Yes, You Can Say You’ve “Read” An Audiobook

Why listening to an audiobook counts exactly the same as reading it

After months of long morning commutes to work, you finally finished listening to the audiobook of East of Eden by John Steinbeck. A few days later, your coworker tells you East of Eden is his favorite book, and asks if you’ve read it. Can you say “yes” without being a liar?

My very strong opinion is that you can—but after asking this question to my own coworkers and friends, it appears the world is pretty divided on this one, and strong emotions usually manifest themselves within minutes of beginning the discussion.

This post seeks to end the debate once and for all (it won’t).

There are two levels on which we can analyze this question: the technical level and the ordinary level.

The Technical Level

I will concede right off the bat that on the technical level, the answer is no—you cannot say you’ve read a book if you’ve only listened to the audiobook. After all, the textbook definition of the verb “read” is: "look at and comprehend the meaning of (written or printed matter) by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed.” Obviously, if you’re listening to an audiobook, there’s no “written or printed matter” in sight, and so you’re not technically reading.

The Ordinary Level

But none of that actually matters at all, because the important thing to consider here is what is actually being asked by the question, “Hey, have you read X book?” The asker of this question clearly is not after the truth of whether your eyes did the work of moving back and forth to scan the right amount of symbols. They want to know if you’ve absorbed the same story or the same information that they did when they read the book.

In other words:

• “Can we discuss this story?”

• “Oh cool, so you get it!”

• “Could you believe when so-and-so died?”

Once you see this point, the answer becomes a resounding yes—you can say you’ve read a book if you’ve only listened to the audiobook, and you would not be lying.

Below are a few passive-aggressive examples to bolster my argument and weed out some common critiques before they get a chance to stick.

Example #1

Imagine you took a weekend trip to visit your out-of-state family. On Monday, your coworker asks how you got there. “Did you fly?” he asks. The Spirit boarding pass that’s still crumpled up in your jacket pocket clearly indicates you didn’t drive—but think carefully before you answer. After all, if you say yes, that would be a lie, because you didn’t actually fly—you stood on the floor of a metal aircraft, which was itself doing the real flying.

But to answer no here would be patently absurd, and we all know it. Again, it comes down to the same key consideration: What is the asker of the question really after? In this case, they want to know if you drove your car or if you took a plane, and to heck with technicalities. Here, just like in the audiobook example, you should answer the implicit question they’re actually asking, making “yes” the correct answer.

Example #2

You just started year 4 of college, and you’re going through the prerequisites for Advanced Cognitive Psychology class. There, written in bold font, are the words, “Student must have read Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications by John R. Anderson…” followed by a whole host of other gripping psychology tales. Here’s the problem: You didn’t actually read that book with your eyes, but by some glorious twist of fate, you listened to the audiobook in high school.

Can you still enroll in this class? If you’re a “listening to an audiobook doesn’t count as reading” person, you have to admit that enrolling in this class anyway is dishonest behavior. But again, that’s absurd! In this academic example, it’s so clear that what’s actually required for the class is simply a familiarity with the concepts in Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications, regardless of the method of intake. In fact, to be a stickler and say you’re not qualified for the class because you haven’t technically “read” the book, actually seems more dishonest.

Conclusion

This post is so short, and my point so obviously correct, that I don’t really have much to say in summary, besides just a final message to anyone who still thinks listening does not count as reading:

Come on, man.