Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Nobody in this thread has demeaned audiobooks, Barry. All anyone's questioned is whether or not it's reasonable to say that you've read a book yourself when what you've actually done is listened to someone else read it. Some people are happy with that usage, some not. It's a personal choice.
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I wasn't talking about this thread in particular but there have been discussions about this in forums and on blogs since there were forums and blogs and audiobooks. Maybe "demean" is the wrong word. Maybe not. Saying that listening isn't included in reading is at least pretty close to demeaning if you love reading.
Anyway the point of my post was wondering where this comes from and speculating on a possible source.
As I write this it occurs to me that when there's a discussion like "are audiobooks reading?" there are a lot of opinions on both sides of that argument. When there's a discussion of a book and some of the people discussing it have read it and others have listened to it and everyone involved is aware of that, the differences don't seem to matter to the participants.
I don't think there's any way to really answer the question of whether listening is reading. It's like the discussions about which word processor or text editor is best. Or which ereader is best. Those are all pretty much fact-free discussions. They're exchanges of opinions and prejudices. I have my own opinions and prejudices on the topics. I don't think I've ever encountered anything that sounded like an answer.
Barry