The road trip is a summer staple for most, sometimes with friends, sometimes with family.  The radio isn’t always reliable (ahem, stick a car between two mountains and the result is static) and listening to the same old music on your ipod can grow tedious.  Audio books are a great way to quell long distance anxieties and enjoy the drive.

Short but Sweet

If paying attention for long stints isn’t your forte—leave it to NPR to capture your drive imagination NPR Favorite Driveway Moment Stories.   A driveway moment is a story that captures your attention so thoroughly, that you stay in the car, in your driveway, just to listen.  That said, if these stories have the ability to keep you seated even when you can get out, they’re sure to keep you entertained and captivated when you can’t.  They even have a series called Road Trips Family Vacations that, according the Library Journal, “run the gamut from fond to awkward.” Sounds perfect.

The New Favorites

If you’re looking for some humor, quick wit, and life insight read by the author herself, Tina Fey’s Bossypants is one that will keep you laughing all the way to grandma’s house.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  It’s one of those books, that maybe you can’t bring yourself to put on your nightstand, but revisionist history is ideal for never-ending roads.  The blend of fact and fiction will have your left-brain running wild.

The Old Classic

Not only a classic, but many will quote this as their favorite book.  It’s a behemoth and if you’re driving across country, all sixty-three hours of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged will have you enthralled, will make you re-evaluate your life, the future, and your relationship to everything in this world.  Isn’t that what a true road trip is about?

-Arianna Schioldager