📚 Do audiobooks count as a reading?

First Published: 2026-11-04

I believe yes, but I also have a more nuanced opinion that I feel is worth sharing.

Reading Effort

Different books deserve different levels of attention and effort. Say reading attention is a spectrum and let's put the average reading, wherever that is for you, at a solid 1. Now in my experience this opens up an ordinary range of say 0.5 to 2 as a scale of reading effort. I think audiobooks make up a spectrum of maybe 0.5 to 1.2 and visual reading make up a scale of 0.9 to 1.8, with the uppermost efforts being relegated to repeat reading with underlines and note-taking.

Audiobooks for low and high effort

Despite this range, I feel like audiobooks are worth it on both ends of the spectrum. On the lower end of the spectrum, you can inattentively consume something that otherwise you would not have consumed at all, without expending much effort. While on the other hand it might make sense to first get a surface level familiarity with the concepts by listening to an audiobook, even if inattentively, and then later going back and reading it visually with a pen in hand to underline or do note-taking. That way some superficial barriers to comprehension such as familiarity with writing style, basic outline, characters, locations and subject matter are already bridged.

The case for "distracted" listening

There is also something to be said for multitasking with an audiobook. I find that when I listen to an audiobook, it is easier to focus on the content if I occupy myself in other ways on the side, than if I do nothing else at all. If I play a video game (that doesn't require any language processing), like a platformer or action game, or if I do chores or if I go for a walk, in any of these cases it seems that my attention is easier to uphold and thus I actually retain more of the content and am able to consume more of it. Perhaps this is because the listening and language processing is a separate and orthogonal mental capacity that is occupied, while the problem solving, rythm, coordination and unconscious routine is a different capability and getting both provides enough stimulation to increase my attention endurance for both activities.

Conclusion

An earlier mental shorthand of mine was that listening to an audiobook twice counts the same as reading the book once. I now feel equipped to accurately judge how deeply and in what medium I want to engage with a book. This question is an extremely common one, so I hope I was able to contribute something and you're able to draw the line for yourself.