By Occasion
The best audiobooks for long flights
A flight gives you more uninterrupted hours than almost anything else, and takes away your internet. Plan for both.
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A long flight is eight to fourteen hours of time you cannot usefully spend on anything else, which makes it the second-best audiobook situation after a long drive. Two things make it different from a drive, and both need planning.
What a flight demands
- Downloaded, not streamed. In-flight wifi is unreliable and expensive, and a streamed audiobook will stop. Download the whole thing before you leave the house, not at the gate.
- Absorbing enough to beat cabin noise. Engine noise at altitude is relentless, and a quietly narrated literary novel loses to it. Noise-canceling headphones help enormously.
- Long enough to fill the flight. The pleasure of a long-haul is finishing one big book end to end.
- Nothing that needs a notebook. Tray-table note-taking in economy is not a realiztic plan.
The best audiobooks for a long flight
Long, absorbing, and able to hold up against engine noise. Verified runtimes where we have them, cited; nothing guessed.
| # | Title | Best for | Runtime | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas · read by Bill Homewood The revenge novel every revenge story since has borrowed from. Enormous, melodramatic, and gripping all the way through. | A classic that earns its length | Not published in our source | $24.62on Amazon |
| 2 |  Pachinko Min Jin Lee · read by Sandra Oh & Min Jin Lee Four generations of a Korean family in Japan, and the quiet accumulation of what it costs to be unwelcome. The best family saga of its decade. | A long, rewarding generational listen | Not published in our source | $32.19on Amazon |
| 3 |  11/22/63 Stephen King · read by Craig Wasson A teacher goes back to 1958 to stop the Kennedy assassination and makes a life there instead. King's best non-horror novel. | Listeners who want time travel with weight | Not published in our source | $26.24on Amazon |
| 4 |  A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles · read by Nicholas Guy Smith A count is sentenced to house arrest in a Moscow hotel for thirty years and makes a life there. Charming, and more political than it first appears. | A civilized, unhurried listen | Not published in our source | $19.69on Amazon |
| 5 |  The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett · read by John Lee Building a cathedral across fifty years of medieval politics. Enormously long and extremely readable. | A months-long historical listen | Not published in our source | $31.50on Amazon |
| 6 |  Shantaram Gregory David Roberts · read by Humphrey Bower An escaped Australian convict reinvents himself in Bombay. Sprawling, self-mythologizing, and compulsive. | A very long listen with a strong narrator | Not published in our source | $36.09on Amazon |
| 7 |  The Way of Kings Brandon Sanderson · read by Michael Kramer & Kate Reading The opening volume of the decade's largest fantasy project: a war on a shattered plain, a slave who will not stop, and a magic system built like engineering. | The biggest commitment on this site | 45h 48m | $32.80on Amazon |
| 8 |  Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver · read by Charlie Thurston David Copperfield relocated to Appalachia and the opioid crisis, narrated by the boy himself. Furious and extremely funny. | Listeners who want a voice to spend a long time with | Not published in our source | $36.22on Amazon |
The picks, in detail
Our top pick · A classic that earns its length
The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas · narrated by Bill Homewood
- Runtime
- Not published in our source
- Narrators
- 1
- Audio edition
- 2011
The revenge novel every revenge story since has borrowed from. Enormous, melodramatic, and gripping all the way through.
Who should skip it
- Very long, with a slow middle in Italy.
- Many abridged editions exist — check before buying.
#ad How we are funded · Audible price as of October 6, 2026
Pick 2 · A long, rewarding generational listen
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee · narrated by Sandra Oh, Min Jin Lee
- Runtime
- Not published in our source
- Narrators
- 2
- Audio edition
- 2024
Four generations of a Korean family in Japan, and the quiet accumulation of what it costs to be unwelcome. The best family saga of its decade.
On audio
Allison Hiroto holds four generations and three languages' worth of names straight.
Who should skip it
- Huge cast across decades.
- The final generation gets thin treatment.
#ad How we are funded · Audible price as of October 6, 2026
Pick 3 · Listeners who want time travel with weight
11/22/63
by Stephen King · narrated by Craig Wasson
- Runtime
- Not published in our source
- Narrators
- 1
- Audio edition
- 2011
A teacher goes back to 1958 to stop the Kennedy assassination and makes a life there instead. King's best non-horror novel.
On audio
Craig Wasson's performance of the 1950s sections is widely held to be one of the best in the catalog.
Who should skip it
- Long middle stretch where the mission stalls.
- The ending divides readers.
#ad How we are funded · Audible price as of October 6, 2026
Pick 4 · A civilized, unhurried listen
A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles · narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith
- Runtime
- Not published in our source
- Narrators
- 1
- Audio edition
- 2016
A count is sentenced to house arrest in a Moscow hotel for thirty years and makes a life there. Charming, and more political than it first appears.
