This post originally appeared on RA for All. 

You’ve probably noticed, but audiobooks are having A Moment right now. While publishers report a drop in ebook sales (once claimed to be the future of reading), audiobooks have become the fastest growing medium in the publishing world, seeing a whopping 31% increase in sales between 2015 and 2016. In public libraries, audiobooks make up 13% of circulation in 2015 at the 395 public libraries surveyed by LibraryJournal, with the circulation reaching 17% at larger libraries. That means approximately 3 of every 20 checkouts are audiobooks, and that’s only expected to increase. In fact, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) reports that 24% of Americans say they’ve completed an audiobook in the last year; that’s a third of people who report reading a book in the previous year.

This growth can be attributed to many things. First, the overall quality of audiobooks is significantly better than it used to be. Gone are the days of a single slow, monotone reader in an empty room. Audiobook publishers today have invested real production value in their titles, hiring award-winning narrators and big name celebrities, adding music and sound effects, and including sound editors. Put all that together and you get the high quality listens that really live up to the old “movie in your mind” tagline. In addition to this, the media has really ramped up its support, with sites and publications like the New York Magazine, Forbes, Buzzfeed, Bookriot, and LifeHacker all writing articles on how audiobooks count as reading and which listens should be at the top of your list.