veteran mystery author, it stars one, too. It’s a delightfully meta and self-aware love letter to the mystery genre, which, at the same time, is an extremely well-executed and enthralling example of it.
The story itself is about a cold case, the decades-old disappearance of a wealthy family’s infant child, who seemingly disappeared from the inside of a locked room. Characters have various reasons of their own to investigate this mystery, and this book takes us on a wonderful ride as it slowly reveals who took him, how, and why. We obviously won’t be spoiling those answers here. Suffice it to say that they’re interesting, multi-layered, complex, and satisfying.
FAQDo audiobooks count as reading?
Yes, absolutely. To listen to a book is to experience the entirety of it. There’s no reason why this should “count” as reading the book any less than the traditional method would.
Is it better to listen to Audible or read?
There are many ways in which audiobooks are more convenient than conventional ones. You can listen to them while you do other things, which means you’ll be able to get a lot more reading done if you integrate them into your life. In addition, if you have ADHD or a similar condition which makes you struggle to retain and comprehend what you read, you may have fewer difficulties with audiobooks than you do with conventional ones. At the same time, reading a book allows you to move through a story at a pace optimized for you and your brain, and leaves more aspects of it to your imagination. In the end, you’re just going to have to try both and figure out which works better for you.
