There are certain debates in the book world that seem destined to follow us forever.
Do dog-eared pages make you a monster?
Is annotating a book thoughtful or slightly unhinged?
Does listening at two-times speed mean you are efficient or simply frightening?
And, perhaps the most persistent question of all:
Do audiobooks really count as reading?
There are some people, who shall remain nameless, who insist that listening to an audiobook is not actually reading.
I very respectfully disagree.
Actually, depending on how condescending the person is when they say it, I may not disagree all that respectfully.
The Reading Fantasy Versus the Reading Reality
Would I love to spend endless hours tucked into a cozy reading nook with a soft blanket, a candle burning, and a beautifully designed physical book in my hands?
Absolutely.
In this fantasy, it is also raining softly outside. My house is perfectly quiet. Someone has brought me coffee, or champagne, depending on the hour, and nobody needs anything from me.
Unfortunately, this is not how most of my reading life happens.
My real life involves work, family, errands, sports schedules, road trips, airports, and an alarming amount of time spent in the car. I am often moving from one obligation to the next, and quiet afternoons devoted entirely to reading are rare.
Audiobooks have been my salvation.
They allow me to enter another world while driving, getting ready, folding laundry, walking through an airport, or sitting on a plane. They turn hours on the road into reading time and make routine tasks feel a little less routine.
Without audiobooks, there are so many stories I simply would not have time to experience.
That does not make those stories less meaningful.
It makes them possible.
The Story Is Still the Story
When I listen to an audiobook, I am still following the plot.
I am still meeting the characters, noticing the clues, questioning everyone's motives, and becoming emotionally invested in fictional relationships that have absolutely nothing to do with my real life.
I still laugh at the banter.
I still feel the tension.
I still become personally offended by betrayal.
I still reach the end of a chapter and think, Fine, just one more, despite knowing I need to be awake early the next morning.
The only difference is how the story reaches me.
A physical book delivers the words through my eyes. An audiobook delivers them through my ears. Either way, my imagination is doing the work of turning those words into people, places, emotions, and entire worlds.
The format changes.
The experience is still reading.
A Great Narrator Can Transform a Book
A truly good narrator does more than speak the words on the page. They give the characters breath, personality, and presence.
The right performance can make romantic tension almost unbearable. It can sharpen the humor, deepen the emotion, and make a fictional man considerably more attractive than he has any right to be.
There are narrators whose names alone can convince me to try a book.
A talented narrator can pull you into a story so completely that you forget you are sitting in traffic or walking through a crowded airport. Add duet narration, a full cast, music, and atmospheric sound effects, and the experience becomes almost cinematic.
And because this is a judgment-free space, I feel safe admitting something potentially controversial:
I do not entirely understand the universal obsession with Teddy Hamilton.
There. I said it.He is clearly talented, and I know he has an extremely devoted following. I respect the enthusiasm. I support everyone living their best audiobook life.
He simply does not have the same effect on me.
Please do not revoke my romance-reader membership.
This is exactly why audiobooks are so personal. A voice that completely captivates one listener may not work for another. Sometimes a narrator makes you fall even more deeply in love with a character. Other times, you realize within five minutes that you need to quietly return to the Kindle edition.
To each their own.
That is part of the fun.
Audiobooks Make Reading More Accessible
The argument that audiobooks somehow count less also ignores how many people rely on them.
Audiobooks open stories to people with visual impairments, learning differences, chronic illnesses, demanding schedules, long commutes, or simply brains that absorb information more easily by listening.
They also make reading possible during seasons when sitting down with a physical book feels impossible.
There are times in life when our attention, energy, and schedules do not cooperate with the version of reading we imagine we should be doing. Audiobooks allow us to stay connected to stories anyway.
Reading should not be a competition built around who can consume literature in the most traditional way.
It should be an invitation.
There Is No Hierarchy of Readers Here
Physical books are reading.
Kindle books are reading.
Audiobooks are reading.
Graphic novels are reading.
Romance novels are reading.
Fantasy, thrillers, classics, literary fiction, mysteries, and the gloriously unhinged book you downloaded at midnight because someone on TikTok promised “touch her and die” are all reading.
There is no prize for choosing the format that is least convenient for your life.
You do not have to prove your intelligence by holding a hardcover. You do not lose credit because someone else performed the story aloud. And you certainly do not need permission from a stranger on the internet to call yourself a reader.
If you are engaging with a story, connecting with its characters, and carrying pieces of it with you after it ends, you are a reader.
That is the only qualification that matters here.
My final verdict
Yes. Completely, unapologetically, and without an asterisk.
Audiobooks have accompanied me through road trips, flights, busy workdays, endless errands, and seasons when my physical books had to wait patiently beside my bed. They have helped me reclaim time I thought was unavailable and reminded me that stories do not require perfect conditions.
Or move between all three depending on what your day allows.
The Champagne Chapters will never judge the way a story finds you. We are simply happy that it did.
One final request, however:
If I am ever in an accident, please make sure I am okay, but then pause my audiobook.
I refuse to wake up three chapters later with no idea who betrayed whom, why everyone is suddenly at war, or how the morally gray villain ended up shirtless.
I have priorities.Your turn
Do audiobooks count as reading?
And which narrator could convince you to listen to almost anything?