Mac software Using audiobooks on your Mac
Resolving issues and restrictions with what you want to run on your Mac
QHow can I load audiobooks from CD so that I can listen to them on my iMac and iPhone?
AThe simplest way to listen to audiobooks on your Mac and iOS devices is to buy them using the Books app, from Apple’s audiobook section within its Book Store. You can then automatically access them across all devices signed in with the same Apple ID. Although you can sync your place in ordinary books, the Books apps on macOS and iOS don’t currently do this with audiobooks.
If you already have the audiobooks on optical discs and have a suitable optical drive, you can ‘rip’ them to disk and import them into the Books app on your Mac. When you insert the first disc, let it mount in the Finder and choose the Add to Library command in the File menu of Books. The snag with doing this is that each track will be added as a separate audiobook: you may find it better to ‘rip’ the tracks using a third-party app and join them together before adding them. When you share your Books library in iCloud, these will be available to your iPhone too.
There are also several third-party alternatives which access their own libraries. The biggest commercial service is Audible, which has its own iOS app. Well worth considering is the large free collection from LibriVox, again supported by a dedicated app. They don’t offer macOS apps, though, for which you’ll need to add their books to your Books library in the same way as you would an optical disc.