You may not have known but June is audiobook month. While I still have plenty of paperbacks as well as an e-reader, I really enjoy listening to audiobooks. Especially as I have a long commute that requires me to spend over 2 hours a day in a car, audiobooks mean I can still enjoy stories by listening to them.

Audiobooks are also great for travel as they don’t weigh anything, you can have a whole library saved to your phone and it is really easy to listen on a plane when they have turned all the lights off, or in a dorm room with no proper reading light.

Audible is probably the most well known audiobook source and is what I use but there are heaps of other ways to get books to listen to, including heaps of free options. How To Geek has summarised it best so I will just point you to their article.

In celebration of audiobook month, here are a list of some audiobooks I have listened to recently –

Non-Fiction

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
This is a really well written book that explains some basic scientific theories in a fascinating and easy to understand way. Even though I have a science degree I still really enjoyed listening as it filled in a few gaps for me, and brought some concepts together in a well summarised manner. This style of book was also easy to stop for a while and pick up again later.

A Short History of Private Life – Bill Bryson
This book is similar to the one above, but focuses on the house and home life. I learned about how our homes have changed over time and the history behind common household items like salt and pepper.

Fiction

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
Like most people I read the book and saw the movies ages ago, but this narration by Stephen Fry is amazing and listening to it again has reminded me why this is such a beloved series.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
This is such a quirky story and again being narrated by Stephen Fry makes it a great listen. I have seen the movies but never read the books so it was great to finally get through the first one.

Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan
This book was a lot of fun! I listened to it on the flight home from LA last year just before the movie was released. I really enjoyed experiencing the characters in book-form first and then the movie just expanded on that. It also made me want to visit Singapore ASAP!

Biographies

My Thoughts Exactly – Lily Allen
I found this book to be quite revealing about her private life and it was interesting to know what things we have heard in the media are real and what isn’t. I did however struggle with the narration, Lily seemed so bored reading her own story! I would skip this one unless you are a die-hard Lily fan.

This Will Only Hurt a Little – Busy Philipps
I actually really enjoyed this one, and similarly you get to hear some interesting stories of Busy’s private life as well as behind the scenes of the shows she has been on. She was also really enthusiastic in her narration which made it an enjoyable listen.

Challenge Accepted – Celeste Barber
I feel like this one sat in-between the previous two.. I enjoyed Celeste’s narration and there were some really fascinating stories like her open-heart surgery, however I think she tries a little too hard to be silly and funny which I found cheapened the book a little. It was still an enjoyable listen.

Up next

I have plenty more books in my wishlist to get to! These include The Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion), the rest of Harry Potter and Hitchhiker’s series, Bill Bryson’s Made in America and Down Under, and Bryan Cranston’s autobiography ‘A Life in Parts’.

What audiobooks have you listened to recently?