The Great Debate: Audiobooks vs. Print

These insights are provided by DAP editors Ashley Crantas and Cody Wootton.

Q: Do audiobooks count as reading?

Ashley: I would say that listening to a book definitely counts as reading it. The story and words still get to your mind, although the medium and artistic execution is a little different (page layout and visuals versus sound effects and audio mixing). Everyone has their preferences and I think it's amazing we have so many ways to appreciate storytelling. Certainly, reading a printed narrative and listening to it are not precisely the same, but neither is lesser than the other, and depending on how deeply you want to take the argument, it's often an ableist debate to say that listening to an audiobook "doesn't count." At first, all stories were shared verbally, and there are still a number of languages that have no written form. The original way in which The Odyssey and Beowulf were shared and passed on is comparable to our modern-day audiobooks.

Cody: For the vast majority of listeners, audio books do not "count" as reading, and the reason for that is intent, not ability. You can absolutely load up an audio book and listen to each and every word with focused attention, but that's not what you're doing, is it? What are you doing while all those words roll by? You're on a treadmill, or commuting in traffic, or maybe mowing the lawn, or even trying to fall asleep. Your brain can sit back and relax while it's being entertained by filler noise, just like putting on background music. Audio books just aren't a primary activity; they're what we do when we're doing something else. You'll get the overall gist of the story, sure, but try it without dynamic voice actors for popular characters, ambient noise, or a sound score. Try it with a philosophy book. Try Proust. Try Dante. Try Tolstoy. You'll find it's not as entertaining, which is really what audio books are for. If you want to learn something, to really absorb it, you have to give it your full attention. If you can do that, you're "reading" an audio book. Otherwise, you're just putting your brain on autopilot to pass time.