At a recent fortieth birthday party, the conversation turned to audiobooks while we sat down to eat. This particular conversation included my husband, my cousin’s husband, my dad and myself.

If you had told me as a teenager that I’d be talking to my dad about audiobooks when I was an adult, I’d call you crazy. But here he is, a semi-retired technician who was gifted a pair of Shokz bone conduction headphones by my husband and me recently and all I hear from my mom is that he loves his headphones and that he’s basically always listening to an audiobook now. What someone can do with a little extra time and a good pair of headphones– listen to audiobooks of course.

My cousin’s husband is an avid reader and a collector of presidential biographies and autobiographies. He’s an audiobook listener now more than ever and that’s because of his audiobook subscription. What someone can do with a specialized interest and a subscription– listen to audiobooks of course.

My husband, a casual reader more of magazines and avid consumer of YouTube videos and podcasts about food, health, and fitness, is now incorporating audiobooks into his routine, generally on his drives each day for work. Yes, he still has his radio programs that he has to listen to, but when those aren’t on, he’s got an audiobook on deck. The last few he’s read included one that our sons are reading for English class and a series of books written by a commentator he’s regularly listened to for years. What someone can do with wanting to learn deeply about a topic (or connect with another person reading the same book) and a free library card– listen to audiobooks of course.

And here I am. A high school librarian who thought I’d never listen to an audiobook while working out and now almost exclusively listen to an audiobook on walks and runs, who listens to most books at 1.5x speed, who will listen to just about anything as an audiobook EXCEPT a book originally formatted as a comic or graphic novel, who uses audiobooks as a way to squeeze in more reading especially if it’s in the car, folding laundry, or baking. What someone can do with an endless TBR pile– listen to audiobooks of course.

Long live the audiobook.