The digital generation has sparked a revivial in Britain's love of audiobooks as figures from the BBC show there have been one million downloads of spoken word titles.
The top five most downloaded audio titles are The Mighty Boosh, Blackadder Goes Forth, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, The Adventure of English: The Biography of English by Melvyn Bragg and The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
There are 4,000 titles available on the BBC website including recordings of abridged readings, dramatisations and comedy from BBC Radio and TV programming.
Audiobooks released directly to download have seen a surge in popularity, with titles like The Cairo Trilogy read by Omar Sharif, which has been released episodically; and the Sony Award-winning dramatisation of Q & A, recently filmed as Slumdog Millionaire.
The first title released in a digital format was in 2004 with unit sales at 21,871 worth £19,000. The figure has since dramatically increased to £1. 4 million following record sales of 379,670 units.
The BBC records up to 30 audiobooks a month in an office in Bath office which contains three recording studios. Actors including Derek Jacobi, David Tennant, Rula Lenska, Kenneth Branagh, Juliet Stevenson and Michael Palin have all recorded audiobooks.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was voted the Nation's favourite audiobook last year.
The US remains the biggest consumer of BBC audio books.
A BBC spokesman said: "Sales of audio downloads in the US are already big news but as with many trends that start in the US we are starting to notice the trend moving over here – as evidenced by our surpassing a million download sales for the first time. We currently sell approximately three and a half times more downloads to US customers but following such a strong year in 08/09 we expect this gap to close in 09/10."
John Mayfield, director of Audio Book Radio.net, broadcasts classic books online to 250,000 listeners.
"We are certainly seeing a revival of the audio book" he said. "There was a dip after cassettes were phased out but now everything is portable on MP3 players.
"Words read out loud can really capture the imagination and we are pleased that a new younger generation can enjoy audiobooks," he added.
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