If two people are standing in front of me, one read the book, the other listened to it, if both of those people know what happened in the book and can discuss it with comprehension, I'd be unable to tell which one read and which one listened. So, does it really matter? Seems like a distinction without a difference to me.

Ingesting information is ingesting information. For most of human history stories were oral tradition rather than written. Accessibility is also a factor. Not everyone can physically read, nor can everyone listen to an audiobook or podcast. Both are valid options.

I’m impressed by anyone who can get through heavy, old literature without falling asleep no matter which format they choose though lol

One of my kid's schools had a wild debate about this for their yearly charity "Readathon." The kids get sponsors to sign up to pledge the amount of money they will donate for each book the kid reads during the readathon. Parents are expected to sign off that their kid really did the reading for all the books they put on their sheet. Other than that its on the honor system. They've been doing it for 60+ years.

The kids don't get any prizes but they do get certificates of recognition for various levels of achievement. It came up this year, that some parents count audiobooks and others don't. They have been doing it like this for ome years now but it was never discussed before. The rules don't say anything about audiobooks but they were written back when audiobooks weren't common.

We had some seriously intense discussions in the Parents Charter (the name for our PTA) and lots of people have strong feelings about this! In the end the agreement was that transparency is best so the form has been updated with one side for audiobooks and one side for books. For purpose of donation they are counted the same.

The main difference I see is that when a professional wants to read something very thoroughly, they employ techniques of what's called slow reading. That's usually when the highlighter comes out along with note-taking materials.

This is possible with print information because of how much of it is put in front of your eyes at once. Rereading a paragraph, even a half dozen times to guarantee you fully understood it, is very easy with print. It is not with audio. Flipping back to page xxx to check something, also very easy with print and less so with audio. Smoothly speeding up/slowing down your rate of consumption to match the complexity of the current topic, also easier with text than audio. Etc etc.

So, for casual consumption, they're fairly equivalent and both fine. But if you wanted to claim mastery of a complex topic after putting years of intensive effort in, I'd say that probably required some reading that could not have been replaced by listening, and if you did no reading, I'm going to be a little doubtful of your mastery of the knowledge. It's possible to still understand what you need to, of course, but you definitely neglected what is usually the most efficient, reliable method by far.

I think reading is inherently "better" as it forces you to sit down and focus on a single task to the exclusion of everything else. This is not the case with audiobooks as you can be doing other stuff at the same time. If you actually just sit down and listen then I no longer see hardly any difference there. However listening to a audiobook while doing other stuff means your attention by definition is not 100% in the book so it's not the same thing. It's like watching a TV serie while browsing social media on your phone.

I feel like there’s an analytical factor that comes with reading that doesn’t quite translate as effectively with audiobooks. Yes you can listen to a story on audiobook and understand the subtext and that’s great. But when you really want to pause and sit with a passage and ponder it further, or you’re trying to really dig into the way it’s constructed, I find that easier with a written page. It’s not impossible with an audiobook, just strikes me as maybe a little clunkier.

I see it like jogging and cycling. Both good ways to get exercise, both good for you, and both can get you to the same place, but in the end they are two different ways to do it and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Humans were telling stories to each other orally, way before they'd ever started writing those stories down. If you ask me, audiobooks are just an extension of that history. That doesn't mean I think audiobooks are a superior format for reading, but it's not an inferior one either.

As far as audiobooks go, this isn't really much of a thing anymore, but the only important caveat I'd make is abridged books versus the whole thing. If you want to read a story, read the whole damn story. But that's just equivalent to skimming through or looking up cliff notes for a hard copy.

I don't know how much of an accomplishment reading a very long work of fiction is but if the reader and the listener ended up with similar levels of comprehension I'd say that reading and listening are the same.

Good thing is that this doesn't really get to be an opinion. Well, I guess anything can be an opinion, but this one is objectively wrong if you differentiate them.

There have been several studies done on this, and brain scans show that physically reading with your eyes and listening to an audiobook trigger the exact same responses in the brain. They have the exact same effect, and your brain comprehends them the exact same.

Studies back in the 80s showed a direct correlation in listening comprehension and reading comprehension. They're directly linked. In the 70s, studies showed that college students that listened to a short story could summarize it with equal accuracy to those that read it.

The science is pretty clear, physically reading a story and listening to it are the exact same and require the same amount of effort and attention to walk away with a good comprehension of the material.

Reading a long book is just a matter of how much free time one has. Its not really an impressive accomplishment, however if you struggle at reading I could see it being a goal of sorts for yourself.

writing a book would be a recognizable feat. Writing a great book is a big accomplishment.

That said, if youre comparing, reading the book to me is better for comprehension than listening but thats different for us all.

Bonus points for doing both simultaneously.

I don't want to speak for everyone but I definitely don't acquire the same mastery of information in a book if I listen to it be read rather than read it. That could just be a factor in my learning style rather than a general truth, however.

