Lately, audiobooks have been having a renaissance, and with podcasts also booming in popularity, we’re more receptive than ever to taking in our media and stories through our ears and not our eyes. There are advantages and disadvantages to any format, and when discussing audiobooks, sometimes the same quality can be both a plus and a minus, for example: having someone else’ voice in your head narrating a story rather than listening to your own mental cast of characters. Getting to imagine your own voices can definitely be an advantage to reading in text format, and a poor narrator can without a doubt ruin an otherwise great book. But the right narrator(s) can also make the audiobook format sing and bring a story to life in a totally new way! 

Perhaps nowhere is that dynamic more intriguing than with audiobooks that are narrated by their own authors. Listening to an author narrate their own work can illuminate the text in a way that goes beyond the experience of reading, giving you insight to the author’s intentions and feelings by the way they emphasize certain words or lines, or where they pause for breath or add the twist of an accent or a note of irony or humor. Hearing the author’s words in their own voice also adds a level of intimacy to the reading experience by removing some of the barriers between an author and their readers and bringing it closer to a personal conversation.

Check out some of the audiobooks in our collection that are narrated by their authors. There’s something there for every taste, whether your cup of tea is memoirs and nonfiction, novels and short stories, or even something a little fantastical or scary. For the best reading experience we recommend downloading the Libby app.