The 15 Best Audiobooks to Listen to While Driving: Long Road Trips, Quick Drives, and Everything in Between 

There could not be a better book to listen to while driving! Your trips near or far will go by faster with this series of sometimes serious, sometimes silly, always hilarious conversations. In fact, you might decide to go for a drive just to listen to Jerry Seinfeld and a long list of comedy greats wax poetic about their favorite hot beverages, humor as an art form, and the triumphs and tribulations of life. Listen straight through or select chapters at random featuring what we think must be the largest collection of performing legends ever assembled for an audiobook: Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Don Rickles, Eddie Murphy, and over 80 more. 

This won’t be a book that puts you to sleep at the wheel. A 2023 Audie Award Winner for Best Male Narrator, Seth Numrich becomes 17-year-old Charlie in this incredible story of good vs. evil. In classic King fashion, we are presented with fully developed characters, and in classic Numrich fashion, he brings those characters to life with unique and fully realized voices. And you may recognize a familiar voice when Charlie finds the cassette recording left by Mr. Bowditch. Spoiler alert: it’s not Seth Numrich. 

Who isn’t tempted to unleash their inner rock star while driving? This memoir by Bono, the lead singer of iconic rock band U2, gives you that chance. Bono was intent on making the audiobook a unique experience by producing a soundtrack that interweaves his narration with innovative sound design. The audiobook also includes reimagined versions of some of the biggest U2 songs. In between listening to Bono’s revelations about his commitments to song writing, performing, family, friends, spirituality, and social activism, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to roll down the windows, sing along, and imagine that your destination is just the next stop on your band’s worldwide tour. 

This longtime best seller seems custom-made for car trips. Less than six hours long, it’s divided into succinct easy-to-understand chapters, which you can complete just as easily in one long drive or a week’s worth of errands and commuting. Clear’s focus is on how to abandon bad habits and develop healthy ones using practical strategies like planning, measuring progress, and making tiny consistent changes that can deliver big results. Give this a listen, and you might discover not only new habits but also a new sense of well-being. 

There’s a very good reason that this Founding Father inspired a hip-hop musical—he had a life story filled with a Hollywood movie amount of adventure, tragedy, success, and defeat, as well as a super-sized ego. Author Chernow argues that Hamilton was defined by his overflowing passions and ambitions, none of which were greater than his strong-willed plans for his new country. Over 30 hours long, the clear and straightforward narration makes Chernow’s deep research and analysis very accessible and perfect for a cross-country trek or a month of daily commutes. Treat this book as a college course about the pivotal early days of America. Lin-Manuel Miranda took the course, and it changed his life. Maybe it will change yours, too. 

A companion novel that any avid Game of Thrones fan will adore. You may have been intimidated by its textbook-like nature, but that’s where Simon Vance comes to the rescue. Vance is a powerhouse narrator that aptly turns this history lesson of Westeros into as riveting a story as the first season of GoT. It’s bound to make your cross-country road trips feel like the epic travels on horseback that we all crave. 

We all let great books slip by us, but car time is a perfect way to catch up. In this 1960s New York City crime novel (a B&N Best Book of 2021), multiple Pulitzer-winning author Whitehead introduces protagonist Ray Carney—a furniture salesman with a double life—and a set of meticulously crafted supporting roles. Narrator Dion Graham embodies them all in a powerful and atmospheric performance, which deservedly earned him an Earphones Award. Whitehead decided after he wrote this novel that he needed more time with Ray’s story and neighborhood, so make this title a priority on your TBL list so that you’re ready for part two, releasing Spring 2023. (If you’ve already read this, here are some more past bestselling fiction favorites: All the Light We Cannot See, The Cold Millions, Olive Kitteridge.) 

Memoirs are some of our favorites to listen to in the car, and Tom Felton certainly has an especially fun and interesting story to share. Magic and mayhem, indeed. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s a delight to listen to, using voices and laughing at his own life. It genuinely feels as though you and Tom are having a butterbeer at The Leaky Cauldron as he starts from the beginning and pours honesty, frankness, and charm into a narrative that’s as relatable as it is surprising. 

We think one of the most gratifying ways to indulge in a long-running book series is to listen during various car trips, where the familiar characters become your frequent traveling companions. If you haven’t yet met Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his friends, neighbors, co-workers, and enemies from the Quebec village of Three Pines, consider yourself lucky because you’ve just landed on a clever, humorous, surprising, and award-winning mystery series that will entertain you for years! And if you are already a longtime fan of the print versions, we encourage you to dip into any of the audiobooks. The first 10 installments feature superb narration of the many variations of French and English accents by Ralph Cosham, who earned several Earphones Awards. The latest installment is #18. That’s a lot of future travels to look forward to with old friends! 

This modern nature classic is part science, part travelogue, part US history, part social commentary, and part buddy comedy. The author/novice hiker regales us with important facts about the environment, fascinating local trivia, biting social commentary, and lots of humor as he and an old friend (who is, let’s say generously, not a fan of walking, never mind hiking) attempt the Appalachian Trail’s 2100 miles from Georgia to Maine. As you get where you’re going on two, four, or more wheels, this will inspire you to take some other journeys by foot… or at least to live vicariously through those who do. 

Traveling with the kids to visit family over the holidays or at any other time is always stressful, so add a dash of Disney villains for some family fun. Your kids know the princess versions of these classic stories, but what about the villains’ side of the story? Lucy Rayner will keep everyone entertained with her lilting accent through this trilogy bundle. 

Your car is sometimes the best place for contemplation or self-reflection. Oprah Winfrey is a natural storyteller, and Bruce D. Perry is a renowned trauma expert. Together they weave a narration reminiscent of all those deep conversations on The Oprah Winfrey Show. They invite you to sit on the virtual couch with them and open up about emotional pain that often negatively impacts behaviors. And then they gently teach us how to move forward and arrive at a place of understanding, mindfulness, and healing. 

If you thought you were driving your vehicle past a corn field, you were mistaken. You are flying a starship in the Expansionary Fleet! Marc Thompson turns a solo performance into the believable sound of a multi-cast narration. This, coupled with the superb sound design of a starship humming in the background, makes the audiobook a fully immersive listening experience. 

Before there were books on tape, digital audiobooks, or streaming podcasts, there was radio. Mysteries, comedies, abridged movies, and classic books were performed from beginning to end in 30-60 minutes for rapt families gathered together at home. We think a well-told short story remains one of the most artful and satisfying audio experiences available. In this collection of nine gems, highly versatile writer George Saunders entertains us with his words and his voice, alongside an eclectic mix of other narrators, including Tina Fey and Michael McKean. Trust us: the themes and subjects don’t really matter: they’re by Saunders, they’re short, and they’re skillfully dramatized. 

Yes, we admit it! We count ourselves among the global millions who are Jane Austen devotees. Listening to a BBC Radio Dramatisation is the best way to listen to all of Jane’s work. It’s truly like watching a movie without the screen. The audio has plenty of music and background chatter to accompany the scenes so that it paints a picture in your mind. And let’s be honest, readers: we all know that listening to Jane’s delicious dialogue is even better than reading it every time!