Do audiobooks count as reading?

Yes—for a personal goal of finishing books, we recommend counting audiobooks. If you listened to a novel from beginning to end, it belongs on your list of finished books. You do not need to finish a second copy in print to make the listening count.

The answer changes when your goal is to practice reading printed words or meet an assignment’s requirements. A useful rule starts with what you want the goal to measure.

What do you want your reading goal to measure?

A goal of finishing twelve books in a year can mean exploring twelve stories or sets of ideas. Listening fits that purpose. A goal of reading a printed page more fluently asks you to practice a particular skill, so listening alone does not fulfill it.

You could count every book you finish, then separately track time spent reading print. That lets you recognize the books you have experienced while keeping sight of the skill you want to practice. Choose the measure that serves your purpose.

Listening and print reading involve different skills

Reading print involves recognizing written words and understanding the language they express. The National Center on Improving Literacy explains these as two distinct parts of learning to read: word recognition and language comprehension. Its Simple View of Reading resource concerns literacy instruction, rather than rules for personal book lists.

With an audiobook, the narrator supplies the spoken words. You still need to understand the sentences, connect events, and follow the author’s ideas. You are not doing the print-word recognition involved in reading those words yourself.

This distinction does not determine which books you are allowed to value or discuss.

What comprehension research tells us

A 2022 meta-analysis by Virginia Clinton-Lisell combined 46 studies involving 4,687 participants. It found no statistically reliable overall difference between reading and listening comprehension. Some comparisons favored reading, including conditions in which readers set their own pace.

That overall finding does not prove the formats are equivalent for every person or task. It also does not tell you how much you understood during a distracted listening session—or a distracted session with a printed book.

Research can inform a format choice. The rule for your personal book total is still a choice about what you want to track.

Set a rule you can use throughout the year

Start with a sentence that describes your purpose. For example: I want to finish twelve books this year and be able to describe what interested me about each one.

Then decide what belongs in the record:

• For a finished-book goal: count a title once when you finish it, even if you switch between audio and text. If you welcome rereads, label them so you can distinguish revisiting a book from discovering one.
• For a regular reading habit: track time spent with a book in the formats you choose. If you listen while doing something else, notice whether you can still follow the passage. Pause or replay when you lose the thread.
• For a study goal: record what you can explain or use, alongside what you finished. After a section, try explaining the main idea in your own words. If it is unclear, return to the passage. Treat this as a personal check, not a formal assessment.
• For print-reading practice: track time spent reading the written text. Audio may accompany that time, but keep audio-only sessions separate if your goal specifically requires looking at the words.

You can also decide whether your goal includes shortened editions. An abridged audiobook deliberately shortens the text; an unabridged one presents the complete text of its chosen edition. If your aim is the complete book, check the edition label before starting. If you choose an abridgment, record that choice rather than assuming the versions contain the same material.

A simple log might record a title, its format, whether it is finished, and one thought about it. A book you stop partway through can stay in the log without becoming a finished title. You can recognize the time you spent without changing what your completion total means.

Check assignment and challenge requirements

For a class, assessment, or organized challenge, check the instructions before applying your personal rule. If the format is unclear, ask the teacher or organizer whether audio is accepted and whether a particular edition is required.

If you need to discuss exact wording or cite passages, check the required text and citation instructions too. Permission to use audio does not resolve every question about which edition or passage to reference.

Add text when it serves your purpose

You can listen to one chapter and read the next, or follow the text while the narration plays. There is no need to use both formats to justify counting a personal book. Choose both when seeing the words helps you do something you want to do, such as examining a sentence or checking a name’s spelling.

For word-for-word reading alongside narration, match the text’s edition, translation, and revision to the recording. If you use automatically generated captions, remember that they can contain errors and are not a guaranteed copy of the published text.

Try a short passage, then decide whether audio, text, or both suit the task.

Publisher note: Audimore makes an audiobook player. Counting listening toward personal book goals is our editorial recommendation.