{"id":10526,"date":"2025-12-01T15:17:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/?p=10526"},"modified":"2025-12-01T15:17:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:17:00","slug":"from-the-founder-is-listening-to-audiobooks-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-is-listening-to-audiobooks-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Listening to Audiobooks Reading?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a guest essay in the Times<\/em><\/a> (November 23, 2025), Brian Bannon, the chief librarian at the New York Public Library and its director of branch libraries and education, argues that audiobooks qualify as reading. Bannon thinks the stigma that has accompanied listening to audiobooks is misplaced and cites research showing that comprehension from \u201cattentive listening\u201d is comparable to comprehension from reading. He also cites a study from Berkeley that showed that the same areas of the brain lit up when someone was doing \u201cfocused listening\u201d as when they were reading printed material. (More on this below.)<\/p>\n

He notes that audiobook sales and circulation have soared, while sales of print and e-books have remained flat. So, at a time when our country needs the empathy and vocabulary building that reading helps develop, we should be encouraged, he argues, that audiobooks are providing a path toward increased literacy.<\/p>\n

He concludes, \u201cHowever we read \u2014 by eye, by ear or both \u2014 it all counts. What matters is that the words get in, the brain makes meaning and the identity of being a reader takes hold. We need more readers, however they get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hear, hear \u2014 or should I say, read, read!<\/p>\n

Indeed, one of the main reasons I founded Planet Word was to help create the nation of readers that I believe our democracy needs to survive: the empathy we need to get along in our increasingly multicultural country, the broad vocabulary and background knowledge that we need to understand complex issues, and the critical-thinking skills that improve our ability to weigh and evaluate evidence. \u2026 all the attributes of informed, educated voters.<\/p>\n

As Bannon, who has dyslexia, also notes, audiobooks can be a godsend \u2014 opening a world of literature and nonfiction to people with dyslexia who are struggling to read print. For people whose eyesight is failing, audiobooks can make them feel part of the reading community. And audiobooks can introduce us all<\/em> to books we\u2019d otherwise skip or cast aside in frustration. How wonderful to finally know why your friend or family member raved about a certain book, author, or character, or to be able to discuss nonfiction articles and books you\u2019ve listened to.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll never forget that when I suddenly became a novice 5th<\/sup>-grade teacher, I looked forward to my daily commute when I could listen to books on tape (remember them?) to acquaint myself with grade-level books I hadn\u2019t yet read.<\/p>\n

Bannon\u2019s article touched a chord for many Times<\/em> readers, who wrote in to enthusiastically endorse audiobooks. They mentioned how entertaining well-read audiobooks are. They recalled having been read to as a child and attributed their lifelong love of literature to that family tradition. Several also argued that listening was simply the continuation of our centuries-old human tradition of oral storytelling. And, of course, listening is the premier way to enjoy poetry; poets want their readers to appreciate the rhythm or sound of the words they have chosen so carefully.<\/p>\n

Other advantages of audiobooks? They save paper, space, and money. And practically no one needs to read how-to manuals anymore: Narration accompanied by video can walk us through the steps of doing almost anything, from changing a showerhead to refinishing a wood floor to clearing a clogged drain.<\/p>\n

But (and you probably sensed there was going to be a \u201cbut\u201d), I do believe that, to the extent possible, the vast majority of us still need to become proficient readers of text. About 95% of all learners, if taught by well-trained teachers, should be able to learn to read proficiently. I hope we never give a pass to ineffective reading instruction with the excuse that audio and video have replaced the need to learn to read.<\/p>\n

And at the time the Berkeley study cited above was released, Planet Word advisor Naomi S. Baron, who tracks reading comprehension research, says it was widely noted that the study revealed that reading text and listening shared the same brain location but did not reveal anything about whether reading and listening led to equivalent comprehension.<\/p>\n

In the same issue of the Times<\/em>, author George Packer \u201cadmits\u201d in the \u201cBy the Book\u201d interview<\/a> that he counts audiobooks as a \u201cguilty pleasure,\u201d saying \u201cThey\u2019re a little like cheating, you miss things, but they\u2019re good company on long drives and dog walks.\u201d His observation aligns with Dr. Baron\u2019s findings in her 2021 book, How We Read Now<\/em><\/a>, that \u201cgenre matters.\u201d As she noted to me, reading for academic purposes is a \u201cvery different kettle of fish than pleasure reading of narrative fiction or feature pieces or more informal essays or most news pieces.\u201d Studies of comprehension from listening versus reading bear this out, she writes.<\/p>\n

Given these findings, I think it\u2019s of utmost importance that everyone who can, learns to read print \u2014 learns to connect the written symbols on a page to words. Being able to read proficiently opens the entire world of print to you, on demand, at sight, without the intersession of a device or a subscription. It\u2019s technology you can carry with you and use for free.<\/em> Not being able to read can even be dangerous \u2014 in an emergency, for example, we need to be able to instantaneously read road signs or labels on prescriptions or read directions for safely using tools and appliances.<\/p>\n

Other benefits of reading print:<\/p>\n