# Do Audiobooks Count as Having Read a Book? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2024, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480 "2024-11-20T02:29:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/1 "2024-11-20T02:29:04Z")
I find myself torn on this question. I mean, yeah, I guess listening to an audiobook counts as reading. I can say I’ve read “The Outsiders”, “Lord of the Flies”, and “Slaughter House Five” with a clear conscience. However, I can’t help feeling that listening to an audiobook isn’t quite as comprehensive as physically reading a book. I mean, with physically reading, I’m concentrating on what’s written before me, interpreting it, and pausing to think about the concepts if they strike me in a certain way. I don’t really do that with an audiobook. I mean, I listen to what’s being read to me, but if I let my attention wander for just a few moments, it becomes more or less background noise. I usually replay whatever I missed, and I get the gist of what’s being said. But it feels a lot more shallow of an experience than a physical reading of the words. What do you guys think? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/2 "2024-11-20T02:34:40Z")
I think it counts enough to equal government work. I prefer my surgeon doesn’t listen to audiobook surgical procedure. If you’re really studying a subject it might be better to physically read if that’s how you learn best. Some folks reading comprehension is crap and listening to someone say it might be easier. If you’re reading for pleasure, sure it counts. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/3 "2024-11-20T02:40:42Z")
Well, reading is reading, and listening uses a different area of the brain. I think something like Braille is closer to reading and also activates the visual cortex, though this should not be oversimplified. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/4 "2024-11-20T03:01:39Z")
Yes it counts. Book consumption should be encouraged in any and all forms people wish to do so, rather than splitting hairs and gatekeeping. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/5 "2024-11-20T03:19:20Z")
Of course it counts. > [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > But it feels a lot more shallow of an experience than a physical reading of the words. This may be true for you; that doesn’t make it true for everybody. They’re very different experiences, but a masterful narrative performance can enrich and elevate a work. I’ve read audiobooks that, on finishing, I wished I’d read in physical format. I’ve read audiobooks, generally autobiographies narrated by the author, that are unequivocally the definitive version of the work. There are lots of great reasons to encourage or even mandate eyeball reading, but none of them particularly apply to literate adults. Do what you enjoy and don’t gatekeep anybody; not even yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/6 "2024-11-20T03:39:05Z")
If someone tells me that they “read” a book via audiobook, I still have someone I can talk with about the story. So close enough for me. I’d personally say “Yeah, I listened to that on Audible” or something rather than “I read that book” but I think the end result is good enough either way. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/7 "2024-11-20T03:48:46Z")
Absolutely yes. No question about it. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/8 "2024-11-20T04:33:11Z")
Of course it counts. My memories of books I’ve listened to are every bit as vivid as one I’ve read myself, some even moreso. This includes _Charlotte’s Web_ read by my third grade teacher and _Johnny Tremaine_ read by my mother. The audio books I’ve listened to while driving are inexorably tied to the stretch of road I was on. The only thing it lacks is visual references in non-fiction books ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/9 "2024-11-20T06:25:19Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > This may be true for you; that doesn’t make it true for everybody. I agree with this. For me, there is no experience in which I am listening to an audio book while doing another activity (driving, cooking, weeding the garden, etc.) where my attention does not quickly focus on the primary activity to the exclusion of the audio, reducing the words to (as it has been said) background noise. I can absorb a few sentences but then my awareness shifts away. If I make a concerted effort to pay attention to the words, I find I am unable to carry out the other activity at the same time It’s just how my brain works. The only way I, personally, can listen to an audio book and get the same comprehensive consumption and understanding is if I lie still with my eyes closed focusing entirely on the book with no other distractions. And if I’m going to do that, I might as well just read. However, I make no assertion that my own experience holds true for everyone. If you feel like you “read” the book, if you feel like you got 90+% of it and were satisfied by it, then that’s you. It’s not me, but I won’t at all argue that you “didn’t read” the book. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/10 "2024-11-20T12:13:07Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > > [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > > > But it feels a lot more shallow of an experience than a physical reading of the words. > > This may be true for you; that doesn’t make it true for everybody. Another agreement with this. If you’re not fully experiencing or absorbing or processing the audiobook as much as you would reading it yourself, it might not count _for you_. Some other thoughts: If the audiobook you’re listening to is abridged, it might not “count.” Abridged audiobooks aren’t that common nowadays, but they used to be far more common back when audiobooks had to be distributed and played on physical media. If a book has a significant visual element, just listening to the audiobook might not count. And the one I wonder about: it’s at least theoretically possible that a narrator’s performace could influence your perception of a book in a way that the author did not intend and would not approve of. In such a case, would listening “count the same” as reading? ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/11 "2024-11-20T13:45:05Z")
