You keep meaning to read The Dive From Clausen's Pier and other best-sellers. You swear you'll get to The Portrait of a Lady one day. You vow to go to your next book-club meeting with an insight or two — and not just the chips and dip. Listening to audiobooks couples the childhood pleasure of being read to with the adult satisfaction of productively using time that would be otherwise wasted. With thousands of titles available, you can find an audiobook to suit any mood and any trip. Look for audiobooks almost anywhere you find the regular kind — bookstores, on-line booksellers, the library. A number of Web merchants also specialize in audiobooks. Audiobooks Online (www.audiobooksonline.com) is one that offers a good selection of discounted titles with helpful lists of award winners and recommendations.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Actress Scarlett Johansson narrates an abridged version of Ann Packer's best-selling The Dive From Clausen's Pier ($25; five hours, www.amazon.com), in which a young woman leaves behind a paralyzed fiance — and shocked friends and family — to start a new life.

From a Buick 8 (Cassettes or CDs, $50; 13 1/2 hours, unabridged, www.amazon.com). Stephen King's latest novel examines the mystery surrounding a car parked behind a Pennsylvania State Police headquarters. A taut storyline and multiple narrators keep this long ride interesting.

As performed by Blythe Danner, Campbell Scott, Peter Gallagher, and others, the Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald sparkle — especially "The Diamond As Big As the Ritz" (Cassettes, $35; nine hours, www.amazon.com).