Audiobook listeners need not walk alone. With encouragement from Bookstagram entrepreneurs, independent bookstores, and Libro.fm, audiobook walking clubs are providing outdoor social opportunities.
At a typical audiobook walk, listeners meet at their predetermined location, with an audiobook cued up from a vendor or library app Libby. Participants listen to their book of choice, or talk about it, while following an easy route at a conversational pace. They wrap up with a casual gathering where they can make and hear book recommendations.
The trend appealed to youth services librarian Kit Ballenger, founder of the children’s literary consultancy Help Your Shelf, and book influencer Morgan Menzies, creator of the book club Pretty Little Bookshelf. Ballenger and Menzies first met for coffee in late 2024, and before long, they’d concocted the audiobook walking club Book It Around to bring book lovers together in the Washington, D.C., metro area.
BIA had its soft launch in March at Wonderland Books in Bethesda, Md., co-owned by Amy Joyce and Gayle Weiswasser. After meeting at the bookstore, which offered door prizes to the inaugural participants, walkers set off for 90 minutes on the Capital Crescent Trail. Ever since, Ballenger and Menzies have invited their social media followers to meet once a month for BIA walks at scenic locations including the National Mall and the National Arboretum. Wonderland has supplied tote bags, Libro.fm offered audiobook credits, and Ballenger and Menzies put together a book swap.
“People are coming month after month, and bringing friends,” Ballenger said. “Word of mouth has been very positive and organic.” She and Menzies see people showing up alone or in groups, with Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X represented. July 19 was their most recent gathering.
“With each walk, we have grown, and social media has enabled us to reach a broader audience,” Menzies said. Because D.C. is a hotspot for writers—romance author Nikki Payne (The Princess and the P.I., Berkley, Sept.) and public health expert Jenny Albertini (Decluttered, Indiana UP) showed up at one of the walks—BIA can be “an opportunity to see authors in the wild as readers.” Menzies estimates 30–50 people attend each meetup, “depending on weather and schedules,” adding: “Some of our participants are also sharing their experiences on social, and it’s nice to see that they're excited, they're sharing with their friends.”
Ballenger agreed. “It’s not silent!” she said. “There are people who do listen to their audiobooks, and they’ll be walking in community and on the quieter side, but there are definitely people who come because they’re excited to talk about the audiobook they're listening to in their car, or while they’re cooking.”
Some people exchange recommendations and come back the following month to compare opinions; others learn about placing holds on Libby or ordering on Libro.fm. “There's a lot of information sharing, in a supportive networking way,” Ballenger said. “Our events are free, and we want people to listen to what they want, and that kind of autonomy and access is something that will remain a critical hallmark of the community we're creating.”
Audiobook walkers join at all levels of athleticism, too, and the club stops to enjoy nature and local history. “We’re not gunning it out there,” Ballenger said, “We’ll pause, we’ll take photos. You’re not going to end up sweaty at the end of it.” One session concluded with a picnic: “It brings such a strong element of community to something that is traditionally accomplished individually.”
Menzies and Ballenger are currently speaking with acquaintances in New York, Baltimore, and other cities that may set up chapters. “It will be cool to see what other communities pop up,” Menzies said. “Wherever it may be, we do want Book It Around to be available to others around the U.S. and even internationally.”
Book clubs get their steps
With audiobook walking clubs on the rise, Libro.fm created a toolkit with tips for hosting walks and Canva templates for promoting events. The indie audiobook company also has supplied member bookstores with credits and offers to attract participants. “We’re so happy to see readers come together for audiobook walks,” said Libro.fm marketing and publicity director Albee Romero. “We all are looking for community right now, and those real-life experiences are powerful.”
Silent Book Club, a social movement that invites readers to “BYOBook” to a coffee shop, wine bar, or another local business, likewise observes a strong trend toward audiobook walking meetups. “We’ve seen great success with audiobook walks at our local chapters,” said SBC cofounder Guinevere de la Mare, noting that more than 1,800 volunteer-run chapters of SBC can be found in the U.S. and globally, and “dozens” are inviting members out for a stroll.
