Audible

Getting started with audiobooks: a practical guide to your first month

By Francisco Viloria · Published on 10 October 2026 · Updated on 11 October 2026 · 9 min read

Full guide: Audible

What an audiobook is

An audiobook is the recording of a book read aloud, usually by a professional narrator or an actor, and sometimes by the author. It is not a summary or an adaptation: it is the complete text. You listen in an app, with your phone and headphones, and you can download it to hear offline. A book of average length runs between eight and twelve hours.

Why it is hard at first

Most people who try audiobooks and give up do so for one of three reasons: they chose a difficult book, they tried to listen without doing anything else or they did not like the voice. None of these has anything to do with the format not being for them. Listening to a book is a skill that is trained in a couple of weeks, just like reading on a screen.

1. Choose the first one well

The first audiobook decides whether there will be a second. Avoid starting with dense non-fiction or a novel with twenty characters. A linear story works better, or a book you have already read and fancy revisiting, or a memoir narrated by its author. If in doubt, choose something short: finishing the first in a week is far more encouraging than dragging a twenty-hour one along.

The voice matters: listen to the sample

The voice matters as much as the text. A narrator you dislike ruins the best book, and a good one improves a mediocre one. Every audiobook has a sample of a few minutes. Listen to all of it before deciding, with the headphones you are going to use. Notice the pace, whether the characters are clearly told apart and whether you could hear that voice for ten hours.

2. Tie it to a routine

Audiobooks are not listened to sitting on the sofa staring at the wall. You listen while doing something that occupies your hands and leaves your head free: the journey to work, washing up, walking the dog, running. Choose one activity and always listen then. The brain ends up asking for the book when the task begins.

3. Adjust the speed

The apps let you speed up or slow down the narration. Many listeners raise the speed a little once they are used to it, because professional reading is slower than conversation. Try different values for a few minutes and keep the one that feels natural. There is no correct speed: it depends on the narrator, the book and you.

4. Use the timer

If you listen in bed, switch on the sleep timer so that playback stops by itself. Without it, you will wake up three chapters later with no idea where you were. Fifteen or thirty minutes are usually enough. Some people also use it during the day to set themselves short sessions.

5. Go back without guilt

Getting distracted is normal. That is what the thirty-second rewind button is for. If you often get lost with a book, the problem is usually the book or the time of day, not you. Change it. Leaving an audiobook half finished is not a failure: on a flat rate you have not paid for it.

Bookmarks and notes

When you hear a sentence you want to remember, you can save a bookmark at that point and add a note. It is not as handy as underlining on paper, but it lets you return to a passage. If you listen to books you want to take ideas from, get used to marking as you go: afterwards it is almost impossible to find one sentence in ten hours of audio.

Download before you leave

Audiobooks are downloaded in the app and listened to offline. Download over wifi before leaving home, especially if you are going to travel or move through areas with no coverage. That way you use no data and do not depend on the network. Check your phone's free space: an audiobook takes up a good deal more than an ebook.

Headphones, speaker or car

For walking and housework, comfortable wireless headphones are the most practical. At home, alone, a speaker lets your ears rest. In the car, connect your phone to the sound system before setting off. If you share a space with other people, use headphones: someone else's audiobook is even more annoying than music.

In the car, sensibly

Choose the book and press play before you set off, and do not touch your phone while driving. On stretches with heavy traffic or tricky manoeuvres, pause. An audiobook is good company on the open road and a hindrance when driving demands your full attention.

Which genres work best

• Crime and adventure fiction: the plot pulls you along.
• Memoirs and biographies: they sound like someone telling you their life.
• Light popular science: short, self-contained chapters.
• Humour and short stories: easy to hear in brief spells.
• Books you have already read: missing a sentence does not matter.

Which genres are harder

Books with tables, formulas, long lists or many footnotes are hard to follow by ear. So are novels with constant time jumps or many narrators, at least at first. Do not rule them out for ever: leave them until your ear is trained, or combine them with the written text.

How long it takes to finish one

The running time is shown on each audiobook's page. An average novel is around ten hours. Listening for half an hour a day, you finish it in twenty days. If you raise the speed to 1.25, the ten hours become eight and you finish in sixteen. Knowing this helps you choose: for a 30-day trial, two audiobooks of average length are a realistic goal and enough to decide.

Listening is reading too

Some people feel that listening to a book is cheating. It is not. You follow the same story, meet the same characters and remember the same ideas. What changes is the channel. For many people, moreover, it is the only realistic way back to books after years without time to sit and read.

Combining it with reading

You do not have to choose one format. Many people read on paper or on a screen at night and listen to a different book during the day. Mixing two books at once sounds complicated and is not if they are of different genres. If you are torn between an audiobook service and a reading one, we compare them in Audible or Kindle Unlimited.

As a family

An audiobook turns a long car journey into something everyone remembers. Choose a story that appeals to all ages and save it for journeys. For children, narrated stories are a good alternative to a screen before bed, with the timer on.

For learning a language

Listening to books in another language trains the ear better than almost any exercise. Start with a book you already know in your own language, lower the speed a little and do not worry about understanding everything. Within a few hours your ear gets used to the narrator's voice and comprehension jumps.

With Alexa

If you have a speaker with Alexa, you can ask it to start your audiobook, pause it or skip a chapter. It is handy in the kitchen or at bedtime. Playback continues where you left off on your phone, so you can start in the car and carry on at home without hunting for your place.

A plan for the first 30 days

1. Day 1: choose a short, easy first book, listen to the sample and download it.
2. Week 1: listen only during one fixed activity, at normal speed.
3. Week 2: try raising the speed a little and use the timer if you listen at night.
4. Week 3: start a second book in another genre.
5. Day 23: count the hours listened and decide whether to continue.

How to know whether it is for you

After three weeks, ask yourself two questions. Have I finished at least one book? Did I miss listening on a day when I could not? If both answers are yes, the format suits you. If you have not got past the third chapter of anything, try another genre before giving up: the commonest cause is a poor first choice.

The Audible free trial

Audible offers more than 90,000 audiobooks and exclusive content, with a 30-day free trial, or 3 months if you are an Amazon Prime customer. Afterwards it costs €9.99 a month, renewing automatically, according to its 2026 programme, and cancellation is free at any time. Note the last free day when you start. The facts are in the Audible guide.

Common mistakes

• Starting with a long, dense book.
• Not listening to the sample before choosing.
• Trying to listen without doing anything else.
• Keeping a speed that bores you.
• Persisting with a book that does not grip you instead of changing it.

In short

An easy book, a voice you like and a fixed activity. With that, the first month works. The rest, speed, timer and bookmarks, are adjustments you will find along the way.

Frequently asked questions about audiobooks

Topics: getting started with audiobooks · first audiobook · how to listen to audiobooks · Audible for beginners

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