I certainly hope so! It’s the only reading I have done for years. I listen to my books as I am running. But I get where the OP is coming from–I always feel like I’m hiding something when I say to someone “I just read a book about…” when I didn’t actually pass eyes over words. Objectively, that’s just silly since both words-on-page and audiobook readers could pass a test about the story, but it’s how I feel. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/12 "2024-11-20T14:36:48Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > In such a case, would listening “count the same” as reading? Eh, you could say the same of any translated work. Does Hesiod only “count” if you read the Theogony in the original Greek? Some would say “absolutely it doesn’t count unless you read the original text!” but they can be dismissed as gatekeeping jerks. Certainly a narrator, like a translator, has influence over the tone of a work. But narration, like translation, is an art form. It can diminish or elevate a work but it shouldn’t be cause for presumptive dismissal. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/13 "2024-11-20T16:48:15Z")
To me it’s yes and no. A audiobook has the speakers inflection, so one is yielding their ability to impose inflections of speech and a masterfully done audiobook is a performance in itself, so it is its own work of art. But besides that it is the words of the book we are getting as written, so in that it passes the test. Several times I have used both audiobooks and the book itself to increase comprehension and also to keep focused and be able to keep on track time wise. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/14 "2024-11-20T16:58:54Z")
I finished Grisham’s The Firm audiobook this past weekend. I was curious how much detail I retained. I rewatched the Tom Cruise movie adaptation last night. I immediately saw differences from the book. Small details like changing the order of scenes. New scenes were very obvious. I can say that I’ve read the book. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/15 "2024-11-21T15:36:22Z")
Sure, it’s reading. No question. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/16 "2024-11-21T16:19:04Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I’d personally say “Yeah, I listened to that on Audible” or something rather than “I read that book” but I think the end result is good enough either way. I have very literate friends, and we get in book discussions over coffee. I’ve found that if I say “I listened to that…” then we have to have the obligatory sidebar about audiobooks (vs “smelly” books). So I just say “I read another book by her, and I think…” to avoid a tangent. > [@garygnu](#): > > Of course it counts. My memories of books I’ve listened to are every bit as vivid as one I’ve read myself, some even moreso. THIS. I find a good audiobook can be more immersive, especially if I can block external distractions with good earbuds (I should try noise-canceling headphones). My wife is used to me saying “I’ll be in the basement… and I’ll be listening to a book, so if you need me, flash the lights.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/17 "2024-11-21T20:31:57Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > If someone tells me that they “read” a book via audiobook, I still have someone I can talk with about the story. This is what I came here to say. Kind of strikes me as similar to the difference between watching a sport in person and watching it on TV. They’re different experiences, for sure, but it’s entirely reasonable to say you watched the game even if you didn’t get the fully immersive experience of being in the stands. You saw all the plays, kept track of the score, know how it turned out and what parts of it were influential to the outcome, what had you excited or hopeful or disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/18 "2024-11-21T21:41:27Z")
For me, it seems to depend a little on towards what it’s supposed to count. If I want to experience a story, there seems to be little difference. But for factual content or involved argumentation, I do better with written text, simply because it’s easier to pause a moment and mull something over—the process of reading is something with active involvement, where the process of listening to something is of a more receptive nature. Likewise, I might read for the sheer pleasure of language, which also doesn’t always transfer to listening to something without losses. On the other hand, a skillful performance can bring this forth in a way I wouldn’t have been able to on my own. So to me, they’re definitely distinct in the sense that they’re not always fully interchangeable. But that doesn’t make one intrinsically more ‘true’ or valuable than the other. On a sidenote, I’ve been listening to Jeff VanderMeer’s latest entry into the Southern Reach-series, _Absolution_, and I’ve been wishing I had bought a physical copy to read instead. Not really a spoiler, content wise, but to be excessively careful: The final part is narrated from the perspective of an agent who is given to profuse, tic-like swearing, and while I don’t mind the profanity, the sheer density of ‘fucks’ sometimes seems to sap the text of all meaning, like listening to somebody talking in Smurf language… ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/19 "2024-11-21T22:23:22Z")
A couple of things, if you’re asking ME, I’d say it does, as long as it’s Unabridged. Many abridged versions are good, don’t get me wrong, but if I want to talk to you about the book itself, and the version you’ve read is cut for length, well, then we may not be able to speak about the details. Second, as mentioned upthread, there’s the quality of the performance. A really poor performance causes me to tune out, and no, I’m not paying attention to details, any more than when I skimmed a novel for class. I had “read” the novel, and could talk to major themes and characters, but I lost out on detail. Not proud of it, but I’ll own up to it. Lastly, we have a recentish (May 2022) prior thread running parallel (heh) to this one, with a very similar OP (in both senses!) > [@How Do You Define having Read a Book?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-having-read-a-book/963675): > > I’ve been perusing book channels looking for reading suggestions, and I’ve noticed some of those YouTube host saying things like, “Yeah, back then I was reading a book a day”. One guy claims to have read 164 books in a year, so that works out to a little over a book every two days, chain reading style. I gotta wonder, I usually need something like a couple of weeks to read a fair sized book end to end. And that’s how I define having read a book, end to end. I never claim to have read Return … ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480/20 "2024-11-21T22:39:45Z")
The reading club at my school counts audiobooks as “reading”. I’m not going to argue with the librarian’s decision. Though I’m not sure how pages are counted for audiobooks (the club awards prizes for number of pages read). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-audiobooks-count-as-having-read-a-book/1010480.md?page=2)