Are Audiobooks REALLY Reading?

Me who listens to the audiobook while I'm reading it: " I'm playing both sides, that way I always WIN! "

Audio books are pretty amazing, also they mean that ppl who are blind or with severe vision impairments, can experience the joy of a great story.

Having ADHD, reading the text while listening to the audiobook has allowed me to read 30+ books a year where before it'd be a good year if i read 5

Personally, the biggest benefit to listening is that i'm not a native English speaker, so listening to audiobooks help-me comprehend better the language.

Audio Books: 1: I believe it was Stephe King who talks about how originally stories were told around a fire. The tribe would listen to a storyteller verbally tell them a story, and audiobooks are a return to that type of storytelling. 2: When I drive to the VA, an hour each way, I can't exactly read a book. But I can listen to a book 3: With an audiobook, I am more likely to get the names right. (Unless the reader mispronounces them) 4: I am a slow reader, but with audiobooks, I can comfortably turn the speed up from 1.3x to 1.7x and within a minute of acclimation still feel relaxed listening to it and no longer even think about how it is a faster speed (For others they can do 2x or even 3x) The practical effect of this is, when I read a book that would be a 10-hour audiobook it will probably take me 15 hours to read, but if I listen to it at a moderately faster speed I can listen to it in 7 or so hours. 5: The older I get the worse my eyes are, When I read it is almost exclusively on Kindle nowadays because the print in books is just so blurry, But listening to books is far more comfortable for me.

I am a visual person, I love reading physical books, and when I listen to audio books I have to “reread” passages way more often. My younger sister is the exact opposite. She can look at a school instruction a dozen times and not understand it until it is read aloud to her. I think a major factor in audio vs visual books is how your brain best processes input information.

Depending on narrator, and enjoy audiobooks more than reading physical book. They add a different level to the story and help me picture the story better. Plus audiobooks work out better for me while driving to work.

Reading a physical book is faster, but with audiobooks, you can work or drive simultaneously

I drive an hour to work, work 8 hours, then drive and hour home and my book addiction needs to compete with my video game and manga addiction but I can't read manga or play videogames at work or while driving so when I can read a 700 page book in 1 day when It used to take me months that's pretty cool

This reminds me a lot of the discussion of writing on paper versus typing. Everyone says you can't learn through typing. It isn't HOW it is WHAT you get used to. I am physically disabled. I haven't been able to handwrite more than a paragraph since I was 9. I only type. Since that is my ONLY option, I am used to it and I can learn that way. Same goes for audiobooks. I am severely dyslexic. I can't read on my own practically at all. If I can't hear it, I don't know what it says. I am 95% reliant on audio. I have no idea what it feels like to learn through reading. I only know audio learning. I developed that skill to a high level. If you don't own a car, you are going to be really good at bicycling. I just mean, if you take out options, then whatever you are left with will be the best way to do that thing and your best way to succeed. Having options is what causes these discussions. I have NO options when it comes to reading and writing. I can ONLY type and listen; therefore, I am really good at it and it is really effective for me.

I've discovered, personally for me, Audiobooks actually help me get out of reading slumps. I do prefer physical reading because I am a visual learner but audiobooks definitely have they're perks to them and have helped me out of reading slumps which I find good because slumps are terrible. I also find that listening to an audiobook while physically reading the same book and following along help as well but these are my personal experiences. Both are great and beneficial!

I think one of the things people forget -- or like, assume is a sign that audio is bad -- is that you can rewind and listen when your mind wanders. I've had this discussion so many times with people, and that is always the question -- "what about when your mind wanders, or you get focused on something and you don't take it in? That's the problem with audio!" As if that doesn't ever happen when reading a physical book?? I can't tell you how many times it's happened to me that I've read a paragraph, or even an entire page, and then realized I wasn't paying attention and then had to go and read it again... sometimes multiple times. You can do that with audio books too. It's the same thing. But I think a lot of people (even some audiobook readers) forget that this is possible, and that it's the exact same phenomenon between the two mediums. One is not better than the other. Listening to you talk about the students who had to listen to the podcast vs the ones who had to read it, that was the first thought I had -- did the students who listened get to rewind and relisten if something was confusing for them, or if they got distracted? Could they pause the podcast to consider something? I haven't read that study, but I would imagine that wasn't the case, that they likely only got to listen to it once. I would also bet that the students who read the physical version of the lecture weren't regulated in that same way, when something was confusing, they could go back and read it again. They could also probably stop reading for a few moments just to try and process what they read, something that was likely not an option for the audio listeners. The limitations of audio are often a result of people not remembering they have as much control over the audio as they do over a physical book.

