Booking Through Thursday – What is reading, fundmentally?

What is reading, anyway? Novels, comics, graphic novels, manga, e-books, audiobooks — which of these is reading these days? Are they all reading? Only some of them? What are your personal qualifications for something to be “reading” — why? If something isn’t reading, why not? Does it matter? Does it impact your desire to sample a source if you find out a premise you liked the sound of is in a format you don’t consider to be reading? Share your personal definition of reading, and how you came to have that stance. – BTT

Up until recently, I did not consider audiobooks as actual books that I read, but I realized that I “read” a lot of audiobooks last year, and they now count as reading to me. I even spend more time with audiobooks than I do with books because I read text faster. Now that I do listen to more audiobooks, listening to the stories and the information is reading in a way. For a long time, I considered reading solely things I read with my eyes in text. I consider e-books reading though I do not read them often. I also constitute graphic novels, comics, and manga reading because you are involved in a engaged in a story or learning something. I have a fairly broad definition of reading it seems. Outside of this broad definition, I guess other things aren’t reading. Though, I won’t go around telling people that reading the ingredient list off food products is “reading” (though I do this a lot as I read everything). It does not matter. I don’t think it is the definition of what reading is that limits my choices for material so much as my personal preferences for material. I know what kind of books I like to read from audiobooks to novels to graphic novels/ comics, and the different types within those frames.

4 thoughts on “Booking Through Thursday – What is reading, fundmentally?

  • mary

    i started listening to books on CD at my last job which was really boring and needed to spiced up. i realized i could double my reading with audiobooks. i also realized there were some books i found easier to listen to than read: Memoirs of a Geisha, for example.

    Reply
  • John

    Interesting reflections on the medium of reading I came to diffrent conclusions as I started from trying to understand definitions of the process of reading

    Reply
  • Aaron

    I enjoy audio books every once in a while as well. I’m also open minded when about my definition of reading as well.

    Reply

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