2020 was the year I got started with audiobooks. I discovered the Libby App, and my world was transformed. As a voracious reader, the biggest blessing audiobooks gives me is reading on the go. I just pop in my AirPods or car Bluetooth, and I am transported to another world and story while I run, walk or drive. While physical books will always have my heart, reading audiobooks is a great way to still get my reading in on more active days.
Some people think audiobooks don‘t really count as reading. The physical act of reading is with your eyes, but the mental picture you can create with an audiobook is just the same as reading it with your eyes. You still have to visualize the time, place, people, and emotions. So, when people say, do audiobooks really count as reading? I tell them, think about how your parents read your books aloud as a child. They “read“ those books to you, but you heard them and did not read them physically yourself. So does that count as reading? Yes!
Audiobooks are perfect for both the voracious reader and the troubled reader who just cannot pick up a book physically because it is difficult for them or truly impossible due to impairments mentally or visually. For context, I have a friend who doesn’t love reading books physically in her hand because she gets bored easily with the words on a page. Audiobooks have been a lifesaver for her because now she takes them on walks, and we have great conversations about those books.
The next time you think to yourself, “Do audiobooks really count as reading?” Think about your days curled up next to mom, dad, or grandma reading and listening to the words they spoke to you. That is audiobooks, my friends.