Free Audiobooks Today for Millions

AUDIOBOOKS are part of my regular reading diet. In fact it is a rare day when I don’t listen. I listen when I am walking, gardening and doing those essential and deeply tedious chores around the house. (What I don’t do is listen and sit. If I do, pretty soon I am sitting and sleeping.)

Thanks to The Reading Agency in partnership with Spotify, every adult in the UK is invited to download free audiobooks today (23 April 2026)

The Quick Reads audiobooks free on World Book Night are:

• Leye Adenle – Cell One. Leye is a Nigerian-born award-winning crime thriller author, known for his gripping and suspenseful stories that explore the darker side of human nature.
• Rosie Goodwin – Sweet Charity. Rosie is the four-million-copy bestselling author of more than forty romance novels. She is the first author in the world to be allowed to follow three of Catherine Cookson’s trilogies with her own sequels.
• Carmel Harrington – The Last Bench. Carmel is an Irish bestselling author of thrillers, suspense, and emotional family dramas.
• Rachel Hore – The Girl in the Picture. Rachel is a Sunday Times bestselling fiction and romance author of 14 novels.
• Louise Jensen – The Woman Next Door. Louise has sold over a million copies of her international bestselling psychological thrillers, which have been translated into 25 languages.

Listen here: World Book Night | Spotify Playlist 

All these titles are also available in print for £1. More details here: What are Quick Reads? Quick Reads – The Reading Agency

This is happening because of what The Reading Agency uncovered in their State of the Nation report. They found that almost half of adults (46%) struggle to focus on reading due to distractions, while one in three multitask while reading.

You can do something else while watching or listening but you CANNOT do anything but read if you have a book in front of you. (Well, you can sit next to a child as they gently drift into sleep if you can read in dim light, but that’s about it.)

Audio is a practical solution for those who find reading a challenge or who can’t fit it into their busy lives. Growing up, my dyslexic children valued the very small selection of books on tape at our local library, the only resource available back then.

And current research shows that over half of parents with children under 11 listen at least once a week, compared to 18% of those without. I remember I almost stopped reading altogether when my children were small. Given the chance, I would have devoured audiobooks..as it was it took me a long time to get back into the reading habit.

But is listening to an audiobook the same as ‘proper’ reading?

No, not the same, but just as proper. There is no denying it is a different medium. For one thing, a story can be destroyed if you can’t engage with the voice or immeasurably enhanced by a reader with the skills to bring a book to life. I was brought up on Radio Four drama and short stories and knew from a young age that what I was listening to was as worthwhile and every bit as interesting as the stories I could read in books.

More and more people think the same apparently. Spotify’s research found that a third of UK readers are now more likely to consider listening to audiobooks as “real reading” than they were a year ago.

And a lot of people say that listening to audiobooks has encouraged them to read more. Has that been your experience? Or perhaps you’ve tried it and don’t like it. Love to know why.

Or are you an audiobook virgin? Now is a good day to change that…

PHOTO CREDIT:
1) Konstantin Dyadyun on Unsplash
2) The Reading Agency