Books
Celebrity-Narrated Audiobooks For Long Road Trips
Summer's well and truly on its way, which means you have a lot of difficult decisions ahead of you: which swimsuit are you going to splurge your cash on? Where are you and your friends going to vacation? And how are you going to pick the perfect audiobook for your road trip? Wherever you're road-tripping this summer, you need an audiobook engrossing enough to make the time fly by; it's got to be as exciting as the destination itself. Is this possible? Absolutely. What you need is simple: a gripping audiobook narrated by your favorite celebrity.
Audible have got some fantastic audiobooks on offer at the moment, and we teamed up with them to bring you a list of the best. There are adventure tales, children's lit, Victorian ghost stories and classic love stories; whichever audiobook you pick, it will keep you spellbound for hours of driving across the country (once you've finished playing the license plate game, that is). Whether it's the sexy voice of Tom Hiddleston that you're after, or the sultry tones of Scarlett Johansson that you prefer, somewhere in this list you'll find your perfect book. (Now all you've got to do is work out that swimsuit dilemma.)
1. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, read by Lily Collins
Lily Collins is no stranger to re-enacting childhood classics: she previously played Snow White in the 2012 movie Mirror, Mirror. This time around, she's off to Neverland — and her fairytale voice will bring you right there with her.
2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, read by Scarlett Johansson
If you loved the latest Alice Through the Looking Glass movie, and aren't quite ready to say goodbye to Wonderland just yet, Scarlett Johansson's dreamy narration of Lewis Carroll's trippy classic is the ideal audiobook for your journey.
3. Free State of Jones by Victoria Bynum, read by Mahershala Ali
Before you head to the cinema to watch Mahershala Ali star in Free State of Jones, you better catch up on the background story. Use your road trip time to listen to the actor himself read out Victoria Bynum's fascinating research.
4. High Rise by J.G. Ballard, read by Tom Hiddleston
Tom Hiddleston stars in this shocking thriller on the big screen, and he's just as fantastic at narrating the novel it's based on. (I mean, duh. Has Tom Hiddleston ever been less than fantastic at anything ?)
5. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, read by Richard Armitage
After a few hours of Richard Armitage's lovely voice reading to you, you might not even want to get out of the car. Sure, beaches and booze are tempting — but I'm pretty sure this is better.
6. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, read by Emma Thompson
The Turn of the Screw is a rather creepy ghost story, but you can't get too scared with Emma Thompson's gorgeously gentle voice soothing you.
7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, read by Thandie Newton
A lot of people list Jane Eyre as their favorite novel, so it needs a narrator that will really do it justice. Without a doubt, Thandie Newton is that narrator. Newton herself explained that the reason so many of us love this book is because Charlotte Brontë "manages to relate, expertly, what it means to be a human being" — and she's spot on.
Image: ErikaWittlieb/Pixabay
