Listening to audiobooks is a fabulous way to pass the time on a long road trip. The right narrator can make a book come to life in a unique way, impacting a 'reader' the same way the print version would, but with a little extra aid to the imagination. Whether you're on a road trip for vacation or driving your possessions in a Penske rental truck to your new home, these audiobooks will make the journey as memorable as the destination.
Are you moving crosstown or cross-country? Are you driving down the coast or making a multi-city round-trip tour? Here are the perfect audiobooks for any trip, from short to long.
Route: Manchester, NH, to Boston
Audiobook: David Sedaris, Live at Carnegie Hall, read by author
Duration: 1 hour
Why: Sedaris' deadpan delivery makes his hilarious stories even funnier. Reviewers warn that you may have to pull over from laughing too hard…
Route: Milwaukee to Madison
Audiobook: Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, read by Toby Stephens and a full cast
Duration: 90 minutes
Why: BBC Radio's full-cast adaptation makes this classic noir fiction extra-hard boiled.
Route: New York City to Wilmington, DE
Audiobook: Woody Allen, Without Feathers, read by author
Duration: 2 hours 13 minutes
Why: If you like Allen's absurdist New Yorker stories, you'll love hearing them read in his own inimitable voice.
Route: San Francisco to Los Angeles
Audiobook: Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, read by David Suchet
Duration: 6 hours 8 minutes
Why: Christie's first book is deliciously good, and David Suchet's facility with accents and voices makes the audio version wildly entertaining.
Route: Washington, DC to Charleston, SC
Audiobook: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, read by Derek Jacobi
Duration: 9 hours 5 minutes
Why: Brought to life by the amazing Derek Jacobi, the brilliant, moody detective is a great road trip buddy, and short stories are perfect for the attention span-challenged.
Route: Kansas City, MO to Birmingham, AL
Audiobook: Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, read by Sissy Spacek
Duration: 12 hours
Why: This beloved American classic stands the test of time, and is an evocative choice for a deep South road trip. 
Route: Boulder, CO to Nashville, TN
Audiobook: Kathryn Stockett, The Help, read by Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin and Octavia Spencer
Duration: 18 hours 19 minutes
Why: The three distinct narrators voicing different main characters actually enhances the experience of reading this critically acclaimed book.
Route: Salt Lake City, UT to St. Louis, MO
Audiobook: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, read by Anthony Heald
Duration: 20 hours 29 minutes
Why: You'll be surprised by how modern and compelling this great Russian novel is — and think of all the well-deserved bragging you'll be able to do!
Route: Seattle, WA to San Diego, CA
Audiobook: Stephen King, Duma Key, read by John Slattery
Duration: 21 hours 15 minutes
Why: Critics called this thriller Stephen King's best book in 15 years, and Mad Men's John Slattery gives it a dry, thoughtful reading that will have you on the edge of your driver's seat.
Route: Chicago to Miami
Audiobook: Keith Richards, Life, read by Keith Richards, Johnny Depp and Joe Hurley
Duration: 23 hours
Why: Richards' deeply personal and entertaining memoir gets even more rock n' roll in this audiobook/performance, featuring Johnny Depp.
Route: Round-trip Multi-City Tour: New York - Memphis - Houston - LA - Portland - Boise - Minneapolis - Chicago - New York
Audiobook: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter Collection, read by Jim Dale
Duration: 117 hours
Why: Jim Dale's virtuosic performance has won awards and acclaim for bringing these phenomenal books magically to life. Your next long haul is the perfect opportunity to listen to the full saga from beginning to end.
(Images: Flickr user DrDAD, shared on Creative Commons; Amazon.com.)
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I'm moving this weekend from Oklahoma to Virginia (a twenty hour drive!!!) in a Penske truck, and I just bought my audio book for the trip today. American Gods, clocking in at just over 20 hours long. I'm hoping that it'll help keep me sane since I'm making the drive alone!
The Good Earth
Dan Brown books are great on audiobook, as they're exciting and the plot moves fast so I don't fall asleep at the wheel...
Winnie the Pooh, and Frog and Toad in the kids book department. Judi Dench is on the Winnie one, and Arnold Lobel reads Frog and TOad himself. pretty awesome.
