Do audiobooks count as reading?
NO SUCH THING
iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope
4.6 • 609 Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2024
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What began as an innocent debate soon devolved into accusations of deception and trickery. Is it misleading to say you read a book if, in actuality, you listened to it as an audiobook? And do you absorb information the same way when listening compared to reading? With some help from Dr. Virginia Clinton-Lisell, Associate Professor at University of North Dakota, we get an answer.
Here’s a link to Dr. Clinton-Lisell’s meta-analysis of reading and listening comprehension comparisons. She’s on TikTok, YouTube, Threads, and Bluesky.
For more information, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show
And if you have any questions you’d like us to get to the bottom of, email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Mani. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And this is no such thing, the show where we settle our dumb |
| 0:05.6 | arguments and yours by actually doing the research. Today's argument began with a tweet. The question, |
| 0:11.3 | do audiobooks count as reading? I don't care what do you call it? I honestly don't. Do you actually |
| 0:16.3 | comprehend content the same way when you're hearing it versus reading it? I feel like I forget |
| 0:20.8 | what I read very quickly. |
| 0:22.6 | And lastly, I have a confession to make to a friend. |
| 0:25.6 | I'm going to tell you something now, Rich. |
| 0:27.6 | Okay. |
| 0:28.6 | And this is full transparency here. |
| 0:30.6 | What would you say if I told you? |
| 0:33.6 | There's no such thing. |
| 0:35.6 | No such thing. No such thing. |
| 0:38.8 | No such thing. |
| 0:41.8 | No such thing. |
| 0:43.5 | No such thing. |
| 0:44.9 | No such thing. |
| 0:47.8 | I'll hop in here because I came across a tweet that I dropped into the DMs. |
| 0:53.1 | And the tweet was, do audiobooks count his reading? And I just commented, no. So, Mani, what do you think? If someone tells me they read something, but they actually listen to it, I don't feel like they're defrauding me or anything like that. I haven't listened to many audiobooks, but if I did, I think I would be okay telling someone that I read the book. If it's the end of the year and you're making a list of all the books you've read, you would put Prince Harry's book on there. I would put Prince Harry's book on there. Had you listened to it. Exactly. If I had listened to it. Okay. So, no, you obviously believe that listening to an audiobook counts as reading. Yeah. If, you know, I've listened to Prince Harry, you're a catcher in the rye. That's a book I've read. I know the book. Okay, so my goal this year was to read 24 books. I didn't read 24. I got to like 2021. You're telling me if I listened to 24 audiobooks this year, it would be the equivalent of me reading 24 books. Yeah, I would totally accept that if you were like, if you posted. That is insane. If you posted your list, we're like, here's the 24 books I read. Here's the 24 books I read. We're talking about a semantic issue. No, no, no. The question was, do audiobooks count as reading? Yeah. Reading being... |
| 2:02.2 | Well, I guess it means what does reading mean to you? Reading means to me what reading |
| 2:05.6 | means. With your eyes? Yeah, exactly. It's like, what is the definition of reading? It's a very small |
| 2:11.7 | view of what reading really is. I think it's a very, you know, reading is one thing, which is reading. |
| 2:18.7 | All right, but these are books. Huh? They're all books. Yeah, but it's the same. It's the same |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.