If you think about reading as some sort of medal worthy endurance, then you just came in last place in the race IMO.

It's supposed to be something you like. If you don't like it, don't do it!

It is not reading. It's listening. But whatever profound insights or wonderful stories are in the text will be in your head after either activity.

Not sure why reading or listening to a book would be an accomplishment, but let's assume it is. Then my opinion is reading it would be the greater accomplishent because It takes more effort to read than listen.

Reading it is a far greater accomplishment, it requires intention and dedication. You can give that to an audiobook, of course, but can also listen to it while playing call of duty and say that you finished it.

I guess reading and listening to audiobooks/podcasts is never something I have fully equated. The latter I do when I'm trying to kill time on road trips or whatever. This means my attention level is not 100% on the narrative, and I may miss parts of it. I am a little prone to attention wandering when I'm reading also, but when that happens and I return to the novel, I'm still right there in the same place, so I don't miss anything.

If you just have if in the background and effectively remember nothing, no. If you pay attention, then it's the same.

Same thing if by reading you're just moving your eyes over the lines.

In my opinion, reading War and Peace isn't worth shit.

Classical literature is just old fiction. The only reason it carries sophistication is because when the books were written, poor people couldn't read. Saying you had read ANYTHING was the equivalent of showing off your new Louis Vuitton bag.

If you read it and you enjoyed it, that's fantastic. That's exactly why it was written. Looking down at someone who didn't read it because it's not something they enjoy is bullshit.

I read books for enjoyment, not accolades. I enjoy passing my eyes over text more than letting sound pass my ears, but it's not a contest. If I liked reading a book and someone else liked listening to someone else read a book, then we both liked the book.

If it's something like a textbook, there might be a viable debate about who gained more, but for a novel I don't see how the method of consumption matters.

There's a wider spectrum of "consuming audiobook" than of "reading."

Listening to that audobook so it's easier to take notes? Definitely as good as reading.

Audiobook on while you're on the treadmill? I guess there's some people who can read on the treadmill, so maybe it's similar, but it strikes me as very different levels of attention and likely recall.

Audiobook on while you do chores, cook, or write some other project? Definitely not equivalent to reading.

I think the important part is how much you retain. Listening is more passive, but that's no reason to gatekeep the thing.

Edit: but to be clear no, it's not literally reading. Still a fairly common thing to say, kinda figuratively I guess, about audio books, which I don't think is a problem either.

There’s no real difference outside of your personal preferences or abilities. I read physical books, e-books, and audiobooks. Often I’ve both read and listened to the exact same book at different times. I’ve even split my reading of a single book between methods on the fly.

Ultimately for me, I can comprehend what I’m reading better with an audiobook because there are fewer physical distractions like my eyes focusing, poor typography, or getting a little sleepy when trying to read at night. But under perfect conditions, I can read faster than I could listen. I also don’t have an inner monologue so I can’t actually “hear” people talking in my head when I’m reading spoken language in books, so when reading for pleasure, audiobooks add a little extra life into a story for me.

For me, personally, it isn't at all, as I will have absorbed about 5% of the information I would have with a book.

But then again, I have some sort of ADHD related audio processing issue, so my opinion on audio books doesn't count.

Not. Reading is active. Listening is passive. Two different experiences.

ITT: Gatekeeping readers.

Everyone claiming reading is superior because of some vague sense of it communicating the information "better" or because of your own subjective experiences sound just like all those people who thought the printing press would be a disaster because people would waste all their time reading instead of listening to people. Same energy, different time period.

If both people come away with the same understanding, what difference does it make? You can't tell whether they read or listened unless you ask them. There's nothing you can ask about the book that will give any indication one way or the other.

Audio books are fantastic, but reading and listening are different things. When reading, the pace and tone and inflections and character voices all come from you. Not so with an audio book.

Now, books today may be written with audio books in mind, but War and Peace was not written "for" audio. One might well argue that to consume the text as a fluent Russian and French reader would be "closest" to Tolstoy's meaning.

I'm not knocking it but I don't consider audiobooks reading. You are using two different input systems, going through different parts of the brain. They both require different skills to process and retain the information.

They are not comparable. Reading requires focus and attention where listening can be passive. Readers control the pace of information intake and will pause and backtrack to reread passages and digest. Listeners rarely do this.

My understanding of the literature is that reading wins in a slam dunk for comprehension of difficult material under natural conditions. For simple material The differences are minimal. The more constrained the conditions become e.g. having the experimenter control the pace of reading the way the narrator controls the pace of listening, then those differences begin to disappear. Similarly if you prevent readers from skipping back to reread passages then comprehension drops.

Whether listening works for you depends on your goals. If it's entertainment during a commute why not? If you are learning the tax code for an upcoming certification exam I'd crack the books.

Both activate the exact same parts of the brain so they're basically the same

reading is more cognitively demanding than listening to audio.

so yeah.