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2020-07-18, 05:13 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2010
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Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
We used to have a thread for simple questions, where is that? But anyway, you have just listened to an audiobook. Have you thus read it?
Last edited by Jon_Dahl; 2020-07-18 at 05:33 AM.
My Red Hand of Doom Campaign Journal (Completed)
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2020-07-18, 08:48 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2011
Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
Of course. It's the same book, whether read aloud or quietly.
I used to do a lot of long-distance driving, and audiobooks were my lifeline. Continued with shorter drives whenever I could. I listened to the entire Aubrey/Maturin series that way, plus many others, fiction and nonfiction.
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2020-07-18, 08:55 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2015
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- London, UK
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Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
Depends why you're tracking the books you've read. If it's the stories you know or the knowledge you've learned (say, feeling qualified to join a conversation on Discworld because you've read the 41 Discworld books, or knowing about Newtonian mechanics because you've read Principia Mathematica), then you've gained the information just as much as if you'd absorbed it through your eyes instead of your ears, so audiobooks would count.
If, however, it's a test of your reading prowess, then you haven't completed the physical task of reading so it doesn't count. If you listen to the audiobook version of, say, War and Peace, then it doesn't count as having read War and Peace, because the main thing there is having slogged through the massive pile of text, not knowing the plot, themes and characters.
In fact, I'd say say listening to audiobooks counts as reading the books if and only if getting somebody to read the book to you in a non-pre-recorded way would also count. When I was 4 and my parents read me stories I couldn't readby myself yet, it would be innaccurate to say that I'd read them. However, I'd now count them as stories that I've read even though I probably haven't read all of them personally since. In fact, I don't remember which of the stories I remember are ones that I've personally read vs which were read to me.
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2020-07-18, 09:26 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2020
Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
Well, if you mean read as in 'looked at the words of the book in a specific order in order to make up sentences with your peepers', no. But if you mean read in that you consumed the contents of the book, sure. You've experienced the story / information / concepts in the text intended by the author to be shared, and can probably discuss or talk about it, same as if you read the actual text version. A lot of people, for one reason or another, can't read long swathes of texts and find audio a far more productive and enjoyable way of consuming the stories. It wouldn't make sense that they somehow hadn't done it the right way just because they weren't able to read the original format.
I would agree with SZbNAhL regarding the physical task of reading, though - a lot of people do reading challenges, where you have to read X amount of books in a set amount of time, a certain type or genre of book, etc. I'm not sure if audiobooks would count for that number in that specific situation.I draw, and I write sometimes! Drow paladin avatar by me. They/Them
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2020-07-18, 10:22 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
I don't ever "read" audiobooks. Problem is, the only time I would find it better to do that than just reading the thing in the first place would be if I'm listening to it while doing something else, and I'd probably miss half the plot...
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2020-07-18, 11:59 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2011
Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
Originally Posted by factotum
I don't ever "read" audiobooks. Problem is, the only time I would find it better to do that than just reading the thing in the first place would be if I'm listening to it while doing something else, and I'd probably miss half the plot...
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2020-07-19, 01:01 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2019
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Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
only if I'm not doing anything at the time so I can pay attention
Get your physics out of my D&D!
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Optimism is delusion pessimism will save the world
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2020-07-19, 05:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2008
Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
Yes. Though in practice audiobooks are a tiny rounding error that might amount to a tenth of a percent for me regardless.
I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.
I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that. -- ChubbyRain
Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.
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2020-07-20, 12:47 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2010
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Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
My Red Hand of Doom Campaign Journal (Completed)
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2020-07-20, 01:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2016
Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
Audio plays (&Films) are significantly different from the respective books.
The Radio Show Hitchhikers Guide, Book HHG, Film and TV series are all different, and optimised for their respective medium.
An audio book is arguably in a different category, from any of these, and in most cases closer to the book.
Pratchett was mentioned as an example that you could get the experience by audio, along with the Principia for content, and I'd argue that neither of these work.
Moby ****&Huck Finn on the other hand, in a sense you are probably getting a more authentic experience listening to it, and part of the reason that reading it is move of an achievement is precisely because it's not the best medium.
The concentration issue seems a good point, on a similar level books traditionally-read in difficult circumstances ought to be put in a hazy category (but you really shouldn't be doing that while driving), similarly precis versions of books
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2020-07-21, 08:48 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2008
Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.
I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that. -- ChubbyRain
Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.
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2020-07-21, 11:02 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2006
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- Wandering in Harrekh
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Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
Yes. It's one more way to get the information from one head to another. I wouldn't consider it any different than getting a braille version of a book. Using ears or hands to get the story is as valid as using eyes.
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2020-07-28, 08:44 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2020
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- Richmond Virginia
Re: Do you count audiobooks in your list of read books?
I do count it as "reading."
For some reason, when I'm posting on Reddit or FB or wherever, I'll start to write "I'm reading" or "I read" instead of "I'm listening to" or "I listened to." I don't always remember to change my post or comment to "listen" or "listened."