On audio
Nicholas Guy Smith's Rostov is urbane without being smug, which the book lives or dies on.
Who should skip it
- Deliberately low-stakes for long stretches.
- The hotel's politics stay in the background.
#ad How we are funded · Audible price as of October 6, 2026
Pick 5 · A months-long historical listen
The Pillars of the Earth
by Ken Follett · narrated by John Lee
- Runtime
- Not published in our source
- Narrators
- 1
- Audio edition
- 2007
Building a cathedral across fifty years of medieval politics. Enormously long and extremely readable.
On audio
John Lee holds a cast of dozens across forty hours, which is the main technical demand here.
Who should skip it
- Repeated sexual violence.
- Very long, with a sagging middle third.
#ad How we are funded · Audible price as of October 6, 2026
Pick 6 · A very long listen with a strong narrator
Shantaram
by Gregory David Roberts · narrated by Humphrey Bower
- Runtime
- Not published in our source
- Narrators
- 1
- Audio edition
- 2013
An escaped Australian convict reinvents himself in Bombay. Sprawling, self-mythologizing, and compulsive.
Who should skip it
- Extremely long and often self-indulgent.
- The philosophizing wears thin.
#ad How we are funded · Audible price as of October 6, 2026
Pick 7 · The biggest commitment on this site
The Way of Kings
by Brandon Sanderson · narrated by Michael Kramer, Kate Reading
- Runtime
- 45h 48m
- Narrators
- 2
- Audio edition
- 2010
The opening volume of the decade's largest fantasy project: a war on a shattered plain, a slave who will not stop, and a magic system built like engineering.
On audio
Michael Kramer and Kate Reading split the viewpoints, which is the only reason a cast this size stays straight in your head over a listen this long.
Who should skip it
- Enormously long, and the first third is mostly setup.
- You are starting a series that is nowhere near finished.
#ad How we are funded · Audible price as of October 6, 2026
Runtime from the audiobooks.com catalog listing.
Pick 8 · Listeners who want a voice to spend a long time with
Demon Copperhead
by Barbara Kingsolver · narrated by Charlie Thurston
- Runtime
- Not published in our source
- Narrators
- 1
- Audio edition
- 2022
David Copperfield relocated to Appalachia and the opioid crisis, narrated by the boy himself. Furious and extremely funny.
On audio
Charlie Thurston's Demon is the whole book; the voice carries material that would otherwise crush you.
Who should skip it
- Addiction and child neglect throughout.
- Very long.
#ad How we are funded · Audible price as of October 6, 2026
Matching the flight
| Flight | What fits | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2-3 hours | A novella or a short novel | See under four hours |
| 5-7 hours | A standard novel, end to end | The ideal: one book, one flight |
| 8-11 hours | A long novel, or two shorter ones | Pachinko, A Gentleman in Moscow |
| 12+ hours | An epic, with no second choice needed | The Count of Monte Cristo |
| A trip with several flights | Something very long you keep for the trip | The really long audiobooks |
Flying with children
A flight is harder than a car because you cannot share a book out loud. The move is one device per child with its own downloaded book and its own headphones, chosen in advance rather than at the airport. Audiobooks for kids by age is organized for exactly that, and audiobooks for kids' road trips is the closest equivalent list.
Where to go next
- For driving instead, best audiobooks for long drives.
- For the longest listens, the really long audiobooks.
- For shorter flights, short audiobooks under four hours.
- For sleeping on the plane, audiobooks for sleep.
- For the shelf most of these come from, historical fiction audiobooks.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best audiobook for a long flight?
Will audiobooks work on a plane without wifi?
Do I need noise-canceling headphones for audiobooks on a plane?
How long an audiobook should I choose for an 8-hour flight?
What about flying with children?
Sources
Read next
By Occasion
The best audiobooks for long drives
One book that lasts the whole way, with a voice you can take for ten hours straight.
By Occasion
The really long audiobooks
Where a credit is worth the most: verified runtimes from eleven hours to fifty-five, and what you are committing to.
By Occasion
Short audiobooks under four hours
Where short stops meaning slight: complete novellas and short novels, every runtime verified.
By Occasion
Audiobooks for falling asleep
A gripping book is a bad sleep aid. What works is familiar re-listens and audio built to be slept through.
Genres
The best historical fiction audiobooks
Where a credit stretches furthest: long sagas and classics, with narration that earns its keep.
Section
Audiobooks for kids, sorted by age that actually works
What a five-year-old can follow is not what an eight-year-old wants. These lists are built around attention span, content and the car.