I have to admit something. Sometimes when I finish an audiobook and mark it as “Read” on Goodreads, there is a tiny part of me that feels as though I am cheating. Did I really read the book?
Technically, my eyes did not move across the words on the page. Someone else read the words aloud while I listened. But I still finished the book. And this is where I started wondering whether we are perhaps getting too caught up in the word reading rather than what it actually means to finish a book.
Why I Listen to Audiobooks
I listen to audiobooks mostly because they allow me to do something else at the same time. Housework is probably the biggest one. I can listen while washing dishes, folding clothes or doing other boring things around the house. I also listen when I commute.
Sometimes my eyes have simply had enough of staring at words for the day, especially if I have already spent hours looking at a screen. An audiobook lets me continue with a book without asking anything more from my eyes.
When My Mind Wanders
There is, however, one obvious problem with this wonderful ability to multitask. Sometimes my mind wanders. I will be washing dishes, thinking about something completely unrelated, and then suddenly realise that I have absolutely no idea what happened during the last thirty seconds.
“Hey Google, rewind 30 seconds.” I have said that more times than I would like to admit. 😅
At first, I thought this was perhaps another reason audiobooks did not quite count as “proper” reading. Surely if I had been sitting down with a book in front of me, I would have been paying more attention. Except that isn’t actually true. I have done exactly the same thing with printed books.
Sometimes I reach the bottom of a page and realise that although my eyes have gone over every single word, my brain apparently decided not to participate. So I go back and read the paragraph again. With an audiobook, I rewind. With a physical book, I reread. The problem isn’t necessarily the format. Sometimes our attention simply wanders.
The Other Audiobook Hazard: Falling Asleep
There is another danger with audiobooks, of course: falling asleep. This happens to me particularly easily if I listen while lying down. One moment I am happily following the story and the next thing I know, I wake up and the narrator has somehow travelled three chapters into the future without me.
I suppose this is precisely why Audible has a sleep timer. 😂 And again, this isn’t entirely unique to audiobooks. I have fallen asleep with an actual book in my hands before too.
So, Does an Audiobook Count as Reading?
So perhaps the question shouldn’t really be, “Did I read this book?” Perhaps it should be, “Did I experience and finish this book?”
If I listened to the entire unabridged audiobook, I know the characters. I know what happened. I know the ending. I can discuss the book with someone who read the paperback. The story reached me through my ears instead of my eyes.
That seems like a rather small distinction on which to decide whether a book “counts.” I can understand why people distinguish between reading and listening. They are technically different activities.
But when Goodreads asks me whether I have finished a book? Yes. I finished it. And I think I am finally going to stop feeling as though I cheated.