Audiobooks have greatly changed the way we consume a book. Being able to slip on a pair of headphones and escape into a different world has been facilitated by carefully chosen narrators and voice actors. They, along with the authors, of course, are able to shape our imaginations and keep us engaged in the stories we are listening to. It’s for this very reason that audiobooks are not exactly cheap. Production of an audiobook can cost quite a bit, especially when famous narrators are involved. Given the end product, we really should not complain about the price of books on Audible. In this article, we take a look, out of curiosity, at the 11 most expensive and highly rated books on Audible.
What is the most highly rated book on Audible?
First of all, it’s not so simple a question to answer. The books on Audible cannot simply be sorted by ratings – and even then it gets more complicated given the different genres of books available on this audiobook service.
Then comes the added complication of how many people have rated a book. How do you try to compare five stars from 5 users to 4.5 stars from 10000 users? It’s not so straightforward. So, for the most expensive books on Audible listed below, I have added their current ratings as well for you to view how they compare.
The 11 Most Expensive books on Audible
Truman
Details:
- Price: $115.95
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3,487 ratings)
- Author: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
This Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David McCullough follows the life and times of the 33rd president of the United States of America, Harry S. Truman. The book not only follows Truman’s accomplishments and failures but also reveals the character and personality of this constantly-surprising man as a schoolboy, farmer, soldier, merchant, county judge, senator, vice president and chief executive. It was Harry S. Truman who ordered the atomic bomb dropped, ordered desegregation of the armed forces and established the CIA and the Defense Department.
Our Mutual Friend
Details:
- Price: $112.00
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2 (45 ratings)
- Author: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Jim Killavey
The book follows John Harmon as he returns from exile after his father’s death. He is expecting to receive an inheritance but knows that he must marry a stranger, Bella Wilfer, in order to collect. He fakes his own death and takes on a new identity in order to observe her first. Charles Dickens’s last complete novel, Our Mutual Friend is a satiric masterpiece about the temptation and pitfalls of money.
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
Details:
- Price: $92.95
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2 (1646 ratings)
- Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
Using diaries, interviews, and White House records of the president’s and first lady’s comings and goings, Goodwin paints an intimate portrait of the daily conduct of the presidency during wartime and the Roosevelts’ extraordinary constellation of friends, advisers, and family. The book focuses particularly between May 10, 1940 (the end of the so-called “Phoney War” stage of World War II) and President Roosevelt’s death on April 12, 1945. The title is taken from the speech Eleanor Roosevelt gave at the 1940 Democratic National Convention.
Infinite Jest
Details:
- Price: $91.26
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2 (2997 ratings)
- Author: David Foster Wallace
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
Infinite Jest is the story of the Incandenza family, dysfunctional proprietors of a tennis academy, and that of the residents of a halfway house for addicts, separated from their luckier counterparts by “a tall and more or less denuded hill.” One houses America’s winners; the other, its losers. The two groups rarely interact, and the sections of the book dedicated to them differ in tone: the first is more comic and the second more realist.
Sherlock Holmes
Details:
- Price: $85.28
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(1235 ratings)
- Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
Winner of Audible’s 2017 Member’s Choice Award, this collection includes the complete works of Sherlock Holmes – four novels and five collections of short stories narrated by the infamous Stephen Fry. Sherlock Holmes has been a timeless collection for over 120 years and this complete collection of his adventures is one of the best collections that Audible has to offer.
To Green Angel Tower: memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3
Details:
- Price: $84.00
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2 (1616 ratings)
- Author: Tad Williams
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
The third book in the best-selling series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams. This book follows the evil minions of the undead Sithi Storm King who are beginning their final preparations for battle. As the Storm King’s power grows and the boundaries of time begin to blur, the loyal allies of Prince Josua struggle to rally their forces for a desperate attempt to unravel mysteries from the past.
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
Details:
- Price: $81.80
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(14 ratings)
- Author: Sir James George Frazer
- Narrated by: Andrew Cullum
Originally a 12 volume edition published in 1915. Frazer produced his own single volume edition which is presented here. The Golden Bough, is a study of religious rites and practices in ‘primitive’ societies. Its author, Sir James Frazer, surveyed the wide range of cultural habits, taboos and beliefs in communities across the world concluding that there was an observable pattern in the way magic developed into religion, though formal expression emerged in different ways. The book remains a remarkable achievement and proved a huge influence on numerous international figures.
John Adams
Details:
- Price: $70.95
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2 (7320 ratings)
- Author: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
Another Pulitzer Prize-winning biography from David McCullough, this book describes the adventurous life-journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution. Described in the publisher’s summary as “an audiobook about politics, war, and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, it is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.”
President Carter: The White House Years
Details:
- Price: $69.99
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2 (97 ratings)
- Author: Stuart E. Eizenstat
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell, Madeleine Albright, Stuart E. Eizenstat
Author Stuart Eizenstat was at Jimmy Carter’s side from his political rise in Georgia through four years in the White House, where he served as a chief domestic policy adviser. Eizenstat draws on more than 7,500 pages of notes and 350 interviews of all the major figures of the time to write the comprehensive history of an underappreciated president – and to give an intimate view on how the presidency works.
Rhythm of War – The Stormlight Archive, Book 4
Details:
- Price: $66.49
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(30 ratings)
- Author: Brandon Sanderson
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer
Book four of the Stormlight Archive Saga, Rhythm of War is the eagerly awaited sequel to Brandon Sanderson’s number-one New York Times best-selling Oathbringer. After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin’s scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength.
The Stand
Details:
- Price: $63.00
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2 (51064 ratings)
- Author: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
In 1978 Stephen King published The Stand, the novel that is now considered to be one of his finest works. But as it was first published, The Stand was incomplete, since more than 150,000 words had been cut from the original manuscript. Now Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil has been restored to its entirety. The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition includes more than 500 pages of material previously deleted, along with new material that King added as he reworked the manuscript for a new generation.
There you have it, the 11 most expensive books on Audible. I was quite surprised to find four biographies of American presidents on this list but they seem to be quite popular. It is also quite evident that most of these books are timeless classic which still hold relevance to modern-day readers. Good news is if you want to avoid purchasing one of the most expensive books on Audible, you can always try a free 30-day trial to get one of these audiobooks free!
