Plugged in to literature. Photograph: Getty

So here we are, in 2008. Today is the day when many of us will take stock of the 12 months that have passed us by. Some of us will also set out our good intentions for the year ahead. A few of my friends will fork out loads of money to join a gym - whether they go enough, or at all, is another matter. I, however, have made a different resolution this time, and it involves cancelling my gym membership. No more feigning enthusiasm for body-bending yoga or trying to improve on the just-about-attainable 10 lengths of a crowded public pool. Instead I've vowed to do something I am actually quite good at, and which comes naturally to me. I will use the money saved on gym membership to subscribe to an audiobook service from which I can download "books" onto the MP3 player I bought myself for Christmas. I will walk the hour or so to work every morning while consuming classics and other books that, in print format, I have so far failed to "get".

The audiobook is perfect for the time impaired. In 2005 and 2006 the UK audiobook market was worth a whopping £71.4m. Audiobooks can seem rather expensive considering they use no paper and don't have to rely on expensive warehouse storage and distribution, but, for me, it will still work out cheaper than the combined cost of a gym fee and my book-buying habit - and it will do much more for my own sense of achievement.

It won't be a case of just walking down a busy road with headphones either. I also have geography-appropriate books in mind for the several routes I can take from NW3 to SW1. I plan to cut through Regent's Park while listening to Mrs Dalloway - maybe even taking a five-minute break on a bench as I'm introduced to poor old Septimus Smith. When I visit family in Manchester and need to get out and get some space, I can get a drug-free head trip by listening to Jeff Noon's Vurt.

And I'm enthusiastic about the other rewards awaiting me. I'd always struggled with Ulysses - the only audiobook I've listened to until now - but hearing the dulcet Irish tones of the actors helped bring it to life. Even though it can be read as a work of structural wizardry, and certainly appreciated that way, when hearing it spoken aloud it I became totally engaged with it in a way that was out of my reach with the print version. Especially when it came to Molly Bloom - on the page she seemed too indulgent, but hearing "her" helped me enter into her reverie. I have already lined up John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, another book I have been attempting to read for years.

Before I begin, I'd welcome your suggestions in helping me create an audiobook reading list for 2008. Which books do you recommend as being particularly suitable to the spoken word and/or listening to at 6.30 in the morning while trudging into work? I promise to try as many as I can and will update you on this audio pilgrim's progress.