Do audiobooks count as reading?

Do audiobooks count as reading?

Hey everyone, today I came across a heated discussion about whether books count as reading or not. Some people were in the yes camp, while others were in the no camp. I guess I can see where some people are coming from when they say no, but if I’m listening to an audiobook and I finish it, I mark it as read on my storygraph. I know people get pedantic about the word “read”, but I believe that if we’re discussing a book and we know exactly what we’re talking about, and we can have an engaging conversation about a book, why should it matter how people consume a book?

Now I know there’s some people who listen to audiobooks while they are multitasking, and multitasking ultimately means you wont do an exceptional job at two tasks done at the same time, but I also catch my attention drifting when I’m reading a physical book and I retread my reading to the point I remember most clearly and read the passages again. I’ve even looked up comprehension studies for audiobooks vs books vs ebooks, but the difference is so minimal that ultimately it doesn’t matter what format you choose (that is unless it’s something technical or academic, for those you’d probably want to actually read something physically).

I also think about how people have preferences in the way they consume things they find entertaining. I just recently came across two terms for audiobooks; dramatized audiobooks and graphic audio. These are audiobooks with subtle or dramatized sound effects and other little things to make audiobooks feel more “alive” I guess the word would be. I show off a book in the second slide that you should check out to see what I mean.

#lemon8bookclub #reading #books #audiobooks