No Shelf Control

Hello guys!! Today I’m going to sharing my personal thoughts on whether or not audiobooks are reading! There’s technically no definitive answer with this, it is your own choice if you consider audiobooks reading!! I myself have struggled with this dilemma, but in the end I have decided that audiobooks are reading, and here’s why!

First, Oxford Languages definition of reading is “the action or skill of reading written or printed matter silently or aloud.” This means that by listening to an audiobook you are, in a way, reading aloud. Also, maybe you don’t like this definition of reading, and that is totally okay! I feel like reading can also be defined as the act of learning about a story or an event through words. With this logic, audiobooks could be considered reading!!

Next, when you were a little kid in elementary school, the teacher would read aloud, and this was considered reading time. An audiobook is no different than listening to a teacher read out loud, so audiobooks could be considered reading using this definition!!

Another reason I have is that book tracking apps, like Goodreads or The StoryGraph, consider audiobooks reading! Whether it’s counting them towards your reading goal, or just keep track of them, audiobooks count!!

And finally, maybe you don’t consider audiobooks reading or maybe you just don’t like them. Either way, I definitely think you should give them a try because you can listen to them almost anywhere!