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A kind soul recently introduced me to The Good Wife, a courtroom drama television series. Meaning that I’m currently in the throes of yet another addiction as I binge-watch my way to pre-dawn most weekends.

And, immersed as I am in subpoenas and characters convicted over evidence unearthed from some random long-forgotten utterances, I’m learning to be very circumspect about what I say.

So let me premise here, that I am a very careful driver. Very. But Maltese road gridlocks being what they are, stewing in a traffic jam while attempting the morning school run and the drive to work can be a trifle irritating.

I’m glad to report however that I’ve found the almost-perfect solution: audiobooks.

Instead of clenching the steering wheel ever tighter while waiting to move another five metres, I’m learning to enjoy the wait – and take care of my blood pressure – by immersing myself zen-like in a novel.

Audiobooks have definitely made my morning and evening commutes less bothersome and, when you consider that each word in a book is being read out, it’s no surprise that an un-abridged book can have anything up to 20 or more hours of listening. Which makes it rather good value for money.

I want to share with you some pointers towards choosing an audiobook. First up, the reader. You will be sharing a car with this voice for quite a long while, so I suggest you first check out the reader’s voice to make sure you’re ok with it.

Audiobook sites usually have a preview facility, so you can download a couple of minutes’ worth before deciding. I usually do that to make sure there’s no tic in the actor’s voice that would get on my nerves.

A few months ago I was listening to Joël Dicker’s The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.

An enjoyable, if uneven, thriller, but the version I bought was read by an American actor and his Texan drawl irritated me beyond belief. The choice of actor made sense, because the novel was set in small-town America, but still. My fault.

The Hilary Mantel books, on the other hand, have fantastic British stage voices. Clear enunciation, crisp and articulated speech – just lovely.

Not to mention that they have a Shakespearean turn to them that helped transport me back to Henry VIII’s court and intrigues.

Audiobooks have definitely made my morning and evening commutes less bothersome

Which brings me to the choice of book. In my experience, not all books are made to be experienced as audiobooks.

I’ve found relatively linear narratives to work best for me. Bear in mind that you’ll have occasional moments of distraction as you navigate a roundabout or snoop at something going on along the street or in a nearby car.

I am currently listening to Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things – fantastic, by the way, I cannot recommend it highly enough – which has just the right mix of narration, plot moving along and action to keep you listening. Not to mention, a brilliant actor reading.

Also, what I suspect is a factor in my enjoyment of Faber’s brilliant comeback novel is the actor’s voicing of the aliens.

The novel is set in space, on a planet being colonised by the human race in the near future. Faber gives them a highly original language that the actor interprets gutturally in a hypnotic yet warm voice. Which is another way of saying, great characterisation.

Characters’ names is another issue. You will be following the story purely through the age-old magic of storytelling, without any visual cues to help you along.

So excessively complex names, or a huge dramatis personae of the kind that you have to keep flipping back through the pages to remember who’s who, might not be ideal for your drive time.

Now for some pet peeves. A big irritating no-no in audiobooks for me is the actor imposing his or her interpretation of a character, especially when this isn’t supported by the text.

Yes, I know I said above that great characterisation is a plus, but I guess it’s one of those things that can go very right or very wrong. In some audiobooks I’ve listened to, the actor decided to treat some characters as comic relief, rendering them into bumbling buffoons. Which is a nuisance because as a reader I might have wanted to read the character differently.

Some time ago I listened to Jonathan Coe’s Expo 58 and, although the comedic tone throughout is very much present in the novel, a few of the characters were transformed by a possibly over-zealous actor into little more than stereotypes, imposing an interpretation that I’m not quite sure was there in the original.

Other irritants are not the audiobook’s fault, but the technology’s. Keep in mind there is no physical marker on an audiobook to mark where you’ve got to in the story, so you have to rely on your phone’s memory.

The audiobooks on my iPhone occasionally lose my place along the recording and reset themselves (yes, I’ve tried to check settings and I’ve looked online for a solution), sending me back to the beginning of the novel.

Which is frustrating beyond belief because – and this is a drawback of audiobooks – flipping through a novel’s pages if you’ve mislaid your bookmark is one thing, but randomly swiping across nine hours of audio file on a tiny display to find a point that could literally be anywhere, is throw-the-phone-out-the-window irritating, especially if you’re driving.

Erm - which, of course, I do only after stopping the car by the side of the road.