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Recommend me a long audiobook

63 replies

BorisTheShark · 08/03/2026 11:06

I need a new audiobook ๐Ÿ˜€

I like them long, like 30 hours long, bonus points if itโ€™s part of a series I can get in to.

have recently read/listened to Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Strike collection, Fourth Wing collection, all of the Sarah J Mass, The Goldfinch, things like that

thanks!

OP posts:
MooseBeTimeForSnow · 09/03/2026 01:14

Anthony Bourdainโ€™s โ€œKitchen Confidentialโ€, read by the man himself.

ThisTimeWillBeDifferent · 09/03/2026 09:44

DoAWheelie · 08/03/2026 22:30

Dungeon Crawler Carl series starts out short-ish but by the 7th book it's 28 hours. There is an 8th book out soon and at least two more to follow.

Currently it's over 140 hours and climbing. One of the best series I've read in years and I've barely stopped thinking about it since I first started it a year ago.

Yes!! Also a series itโ€™s definitely worth listening to rather than reading (or in addition to). Jeff Hays is a GLORIOUS narrator.

SydneyPear · 09/03/2026 12:16

CinnamonSweet73 · 08/03/2026 22:17

Another vote for Stephen King - I don't think 11/22/63 has been mentioned, that kept me enthralled!

Oooh yes - one of my favourites.

TokyoSushi · 09/03/2026 12:19

All the colours of the dark? It's about 600 pages long so probably a decent length as an audiobook, I absolutely loved it.

BorisTheShark · 09/03/2026 18:18

I think Iโ€™m going to start with the pillars of earth ๐Ÿ˜€

so many recommendations are ones that Iโ€™ve red or listened too, so I know your recs should be good as well obviously have similar tastes

OP posts:
Dappy777 · 09/03/2026 21:36

Abustedflush · 08/03/2026 11:51

Have you tried the Cazalet Chronicles series by Elizabeth Jane Howard? They follow the lives of an upper middle class English family from pre war to the late 50s. Warts and all!
edited to add if you do get sucked in, I suggest you swerve the final one, which I felt was a last ditch money grab before the author died. More plot holes than Swiss cheese!

Edited

Yes, good recommendation!๐Ÿ˜€

Dappy777 · 09/03/2026 21:38

Xiaoxiong · 08/03/2026 20:42

I much prefer Victorian novels read aloud than on the page - if Little Women is any guide, I think they were written to be read aloud to the family in instalments around the fire in the evening so it makes sense that they're more enjoyable as audiobooks.

I have suggested these before, but Miriam Margolyes reading Dickens on Audible is BRILLIANT. Bleak House is 43 hours and 12 minutes of awesomeness and she does all the voices too.

Once you find a good narrator you can "follow" them through other books. I loved Timothy West reading Barchester Towers (19h06min) so I listened to all the Trollopes he narrates, which made many hours of commuting, cooking and housework much more enjoyable.

Yes, yes, yes, Miriam Margolyes reads Dickens brilliantly.

Gekeos · 09/03/2026 21:42

The Seven Sisters books are amazing.

tourdefrance · 09/03/2026 21:43

Half of a Yellow Sun is an excellent epic novel set during the Nigerian civil war.

Dappy777 · 09/03/2026 21:50

I havenโ€™t listened to it, but how about George Eliotโ€™s Middlemarch? Some consider it the greatest novel in English.

Powellโ€™s A Dance to the Music of Time. It has been called Britainโ€™s answer to Proust, and it probably is the closest thing in English to A La Recherche.

Evelyn Waughโ€™s Sword of Honor trilogy is wonderful. Michael Maloney does a brilliant reading of Waughโ€™s Decline and Fall. He might have recorded this too.

Ford Maddox Ford: Paradeโ€™s End (Harold Bloom thought it the most underrated English language novel of the 20th century).

Vanity Fair is another underrated novel. It tends to be overshadowed by Dickens and George Eliot and the Brontes.

Iโ€™m a big Iris Murdoch fan. Many of her novels are 500 or 600 pages. Maybe try The Sea, The Sea or The Good Apprentice, if they have been recorded.

Stephen Fry has recorded the whole of Sherlock Holmes. Listening to that in a hot bath with a bottle of wine is my idea of heaven.

Pennina · 09/03/2026 22:22

JollyHostess101 · 08/03/2026 17:01

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett are epic audiobooks!!

Yes - agree, good call

pompomtiddly · 10/03/2026 19:52

not the kind of thing that I would normally pick up but it was in the sale and I needed an epic, I found Wilbur Smithโ€™s Courtney series set in Africa absorbing and they often run at 30 hours+ The first one In the series is When The Lion Sleeps is โ€™onlyโ€™ 17h if you enjoy it, there are loads.

Rohington Mistryโ€™s A Fine Balance is a favourite at 25h

The last Hours and The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters are about 16 hours each. Absorbing tales of the response to the plague in Dorset.

I would second the Ken Follett Kingsbridge series , apart from the More recently written prequel which didnโ€™t add much.

I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes.Again Not one that I would have picked up but it was given to me as a gift and I enjoyed it And itโ€™s race against time style.

I never finished reading A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth in hard copy but a couple of people from my Bookgroup have recommended the audiobook version to me recently. Iโ€™ve downloaded it but not read it yet. It might be another one to consider, maybe other people on the thread have read it and can give an opinion

I have just realised What a small percentage of my library Is listens of an epic length!

josephinejosephine · 10/03/2026 20:27

The Lion women of Tehran. A beautiful book for audio book. I usually listen to all audio books on 1.8 speed but it was so vividly written I could not bear to. Also topical right now ofc. I had limited knowledge of the history of Iran and went down all sorts of internet rabbit holes finding out about it whilst reading

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