Recorded books date back to the 1930s, when the Library of Congress created a “talking books” program for the blind. For years, audio recordings of books were considered the realm of the sight-impaired. Changes in lifestyle and advances in technology have changed all that. Whether travelling, working out in the gym, engaging in some rote physical activity or simply taking a long walk, booklovers everywhere are using audiobooks to be informed, entertained or enlightened. Not only has technology transformed how we listen to audiobooks, it has expanded the choices of what we listen to. And booklovers are listening!

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) is the organization that monitors and promotes the audiobook industry. It reports that audiobook products, services and sales have been growing steadily for more than a decade and estimates that the total size of the audiobook industry, based on the dollars spent by consumers and libraries, exceeds $1.2 billion.

Audiobooks have followed the same technological path as music records, freed from bulky plugged-in machines with disks to portable cassettes to more portable CDs and, now, as downloads to smartphones. Production costs and purchase prices are dropping deeply while demand is climbing. But price, along with convenience and portability, account for only part of growing audiobook popularity. Selection and quality have also dramatically risen.

Just as we started to see new book titles go straight to eBooks without first being available in print, new titles are showing up in audiobooks that were not previously in print. It’s not surprising that the digital evolution is starting to pair eBooks with audiobooks. Audible, a company owned by Amazon, has paired some 26,000 eBooks with professional narrations. The company is adding more than 1,000 titles a month and aims to eventually bring the number to around 100,000.

“Professional” narration often means professional actor narration in the audiobooks being produced today. It’s not unusual to find your favorite movie and stage actors narrating books. Seeing great potential in audiobooks, producers are investing in high-quality production values. Max Brooks, author of the zombie novel World War Z scored a huge audiobook winner with 60,000 CDs and digital-audio copies sold in advance of the release of the movie taken from his novel. The success was fueled by an elaborate production with 40 cast members, including some A-list actors.

While sales figures indicate the public’s embrace of audiobooks, the format does have its critics who are concerned that this format will diminish the pleasure or comprehension of reading, even reduce the appreciation of the printed word. Many worry about a potential recession in traditional print books. Scientists, authors and booklovers debate the benefit and detriment that audiobooks might bring to literacy and literature. You be the judge.

For more about the rise of audiobooks, read the Wall Street Journal article, “The New Explosion in Audio Books”.