All of David Sedaris! Seriously the best on a long drive.
Deep Survival. It's both informative and a bit scary.
David Rosenfelt - open and shut
and all the podcasts from cartalk
I listened to the '"Little House" books again this past year (at age 48). The reader is Cherry Jones, whose voice is IDEAL for Laura. And as an adult, I had a much greater understanding and empathy for Ma and Pa in the travails they faced. Bears! Blizzards! Grasshoppers 6 inches deep! Malaria! OMG!
I second David Sedaris, great travel audiobooks. But definitely for a long journey the American Harry Potter audiobooks with Jim Dale over the British ones, he could read a phone book. I was just slightly too old when the series first came out and rather stuck my nose up at it for a long time as not real literature. But after grad school (I have my MFA in writing) I wanted something fun and was starting to get into audiobooks and some of my classmates recommended the series because we were all big Pushing Daisies fans (Jim Dale narrated the show). I have listened to them at least three times, cant believe I took so long to try them out. Night Circus is also good. Another recent one that I enjoyed was The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, narrated by Elizabeth McGovern of Downton Abby.
My advice is to not just play audiobooks. There are movies and TV shows that are perfect for driving trips and they do a much better job of narrating a story and painting a picture than someone simply reading a story or a novel.
I have a 240gig custom iPod that I have used for years that has plenty of such TV shows and movies on them and even music doesn't keep me awake like they do. Don't be tempted to watch the video though as that would be illegal for the driver and obviously dangerous.
For those old enough to remember and appreciate a good TV show to drive to would be Northern Exposure. Perfect.
The Help is my all-time favorite audiobook. This one might make you miss your exit on the highway.....
I also enjoyed The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.
And Donna Leon's Guide Brunetti mystery novels. They're great beach reads so why not for a summer road trip?
Since I cancelled my Sirius account, I've been listening to audiobooks during my daily commute. I mostly finished the George R. R. Martin books, but I think the story And the narration really got worse after the first couple of books. So, unless you are a fan, I'd skip those.
I finished listening to both of Deborah Harkness's books - I finished the second one this morning. They are good and entertaining.
I prefer to buy unabridged audio books, generally, however, some of the abridged ones are right at 3 hours which is great for when I go to see my parents- a 3 hour trip, one way
I hear Tina Fey's Bossypants is great in audiobook format - I plan to listen to it this weekend on a camping road trip!
I listened to:
THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
and
MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL
Both excellent books...it made it hard for me to stop and take a break to get gas!
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver. Great narrator.
In no particular order...
A Good American by Alex George
Up in Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard
Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney
David Sedaris books. Podcasts from The Moth (free!) or This American Life.
The best audiobooks for driving are cheap thrillers. Mystery novels. James Patterson, or whatever. These are books I would never read in my "real life." But they have plots that move fast. I promise you, that Jonathan Franzen novel is NOT going to be a fun listen. You need something that you can hone in on the big details, miss a couple of minor things while you're scanning the road signs to decide whether to pull over at the next exit, and remain engaged. I am totally embarrassed to even speak the name of this book, but The Davinci Code made for excellent driving entertainment.
The Stephen King time travel book (November 11, 1963) was a good read from my car. As soon as it was over, it frizzled right out of my mind, so I guess it was kind of like cotton candy - tasty but not nutritious or long-term filling.
I also really liked "Misery" on audiobook.
We drove from TX to Calif and back this summer and listened to 3 books....they're all non-fiction and I'd highly recommend each of them:
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakaeur (great introspection and tons to think about with a gripping story line)
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (Wow. I mean. Wow. This book can't be made into a movie soon enough (comes out next year). It is gripping. We actually didn't finish the book on our drive but HAD to listen to it in our family room when we got home since we were entranced)
• Bossy Pants by Tina Fey (no brainer. She's a great writer and she narrates the book in her perfectly Tina Fey tone. Entertaining)
Those are my recommends!
- Dana of MADE
www.danamadeit.com
At audiostory.com you can listen to the same story in English, French and Spanish. This also helps to improve your language skills while travelling!
Elena