One thing I never really considered until recently about audiobooks is how much influence the narrator has on creating the characters they read. I recently listened to a very popular book that everyone seems to love, and I hated the main character. In retrospect, I began to wonder if it was at least partly due to the way the narrator interpreted her personality, and whether I might have interpreted her differently in my own head if I had read the print version. When we read, we're building the vision ourselves, but with audiobooks, we have some help (or hindrance?) in that area.

I like it when you have the book in front of you AND you’re listening to the audiobook. I’ve never been able to just listen to an audio book, I’m a visual learner, BUT. When I have it while reading, it makes the whole experience more…cinematic. Highly recommend it

I work a lot on the computer and my eyes can be sore at the end of the day. An audiobook doesn't require me to stare at something for a long time when I am already tired. Reading isn't a competition. Just a hobby we all share

I'm so glad you brought up how useful audiobooks can be for people with disabilities like dyslexia that make physical reading difficult! I have a sister with a different disability that has made physical reading extremely challenging and slow for her since high school. It stopped her from being the avid reader she once was, and audiobooks are what has allowed her to love reading again! I can't imagine trying to tell her that somehow none of the many series she's finished count because they were in audio format. I've always been a visual person more than an auditory person, so I have a strong preference for physical reading, but that doesn't invalidate audiobooks! Let people read in the way that works for them. Any reading is good reading!

I'm an adult, with a career, with kids, home, etc... Plenty of responsabilities and not enough free time. I love reading but for the longest time I would read like a book a year for entertainment and everything else I read was related to my field or because I read to my kids. After audiobooks and putting commuting time towards stuff that I love, I have been listening to so many more books... I've already "read" over 100 books just this year. Books I found time to physically read? About 1 for entertainment purposes... Audiobooks have also allowed me to read in English and in German since where I live it's not really that easy to get them.

I remember in highschool my English teacher got mad at me for reading 1984 through audiobook instead of physically I felt so guilty. Now I mostly only listen to books and it helps cuz it turns out I have ADHD and dyslexia that was undiagnosed until I was 20. I can only physically read if my brain decides to hyperfixate on the book

Great video! One difference you didn't touch on is that an audiobook is (in my opinion) one extra layer removed from the author's story, because you're getting it through the lens of the narrator's interpretation. Audiobook narration is an art form and different narrators will interpret and deliver a story differently, that's why people are able to have discussions about their favourite and least favourite narrators. This can be either a pro or a con depending on your subjective opinion. A good narrator can really elevate a story! But in the same way a bad narrator can make it difficult to listen to. The worst is when a series switches narrators midway through and the narrators pronounce some names differently!

Thanks for doing this. Like you, I was diagnosed with a condition that makes reading comprehension potentially one of the most difficult things in the world. I was diagnosed with ADHD. As a kid, I could read books all day, every day. Sitting and grinding through books one after another, sometimes multiple in a day when it rained and I couldn’t do my farm chores. But when it came to my textbooks, it was so hard to understand what I had read. After I was diagnosed as a teen, my mom found a recent study (late 80s-early 90s) that said some ADHD kids (known as ADD at the time) had better comprehension when they were listening to texts while reading with their eyes. She found my textbooks through an organization that provided textbooks on cassette tapes (yes! Cassette Tapes!) for blind students. It helped tremendously. Back then, not every book made for the pleasure of reading was released in audiobook format at the print release. It had to be requested by readers first in most cases. And even then, it was on cassette tapes. Eventually we had CDs, but that still was a lot in manufacturing costs. Digital means I have a wider range of books to consume. Now as an adult, there’s so much to do and I have a very difficult time sitting for long periods if time to read, plus I feel a lot of societal guilt if I take time for me to sit and do nothing else while I read. For a long while, I stopped reading altogether. Audiobooks brought me back to the worlds I had been forced to leave behind.