Audiobooks are real books. Period.

I’m not sure why people are still debating this, but here we are. Read what I wrote about audiobooks being books in today’s post, then check out today’s writing prompt at the bottom of the post.

I’m not sure why people are still debating whether audiobooks are ‘real books’ in 2024, but I still see posts with this debate all over the internet, so I needed to offer my two cents, again. 

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you might remember the post I shared on my old WordPress blog last year about this topic, which I’ve more or less copy-pasted below because it bears repeating. 

Since audiobooks have started becoming more popular and easier to access, people have been debating whether or not they’re ‘real books,’ which is a bit ridiculous in my opinion. Audiobooks are ‘real books.’ Period.

Consider the essence of an audiobook. 

First of all, ‘book’ is in the noun ‘audiobook,’ so the name itself reveals its essence. An ‘audiobook’ is simply a book that has the quality of being listened to when it is read. What would you call an audiobook if you didn’t call it an audiobook anyway?

Simply put, an audiobook is the audio format of a book released by whomever publishes it. Publishers also release large print versions of the same book, and paperback versions, etc. Would you not determine those to be the same book, or as a book at all? The text of the book itself is still the same, and its story and content are still the same (unless it’s a new or revised edition, and therefore a new book) — the only difference is the book’s format, and that it’s being read aloud in its audio version, which brings me to the second point I would like to make.

Books have been read more often (historically) via listening.

Books have been read and consumed aloud since books started being written hundreds of years ago. In fact, it was more common for people to read books by them being read aloud to them for much longer than it has been more common for people to enjoy books on their own in solitude by looking at words on a page. Even the ancient Greeks read their texts aloud. Historically, it’s a very recent phenomenon that people read and consume books in solitude.

The Bible was read aloud to congregants in church, for instance, long before those congregants were able and allowed to read it on their own in solitude. In fact, for a long time, it was illegal to read a physical copy of the Bible yourself, even if you were literate. And it was common, for hundreds of years, for one person to read a copy of a book to others around a fireplace for entertainment in the evening, as it wasn’t uncommon for there to be only a few copies of a single book in existence at one time.

Whether you read via listening or viewing the text of a book, your brain is still processing the same narratives and concepts, albeit in different ways. 

Whether you’re listening to a story or encountering it with your own two eyes, your brain is still processing the same narratives and concepts in whatever book you’re reading. Your brain is still processing the same story present in a novel, whether you listen to it or look at the words describing it on a page. And your brain will still be processing the same facts and arguments presented in both a physical copy of a book and its audio version.

Additionally, many of us readers were fortunate enough to have our parents or guardians read to us most nights before bed. And during those moments, we were reading. We learned to love reading because we were always reading, from the time our brains learned how to process language and stories. I can also assure you that a love of reading and consuming books as adults comes from that practice of having been read to as a small child. 

Not identifying audiobooks as books is ableist.

This is probably the most important point to make when it comes to considering the essence of an audiobook. If you refuse to acknowledge that audiobooks are books, then you are being ableist, and are essentially claiming that only people who can see, who aren’t blind or visually impaired, can read. And that just sounds absurd. People who are visually impaired consume real books and listen to real books with real narratives and real information in them. Period.

What are your thoughts on audiobooks? Leave a comment to join this dialogue. And don’t forget to share this post with anyone who might find it interesting, so we can keep this dialogue going. 

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Today’s Writing Prompt