Do Audiobooks “count”?
When your Goodreads count is important, should an audiobook count?
While I love a good twist at the end of a book or waiting for a punch at the last second, this article will not have that. I’ll get right to the point.
Yes, audiobooks do “count”. And here are the three reasons why I believe that.
- Consuming media is consuming media.
Please bask in the most eloquent sentence I have ever written. Only joking, and while this isn’t a complex thought, I believe it's true. I think whether you listen to a song or read the lyrics, you have still consumed it. Whether you have listened to a podcast (like I do) or watched the podcast on YouTube (like my husband does) you still got the same information, heard the same jokes, and absorbed the same stories. No matter how you get it, you still got it (again, look at that beautifully crafted word sandwich).
2. Frustration should not impact learning.
As I wrote in a different blog post, I wasn’t always able to read at the level I read now. I have a very distinct memory of wanting to choose a chapter book at the library in 2nd grade, and my teacher told me I wasn’t at that level. When I insisted I wanted to try, she made me read the book out loud in front of the class. When I couldn’t do it and got upset, she put the book in my backpack and told me that I then HAD to read it. (Yikes).
This stuck with me and for a WHILE I hated reading and I hated books. I hated that I couldn't read at the same level as the other kids. I would pretend to read and just stare at the words as they floated around the page. My mom put me in a class to learn to read better, or so I thought. Instead what I learned is how I read. I learned that I don’t just have to sit there and stare at the page but I can read while moving, I can read out loud, I can follow along while someone reads OR I can listen. And guess what, I still ended up reading the books that my friends were, I just did it differently.
I believe this is my strongest point. If we say that audiobooks aren’t a form of reading, then we discredit an entire community that is adapting to meet their needs. Whether you have ADHD or dyslexia or you are blind or anything else that makes holding a book and looking at the words difficult, you can still read.
3. Authors want their work engaged.
This final point is a total assumption and, please, if you are an author I would love to know your thoughts.
If I put my blood, sweat, and tears into a work of art that I put out into the world for people to consume, I wouldn’t gatekeep the way in which it was consumed. I am choosing to believe that authors do not care how you read their book, just THAT you read it.
The creation and growing popularity of audiobooks has impacted me in a huge way. From being able to rent a book that I knew I didn’t want to own but wanted to read, to reading books that I never would have been able to physically consume, to simply being able to read while doing laundry, I appreciate and utilize audiobooks daily. For me, yes, audiobooks do count.
To each reader their own in the end, but never shame someone for how they consumed a book.
Read on, bitches.
