Listening to audiobooks is a unique way to experience a book that is not only convenient for the reader on the go but enriching to anyone who wants to be told a story the good old-fashioned way: out loud. Whether you’re listening to a novel narrated by your favorite actor or a memoir read by the writer herself, audiobooks give you an innovative way to connect with your subject matter and the story itself.

Like traditional reading, audiobooks are amazing across genres, but when it comes to the best audiobook listening, there are even more benefits when the genre is nonfiction. Nonfiction is a broad genre, and under its bookish umbrella, you can find everything from memoirs and biographies to historical and scientific writing. So whether you’re trying to learn about a new topic, understand another language, or get through a difficult read on an intimidating subject, audiobooks are there to help you understand and enjoy.

Are you ready to start listening? Then, nonfiction audiobooks are where you should start. Here’s why:

Engaging narrators can help turn “boring” books into engaging stories.

A lot of people avoid nonfiction books in favor of fiction for fear that nonfiction is dull, boring, or hard. As a huge nonfiction reader, I can tell you firsthand that the genre has plenty of excitement, emotion, and interesting action to keep any reader interested. But, if you are still worried that a nonfiction book on World War II will be too tedious to get through, an audiobook may just be your new best friend.

With an audiobook, narrators help enhance the story in new and exciting ways that simply reading words on a page can’t do. By using interesting tones and audible emphasis, or incorporating addition audio clips and other voices and even other actors, audiobook narrators have the power to turn even the most mundane chapters into engaging stories just like that.

Intimidating subjects become easier to digest.

Just as audiobook narrators help readers get into subjects they would otherwise find boring, they can also help readers understand subjects that are difficult, confusing, or intimidating. Books that use a lot of scientific jargon, foreign language terms, or complicated historical names can seem like gibberish to someone trying to read them on a page. With audiobooks, however, narrators pronounce the tough stuff for readers, making it easier to understand and absorb the information in the book without the stress of second-guessing every other sentence.

With young readers, nonfiction audiobooks also allow them to read above their level in both style and content. By doing so, they can hear new terms, enhance their vocabulary, and start to learn new subject matter that would be inaccessible to them at a lower level of reading.

Nonfiction books are often sectionalized so audio format is the best to consume them

The structure of nonfiction books makes them perfect for the audio format. Unlike fiction books that weave a longer, more plot-heavy narrative, nonfiction books are often sectioned off and divided in a way that breaks its content into smaller, more manageable pieces.