Do audiobooks truly count as reading, or are they just a shortcut?

Time of India

a day ago

It's a debate that comes up more often than you'd expect. Someone mentions finishing a book, then sheepishly admits, 'Well… we listened to it.' Immediately, there's a pause. Does that really count? Or is it somehow cheating?
For a long time, we used to be on the fence about it. Growing up, 'reading' meant pages, paper, turning from one chapter to the next with your own eyes on the words.
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Listening felt like a shortcut, almost like copying notes from a friend instead of writing them yourself. But the more we thought about it, and the more we tried audiobooks in my own life, the less that definition makes sense. The question isn't just about books, it's about how our brains work, how we experience stories, and even what we value in reading itself.
How we define 'Reading'?
At the heart of this debate is a definition problem. Reading traditionally means decoding written symbols with your eyes. But is that the essence of reading? Or is reading really about absorbing and understanding a story, an idea, or a set of facts?
If the goal is to engage with the content, whether it's a novel, history, or a self-help book, then does it matter whether we saw the words or heard them? After all, people experienced stories by listening long before books were widespread.
Homer's Iliad was recited aloud for centuries before it was ever written down.
What science says about reading vs. listening?
Research actually offers some clarity. Cognitive scientists have studied how the brain processes text versus speech. The results? For comprehension, the difference is surprisingly small. Whether we see the words or hear them, the same language regions in the brain light up.
There are slight differences, of course. Visual reading gives you more control: you can slow down, reread a sentence, or study a graph.
Listening tends to move at the narrator's pace, which can make some complex texts harder to digest. But in terms of remembering the main points or following a narrative, studies suggest audiobooks are nearly as effective as print.
So scientifically speaking, yes, listening really can 'count' as reading.
The unique strength of audiobooks
But here's where it gets interesting. Audiobooks aren't just an alternative to reading; they offer experiences that print can't.
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Think about voice. When a narrator brings characters to life changing accents, adding emotion, and pacing the dialogue, it adds a richness to the story. You might still remember listening to Trevor Noah narrate his memoir Born a Crime. His voice, his timing, the way he slipped between languages that wasn't just 'reading.' It was a performance. Could we have gotten the facts from the printed page? Of course. But the experience of the story was different, and in some ways, more powerful.
Audiobooks also let us read in places where print is impossible: Driving, walking the dog, cooking dinner. Instead of choosing between reading and doing chores, you can do both. For busy people, that's not cheating it's survival.
The cultural bias against listening
So why do people still hesitate to call audiobooks 'real' reading? Part of it is cultural bias. We've long treated the written word as superior, more intellectual. Listening is sometimes dismissed as passive, easier, or less serious.
But think about it. Was it 'less serious' when ancient communities gathered to hear stories aloud? Is a lecture less valuable than a textbook? In many societies, oral storytelling has always been the primary way knowledge is shared. The idea that only reading with your eyes is 'real' learning is a fairly modern, and very narrow, perspective.
When audiobooks struggle
Of course, there are limits. Some books are just harder to listen to. Academic texts with charts, poetry with line breaks, or books where you need to stop and think, these can be frustrating in audio form.
Anyone who's tried to follow a complicated family tree in a fantasy novel while cooking knows the struggle.
In those cases, print still has the edge. The ability to pause, reread, underline, or flip back a few pages makes a huge difference. Listening demands a kind of forward momentum; your mind can wander, and before you know it, the narrator has gone on without you.
So maybe it's not a matter of which one 'counts,' but of which one fits the situation and the text.
Personal preferences and learning styles
There's also the fact that people process information differently. Some are highly visual learners; they remember what they see on the page. Others are auditory learners, they retain more when they hear it. For those people, audiobooks might actually be the better way to read.
And let's not forget accessibility. For people with visual impairments or reading difficulties like dyslexia, audiobooks aren't just an alternative, they're essential.
Suggesting that audiobooks don't 'count' erases a whole community of readers who rely on them.
The emotional layer
Here's something you might have noticed: Audiobooks sometimes forge stronger emotional connections. A skilled narrator can add nuance you might have skimmed over in print. Sarcasm, sadness, joy, they land differently when you hear them.
if you might have once listened to an audiobook of To Kill a Mockingbird. The narrator's voice cracked slightly during Atticus Finch's courtroom speech.
That crack stayed with me in a way the printed words never had, no matter how many times you read them.
Doesn't that kind of impact count as reading, too?
The verdict: Do they count?
So, do audiobooks count as reading? We think the better question is: why are we so obsessed with this at all? The point of books isn't to prove we've done work; it's to engage with stories, knowledge, and ideas. If an audiobook helps you do that, then yes, it absolutely counts.
Reading is not about how we take in the words. It's about what those words do to us once they're inside: the way they make us think, the feelings they stir, the questions they leave us with. Whether through our eyes or our ears, the destination is the same.
At the end of the day, reading isn't a competition. Nobody's handing out medals for flipping pages versus pressing play. If anything, audiobooks expand the definition of reading, making literature more accessible, flexible, and alive.
So next time someone asks if audiobooks count as reading, maybe the answer is simple: Of course they do. The real question is, what did you discover in the book? Because that's the part that matters.