Do Audio Books Count?

Kim Kovacs, BookBrowse reviewer

My friend and I have a long-standing annual competition: Most books read. I have a clear advantage in that my two cats are much more conducive to spare-time reading than are his two toddlers, but never-the-less the numbers are usually pretty close. He has recently accused me of cheating, however, since I include audio books on my list of books "read." In my opinion, I still experience the book, and I spend just as much time listening to one as I would if I were actually reading it, and therefore it counts. In his, reading is reading, listening isn't reading, and therefore it doesn't. (You say "potato," I say "po-tah-to.") He is, unfortunately, an accountant, and therefore quite literally-minded.

Although I am a voracious reader of "real" books, I'm still a big fan of audio books. They have the obvious advantage of allowing me to enjoy a book while doing less enjoyable tasks (like housework or exercising). I'll often purchase the audio version of something I've read in paper copy, as sometimes listening to the work can provide a different understanding or perspective than reading it. For some reason, too, it's easier to pick up an audio copy of one of those books I've been meaning to read that I never quite get around to (Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo are two that immediately come to mind).

Audio books do have their limitations. I've found them relatively useless for non-fiction books that contain facts and figures I'd like to be able to recall with accuracy. (I had to re-read Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion in hard copy after failing to absorb information from the audio version.) Plus, it's nearly impossible to go backwards to pick up a name or place should you want to refer back to it later in the "book."

Finally, audio books have the ability to completely block out all ambient noise, including comments from your spouse. Whether or not that's a good thing is also a subject up for debate.