Do You Consider Reading AudioBooks as Reading?

Maybe you're just a different type of learner. My mind doesn't wander on audio. On the printed page, there are so many distractions! The flashing of the white background, the moving words, the letters that fade, the designs on the page after I've been reading for a couple minutes. In silent reading in school I used to just sit and stare at the words and marvel at the various shapes that just appeared on the page. I didn't comprehend anything, just saw the words. Or the pictures made from the spaces and the moving words. I also could not read as a young child, I don't think that is something to look down on. I can read 50 words per minute on the printed page if the font is large enough. On audio, I can "read" 200 words per minute, and that is improving all the time. True, the program doesn't even go up to 700 words per minute because that would probably be impossible to listen at. But there are people who can listen at 500 words per minute. The reason you cannot listen that fast though is because you have to build up to it. Your ear gets better and better all the time. I started audio reading at 70 words per minute just a few weeks ago and I'm already up to 200.

I have never heard of or tried the HP CDs. I mostly buy the standard audiobooks and now I can read text files on Kurzweil too. I have Irlen Syndrome, which is a visual processing disorder. I can't improve my reading skills much except that blue paper helps and the glasses also help a bit. But it's still not nearly as fast for me to read on paper as it is on audio. I'm about 4 times faster on audio right now.

But I think the discussion is an audio book reading...no it is not...reading is the visual word. Audio is auditory. You sound like you may have visual tracking problems..my son had those too and it does sound like you have learning disabilities and I know they are hard to deal with and it makes 'reading' frustrating. I have encouraged my son to listen to audio books and in fact spent a small fortune on the HP cds so that he could listen to them. And in fact, he listened to them and read along with them using the books and this did help his reading skills. So please, don't take it as a bad thing that I or anyone else feels that audio is not reading. ANd trust me the authors of the world enjoy your money no matter how they get it. And I actually did find the professional readers on the HP cds from nice to listen to but it just did not work for me.

You just assume that I am "reading" right now. I am obviously on the computer and it can simply read to me what you have written. When you listen to a word, you still have to decipher what it means. You just don't have to try so hard to see it on the page.

Okay, so if we're using your definitions, would the student who listened to the book instead of read it be cheating if the assignment was to read the book?

The basis of my arguement stems from thee fact that listening does not equal reading. Say you are required to read a book for a class. There are severals ways u can go about getting th information; among these are reading the book and listening to someone read the book to you( either in person or on a recording). When i open a book and read the words thats what we call reading. While listeing to someone read the book to you is a form of gaining the information you require from the book it is not reading but listening. Both these are forms of gaining information, however we must call them what they are, one reading and one listening. For example in order for me to get from point a to point b i must travel a certain distance; I can either walk or drive. When i arrive at my location and someone ask me how i got there i either say i walked or i drove, depending on how i got there. Should i tell the person i walked when i actually drove is not an accurate depiction of me actions, though the result is roughly the same.

Yes, you can definitely study from audiobooks, no matter how you define the word "reading", you can definitely study by listening so therefore you can study from audiobooks. Thanks for your input! I'm curious to see how others view this.

That is good to hear. I have a visual disorder and reading print is very difficult for me. I used to stay up until 4 or 5am, I was trying to read my assignments. I felt like audio was cheating, until I found out how fast other people would read. I need to get done in a reasonable amount of time too.

I love listening to stories in the car too sometimes. It depends how much I need to concentrate on the book.

It is great for those who can't read normally. I like them when I'm in the car. When the last Harry Potter book came out, we got a print copy and a cd copy. I read the roomie's print copy while she listened to my cd copy. I still managed to finish before she did, but then I listened to it in the car.

You bring up a good point. I have a friend that will read textbooks to me if I can't get them on audio for some reason. She is an excellent reader and I will remember what she reads to me as well. I am lucky that she loves to read and doesn't mind reading just about anything.

Would you also cringe then to think of someone reading your book by braille? Why does your book change when someone is listening to it? Aren't those the same words still? I don't think people will ever see your blood, sweat, and tears as you say. No matter what format they read in.

But what if you did concentrate and get into the book? Then you would be reading it, correct? I do sometimes do other things while I am listening to audiobooks. I have a boring job that I can do without thinking, so I can put my full attention on reading an audiobook if I want to. I'll still work at the same speed or sometimes even faster, because the audiobook keeps me interested in something instead of falling asleep. I think an audiobook actually helps to give the characters each a unique voice. On paper sometimes it is hard to tell if it switched from one character speaking to another. On audio, you don't end up getting confused. It is clear who is speaking because the voice will chance (even on a single narrator, most are very professional and are very good). On the computer, reading takes far more concentration because it goes much faster and is more monotonous. So usually I cannot do anything else if I am reading with the computer. When I read on paper, I do not "hear" a story in my mind like you say. That is why prior to getting audiobooks, I always preferred the movie to the book. But audiobooks allow me to really get into the book and sometimes I will actually prefer the book to the movie because I enjoyed the extra little details of the book. But if I had to read it on paper, I would have missed all of those details and would not have enjoyed it nearly as much (if at all). Plus reading on paper just takes so long that by the time I get to the end of the book I've completely forgotten what the beginning was about.