Do audiobooks count as reading?

1What does the research say?

The study most often cited is Rogowsky, Calhoun and Tallal, "Does Modality Matter? The Effects of Reading, Listening, and Dual Modality on Comprehension", published in SAGE Open in 2016. Adults were given a nonfiction text as a digital audiobook, an e-text, or both at once, and tested on comprehension right away and again two weeks later. The authors report no significant differences between the three conditions.

That is one study with one kind of text, and it does not settle every case. It does undercut the idea that listening is a lesser way to take in a book. Be wary of anyone, us included, who stretches a single study into a universal rule.

2Where does print or an ebook still help?

When you need to move around the text. Rereading a hard paragraph, flicking back to a map or a family tree, skimming to find a quote, comparing two passages: all of that is faster with a page. Dense nonfiction, technical material and anything you will study benefit from text you can see.

Attention is the other factor. Listening while driving or doing chores is valuable, but split attention costs comprehension in any format. If you notice you have drifted for ten minutes, that part did not count, whichever way it reached you.

3Does it count for reading goals and trackers?

That is your rule to set. StoryGraph, Goodreads and Hardcover all let you log an audiobook as read, and StoryGraph tracks format. Most book clubs treat a listened book as a read book. If your goal is to finish more stories, count them; if your goal is to practise reading print, track the two separately.

4How do you get more out of listening?

Pick the speed you can follow, not the fastest you can tolerate; our speed-listening guide has a ramp. Use chapter breaks as natural stopping points. For novels with large casts, keep a short list of names as you meet them, or use a tool that builds one: Magic Bookmark's cast list for supported titles only adds characters once you have met them, and since version 1.1.1 it works from the last line you heard in an audiobook.

If you want both formats, Kindle's read-and-listen pairing with Audible and Spotify's Page Match both let you switch between text and audio without losing your place, within their own catalogs.

5Which format should you choose for a given book?

Audio for stories with a strong voice, memoir read by the author, long commutes, and books you would not otherwise get to. Print or ebook for dense arguments, reference books, poetry, anything with tables or maps, and books you will quote. Both, if you can afford it, for the long series you want to finish and keep track of.

6What if you switch between print and audio in one book?

Plenty of readers do both: audio in the car, print at home. The story does not mind, but your place does. If you own both the Kindle ebook and the Audible narration, Whispersync for Voice keeps them at the same point. Across systems, say a library paperback and a Libby audiobook, nothing syncs, so note the chapter and the last line you heard before you switch.

If a gap leaves you unsure who is who, a spoiler-free recap helps. Kindle's Story So Far works inside Kindle ebooks. Magic Bookmark recaps supported titles up to the page you photograph or the last phrase you heard, on iPhone, priced per book with the first one free.