“Most frequently, a local Silent Book Club chapter will have four meetups over the course of a month, and one will be an audiobook walk,” de la Mare explained, adding that a chapter in Dallas, Tex., was among the first to try audiobook walks, and that chapters often partner with indie bookstores or local libraries. In Jacksonville, Fla., SBC chapter members sign up for audiobook walks on the website of indie bookseller San Marco Books and More. Their two-mile walks begin at local parks and end at the bookstore for conversation and browsing.
De la Mare said audiobooks align with SBC’s approach, because a leisurely walk can be “inclusive of people who want to get their steps in or love to be outdoors—it takes a traditionally solitary activity and turns it into a collective experience.” In addition, she called the word “silent” in Silent Book Club “a bit of a misnomer,” because people inevitably talk about what they’re reading. “We call it the human recommendation engine, rather than the algorithm,” de la Mare said. “A lot of the walks end with a social component.”
Sarah Jackson and Emily Lilley, who co-own The Book and Cover in Chattanooga, Tenn., with Blaes Green, held their first audiobook run/walk in 2022, as part of their annual spring Ink Drink celebration of reading. In the years since, they’ve scheduled Ink Drink and an audiobook run/walk to coincide with Independent Bookstore Day, in partnership with Libro.fm. Although 2025’s outdoor Ink Drink events were rained out, walkers and runners still received Libro.fm credits to apply once the weather improved.
“Normally, we’ll have upwards of 40–50 people” on a Saturday, Lilley said. “We do it at 7 a.m. because we have so much other programming during the day.” Halfway through the book walk or jog, “people will take off their headphones and chat,” and the event concludes back at the Book and Cover. “We have a coffee bar, so people want to hang out after the walk,” Lilley added. “We have to make sure we have some staff there in the morning.”
Jackson reinforced that she and Lilley “staunchly believe that audiobooks are reading,” and are equivalent to print books. She also stressed that everyone should feel welcome at a walk. “Where we are is fairly hilly, so we construct routes that are accessible to different kinds of bodies,” she said. “Audiobook walking clubs are also attractive for people who aren’t hyper-vocally social. Though we do have a full complement of 12–13 book clubs that gather in the shop, not everyone is attracted to a lecture seminar style discussion about a book.”
A number of other bookstores and book groups also provide members with audiobook walks. Steamy Lit, a literary collective devoted to romance and diverse representation, started an audiobook walking club about a year ago. “Our walking club is called Cassie’s, short for cassette,” said Mel Saavedra, Steamy Lit’s founder, who noted that Libro.fm gifted Cassie’s with audiobook credits to help start the club. Cassie’s currently has Florida chapters in Pembroke Pines, Boca Raton, and Tampa that do walks, as do chapters in the Bay Area and Southern California, Saavedra said, adding: “It’s been a great way for us to build community and move our bodies.” Members sign up for walks on the fitness tracking app Strava, and the audiobook strolls go for about a mile.
Mallory Sutton, general manager of Bards Alley Bookshop in Vienna, Va., was inspired to take books outdoors after attending regional get-togethers with City Girls Who Walk, another social group that started on TikTok and Instagram. Bards Alley “just hosted our first audiobook walk, and I plan to do more in the future,” Sutton said. "We partnered with Libro.fm to give away free audiobook credits for our first walk, and I'm looking to collaborate with other businesses nearby for future walks, see if we can end at a local coffee shop and give them a percent off or a free small coffee."
Audiobook walking clubs turn lonesome reading into an outdoor activity, where people can enjoy their favorite genre in the company of others. Or, as Jackson of the Book and Cover said, “We liken it to a silent disco where everyone is wearing their headphones”— marching to the beat of their own drummer, together.
