Brittany Lowry has devoured more than 80 books this year. The twist? The social-media creator in Alberta, Canada, hasn’t read a word.
“I count them as books I’ve read,” Lowry, 34, said of her audiobook consumption. “Who doesn’t want to slay a dragon while washing the dishes?”
Publishers are grappling with challenges ranging from artificial intelligence to book banning. But in some corners, the biggest literary issue is more personal: Do audiobook fans get to call themselves readers?
Lines have been drawn.
Theresa Sutton made it clear which side she is on when the 38-year-old digital marketer in Charlotte, N.C., wrote “Audiobooks count as reading” seven times in a social-media post. The message on BlueSky garnered more than 62,000 likes and nearly 4,000 comments.
“This is a never ending debate,” Sutton said in an interview. “There are reading purists who feel if you haven’t actively read a book it doesn’t count. I tend to stick with linguists who believe that reading and listening activate the same part of the brain.”
Sutton said she has read or listened to 90 books this year and hopes to cross the 100 threshold by year-end. She estimates audiobooks account for half of them.
Kaitlin Obien-Thompson says listening to an audiobook isn’t even close to real reading. The 29-year-old, who founded a Manhattan nonprofit Christian ministry and co-hosts a book podcast , said she has had “heated conversations” with friends when she questioned their claims of reading with their ears.
Obien-Thompson said people are distracted when they listen to an audiobook while driving or cooking, so they aren’t giving it their all. “People got really upset” by the suggestion that they were potentially missing big plot points, she said.
For some, reading has become a competitive sport. The book discovery and recommendation website Goodreads allows users to create a public “Reading Challenge” in which members set goals for how many books they intend to read. Audiobooks enable readers to hit those goals because they can read while working out, cooking or driving. Influencers on Instagram and TikTok regularly post monthly roundups of their reading progress.
What is the protocol for answering a question about whether you read a book when you listened to the audiobook?
“It’s not unethical to say you read it,” said Otto Penzler, publisher and owner of Manhattan’s Mysterious Bookshop. “It’s not like, ‘I didn’t read the book but I saw the movie.’”
Publisher revenue from digital audiobooks rose 27% to $797 million in the first nine months of the year, compared with the same period in 2023, according to the Association of American Publishers, a trade group.
Audiobooks have even eclipsed ebook sales at HarperCollins Publishers, according to Chief Executive Brian Murray . The publishing house, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp.
One of the biggest areas for debate is whether people listening to books can really focus enough to absorb the information. Roshni Radia, senior editor of audiobooks at Spotify, answers a resounding yes. “Doing a chore doesn’t require your full concentration,” she said. “You can multitask.”
Krystal Dandridge disagrees. “It’s harder to focus,” said the 26-year-old, who works for a delivery company and lives in Phoenix “I retain information better when I’m reading it.”
As a result, she finds she enjoys books less when listening to them.
One literacy expert said that his experience over many decades of teaching and studying has left him certain that those who read the printed word get a deeper understanding of the text and retain more.
“On the plus side, that 40% to 50% comprehension that you take from an audiobook while you’re driving is still 40% or 50% more information than you might otherwise have gotten if you never listened or read the book,” said Timothy Shanahan, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Shanahan has written or edited more than 300 publications on literacy education. He said that young children tend to remember more when they hear information because they haven’t yet developed the necessary language skills to translate printed words. But at some point in elementary or middle school, reading comprehension surpasses listening comprehension.
Still, audiobook advocates note that the medium levels the literary playing field for those who are blind or dyslexic. “It’s about accessibility,” said Radia of Spotify.
Daniel Willingham , a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, doesn’t think reading print improves comprehension for adults. He has “spaced out” plenty of times with a physical book, recognizing it only when he’s gotten to the bottom of a page.
“To me it is not a given that you are really concentrating in one case and not the other,” said Willingham. “Listening to audiobooks isn’t cheating. The mental processes are mostly the same.”
The book, not the other activity, can be what distracts some listeners, said Diana Dapito, Audible’s head of consumer content for North America. “We’ve heard from customers who were listening so intently that they missed their exit and went further down the highway than they intended.”
A bonus feature of audiobooks, Dapito said: Listeners can pronounce characters’ names correctly.
Book clubs have learned to live with both formats. “One of our members has multiple children, another travels 90% of the time, so it’s pretty much whatever works,” said Wacey Turner, a 39-year-old New Yorker who works in e-commerce. “I would hope that’s typical. I’d have a problem being in a club where I had to read every book.”
Turner, who recently took up knitting, has discovered other advantages besides the emotional insights that a professional narrator provides. “You can’t hold a book and knit at the same time,” he said.
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at Jeffrey.Trachtenberg@wsj.com
