I often find myself in conversations with folks who admit that they have rarely read a book over the past several years. But then comes the caveat, namely, that they listen to scores of audiobooks..
“Wait a minute,” I say. “Don’t audiobooks count?”
This past week I asked my Linkedin community to weigh in on this proverbial question. Here’s what a few had to say:
Chris Ross, Salt Lake City, Business Development Manager in the BioTech and Pharmacy Industry
“Audiobooks count for me. In fact, I find that I retain the material from audiobooks as well or better compared to reading a physical book. I sometimes have to listen to the same material in an audiobook a few times when my mind starts to drift or if I'm driving and my attention is on the road. I also found that by adding audiobooks to the physical books I read, I was able to dramatically increase the number of books I consume each year. My highest was 82 or 84 books in one year. My goal is to read 100 books in both formats in one year.”
“Audiobooks absolutely count! It's a form of consuming books. I can't sit still long enough to listen to audiobooks most of the time, so I prefer reading. But that's just me.”
Cara Houser, CareerAdvisor, Business Strategist, and Speaker, San Francisco Bay Area
“Audiobooks all the way. That's 90% of my reading right now. They are the very best company to me on my morning runs”
Lauren Schara, a Customer Experience Analyst from the Chicago Area
“While I prefer to read, audiobooks absolutely count. And I would go so far as to say they count MORE than reading. Oral storytelling is the original way we passed down history and life lessons. We read to children when they are little and they are enthralled. Perhaps those who say that audiobooks don’t count should remember that for most of mankind’s history, this is how we were taught and entertained.”
“It’s not that audiobooks don’t count. But listening is not, in fact, reading.
This strikes me as elementary and non-controversial. Eyes are muscles. They’re connected with nerves to the brain.
This is not complicated. When you don’t use your eyes—when you don’t read—you fail to use, make, forge and reinforce or strengthen those muscles, nerves and activation. You lose whatever value that has to your long-term mental and physiological health.”
So do audiobooks in your mind count as reading? What are your thoughts? Please weigh in on the conversation.
They count. Listening, however, is a different experience and I am so trained to read with my eyes and a book in my hand that I have found it difficult not to drift away while listening to a story. I also find it difficult to highlight or underline something I love when I have no page in front of me and I do love to engage with a book that way.
I belong to several "bookish" FB groups and if you want to start a riot on bookish FB, just ask, "do audiobooks count as reading." The first few comments are usually something like, "of course they count," and then someone inevitibally says, "no, they don't count as reading; reading is with your eyes so listening doesn't count." And they are off to the races.
All kinds of points are being made both for an against counting or not, but for me it comes down to, the reader is in control of their own reading life and if/how/where they track books and they can call it reading or not. I think some readers on FB ask this question just to stir up sh*t. Just my .02
They count. Listening, however, is a different experience and I am so trained to read with my eyes and a book in my hand that I have found it difficult not to drift away while listening to a story. I also find it difficult to highlight or underline something I love when I have no page in front of me and I do love to engage with a book that way.
I belong to several "bookish" FB groups and if you want to start a riot on bookish FB, just ask, "do audiobooks count as reading." The first few comments are usually something like, "of course they count," and then someone inevitibally says, "no, they don't count as reading; reading is with your eyes so listening doesn't count." And they are off to the races.
All kinds of points are being made both for an against counting or not, but for me it comes down to, the reader is in control of their own reading life and if/how/where they track books and they can call it reading or not. I think some readers on FB ask this question just to stir up sh*t. Just my .02