Listening
How to Start With Audiobooks
Audiobooks turn commutes, walks and washing-up into reading time. Here's how to begin and how to get more out of them.
Where to get audiobooks
You have three main routes. Subscription services like Audible give you a large catalogue and a credit each month toward almost any title. Your local library lends audiobooks for free through apps like Libby. And you can buy individual audiobooks outright to keep, which suits anything you'll re-listen to.
Most people end up mixing all three: the library for casual listening, a subscription for new releases, and the occasional purchase of a favourite.
Getting the listening habit
Audiobooks shine in the gaps: driving, exercising, cooking, commuting. Pick something with a strong narrator for your first one — narration makes or breaks the experience. Memoirs read by their authors and well-cast fiction are reliably good starting points.
Play with the speed. Many listeners settle slightly above 1x once their ear adjusts, which meaningfully increases how much they get through without losing comprehension.
Kit that helps
You don't need much. Comfortable headphones or earbuds you can wear for an hour, or a small Bluetooth speaker for the kitchen, cover most listening. Bone-conduction headphones are popular with walkers and runners because they leave your ears open to traffic.
Shop the picks
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Common questions
Does listening to a book 'count' as reading?
Comprehension studies broadly find listening and reading lead to similar understanding for most material. Audiobooks count as enjoying a book — they just use your ears instead of your eyes.
What speed should I listen at?
Start at normal speed, then nudge it up gradually. Many regular listeners are comfortable somewhere between 1.1x and 1.5x once their ear adjusts. Slow back down for dense or beautifully written prose.