Last week I eagerly opened a Substack post on reading. Reading about reading is a delicious treat, a dessert with coffee on a Tuesday afternoon when normally one is sitting at a desk. I agreed with a lot of the post. I also interact with books, making notes, underlining, occasionally drawing a star. I too read multiple books at a time, cycling through them by something akin to whim. But I got bored quickly when the writer started to denigrate auditory learning in an effort to make reading cool again.1
My guess is that most people who love to read are visual learners. We need to see it with our eyes and we’re not as good at comprehending via listening. That’s fine. That’s why books are so great. But to assume that everyone is like us an error. Though often not malicious, it is arrogant. I personally like to hold the physical book and not read digitally. I am also a very tactile, kinesthetic learner. But I’ve learned that not everyone feels that way and they don’t need to.
My husband has a Ph.D. and I could not tell you the last time I saw him holding a book. But he listens to books and podcasts and knows more than I could ever learn on subjects in and around his field. He retains that information, uses it, interacts with it. One of my sons has dyslexia. Reading is never going to be as strong a skill for him as it will his younger brothers.2 And that’s ok. We are strengthening his auditory listening skills and that. Is. Just. As. Good.
I actually didn’t get on here to hate on this post; that’s why I didn’t link to it. That one post is just an example. Everyone doesn’t have to like the same things we like or learn the same way we learn. What is true is one situation is often not true in another. Maybe reading with your eyes is best but if you’re dyslexic, it’s not. Also if you hate reading but will readily listen to audio books, I think you should just listen to the audiobooks instead of trying to make yourself into a different person. Lean into your strengths and enjoy what your own preferences are without putting down other options.
Reading is great. Listening to audiobooks counts. Reading on a kindle or, heck, your iPhone—which sounds like a nightmare to me—counts. Reading isn’t an elitist sport. Rant over, I’m done. Thank you for listening.
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