We’re all ears for audiobooks – and here are some of the best
Sales have doubled in the past five years, with commuters and men aged 25 to 44 accounting for the bulk of purchases. But many of us are unable to finish them – so here are a few you won’t give up on
No longer just the greatest invention for bathtub readers, the audiobook is, according to new data, the surprise saviour for solving one of the world’s greatest problems: getting non-readers to read. Sales of audiobooks have doubled in the past five years, according to Nielsen Bookscan figures revealed at the London Book Fair this week, with commuters and men aged 25 to 44 accounting for the bulk of that rise.
But presumably factors other than fidgety, word-averse men are also at play. Perhaps the astronomic rise of the podcast over the last decade has made everyone more audio-friendly. Since Amazon bought Audible in 2008 for $300m, the retail giant has also been flinging cash at the form with wild abandon, as free and ambitious as Stephen Fry’s reading of Harry Potter (don’t worry if you’ve only started, his slightly ropey Hermione gets better).
