The 5 Most Entertaining Audiobooks for Seniors

Have you ever thought about the number of trees that must be cut down to print a single book? What about the amount of ink and paper used in the printing process? Digital publishing has drastically reduced this, along with the use of transportation fuel. In fact, for every digital file printed, four trees are saved from being chopped down. Since audiobooks are digital, there is no need for paper or printing.

Listening to audiobooks can easily find its place on our list of top hobbies for seniors. Books are usually favoured by all, but reading can be challenging for some people. It might be due to poor eyesight that comes with ageing and the high prices of purchasing the physical copy. The good news is, audiobooks are here to save the day. You can easily download the audio version and listen to it instead of reading it.

In this article, we are going to introduce the top 5 most entertaining audiobooks for seniors:

Top 5 Audiobooks for Seniors

If you are a fan of podcasts and search for the top podcasts for seniors, you will find listening to audiobooks enjoyable as well. Picking only five among all the good audiobooks was hard, but we tried to choose them from different genres and styles to help you get to know your taste in books and go for the type and genre you like the best. Now, without further ado, here are the top 5 audiobooks seniors might enjoy.

1. The Help

This historical fiction, written by the American author Kathryn Stockett, was published in 2009.
The novel takes place in the early 1960s. The story explores the racial prejudices, the difficulties, and the lack of respect these African Americans faced in 1962. Finally, one woman, named Aibileen, puts on a brave face and risks her job and life in a white household to talk about the issues the Help has to go through in the form of a book. After a few unfortunate events, others follow Aibileen and share their experience when they become too unsatisfied with their situation.

The Help’s audiobook version’s narrators are Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Cassandra Campbell, and Octavia Spencer, who was the author’s inspiration for the character of Minny. In 2011, she played Minny in the film adaptation as well.

The Help won the Goodreads Choice Awards as the best fiction, the Indies Choice Book Awards in the Adult debut category, and the SIBA Book Award, alongside a few other awards and nominations.

Available on: Amazon, Audible, and Google Play

2. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

This comic novel is by the Swedish author Jonas Jonasson and came out in 2009. The English translation of the Swedish version was published in 2012 by Rod Bradbury.

The book follows the story of Allan Karlsson, who lives in a retirement house and is about to turn 100 years old. Allan feels disinterested and detached from everything, so before celebrating his 100th birthday, he climbs out of the window and goes on an aimless journey. At a bus station, he meets a man with a huge suitcase. The young man asks Allan to watch the suitcase while he rudely goes to the bathroom. Allan’s bus arrives before the young man returns. Suddenly, Allan decides to take the suitcase with him, unaware of its contents.

Little does he know that the suitcase is full of money from selling illegal drugs. Both the Police searching for him and the drug dealers searching for the money are chasing after Allan. In this entertaining book, Allan’s adventures take him almost everywhere in the world with flashbacks of his youth.

In 2010, this book became a bestselling novel in Sweden. And in 2013, it turned into a movie. Peter Kenny narrates the English audiobook.

Available on: Amazon, Audible, and Google Play

3. A Short History of Nearly Everything

A classic science book written by Bill Bryson, it is loved by all at any age. Bill Bryson takes (nearly) every scientific fact or term and explains it in the simplest way possible with terms that are easy to understand by everyone. This popular Science book explains many facts from chemistry, astronomy, physics, and paleontology. This book can be a true gem for people who are into evolution, the history of the earth, and science but do not know that much to pursue it academically.

In 2005, A Short History of Everything became a bestselling book. Richard Matthews narrates the audiobook.

Available on: Amazon, Audible, and Google Play

4. The Price of Valor

The Price of Valor: The Life of Audie Murphy, by David Smith. The story looks at the life of Audie Murphy, who forged his birth certificate so that he could be eligible for fighting in the war against the Nazis when he was only seventeen years old. When he was nineteen, he fought the battle with the utmost courage and competency. He climbed on top of a tank and single-handedly forced the German Army to retreat. Although To Hell and Back, the memoir written by Audie Murphy himself, covers his war stories, The Price of Valor tells us the full, tragic life story of Audie Murphy, who eventually died when he was 45 as the most decorated hero of WWII.

This book serves all the people who want to glimpse the world during World War II, especially seniors who feel connected to those days. Tom Perkins narrates the audiobook.

Available on: Amazon, Audible, Google Play

5. Go Set a Watchman

Go set a Watchman by Harper Lee, who gave us the famous Pulitzer Prize-Winning work, To Kill a Mockingbird. This novel is a sequel to the other famous award-winning book, but as many parts of the novel appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird, it was initially a draft.

It raised a lot of debates and turned the publication of this book into the center of controversies.

Actress Reese Witherspoon narrates this audiobook.

Available on: Amazon, Audible, Google Play, and Hoopla

Final Words

This list included only 5 of the best audiobooks seniors seemed to enjoy the most. Many fictional and non-fictional works are now available as audiobooks. Exploring a little more will sure take you to the books you love the best. Many of these books have film adaptations or have been turned into series that are actually among the series recommendation for the elderly. So, if you do not want to listen to a good audiobook, you can always watch a good series or movie.