Do audiobooks count as "reading"?

I used to read constantly. A trip to the library meant a stack of books taken out with hopefulness and returning usually meant mild regret for returning some unread. I spent hours lounging around consuming books as quickly as I could. When I started working full time, commuting for hours each week and building our family, reading became less of a priority. But I still listened to audiobooks in the car. I didn’t count it as reading because there is something sacred about deciphering the symbols on the page. When I stopped commuting and started working from home, I found I had much less time dedicated to sitting without anything to do but listen. Still, I put in my earbud and listen to podcasts as I do yardwork or empty the dishwasher. I discovered something odd. Without a regular routine, it became harder to listen to an entire book before needing to return it (digitally) to the library. So I stopped reading. Over time I’ve consumed book series by checking them out on either ebook or audiobook: whichever was available. I find that I can no longer remember which book I read on the Kindle and which I “read” on the audiobook app. Fundamentally they produce the same result so I don’t think the scare quotes are needed. Books are fundamentally different because they are composed as a cohesive work of a single mind. Podcasts are productions with their roots in radio, which tends toward either conversation or an audio-only theatrical play. Dickens was a celebrity of his time and it’s surprising to those of us reading nearly over 150 years later. Wasn’t his an age of illiteracy? But his work was often read aloud in installments. When we take it up as a single work and try to consume it on our own, we are missing out on the author’s intended reading method. The same is true for Psalms and Shakespeare and Homer and, well, many other classics. The studies that show children who have books read to them at a young age tend to be readers later in life probably confuse cause and effect. Innumerable genetic and environmental factors confound simple explanations. Still, I believe exposure to books, no matter the format, gives people the chance to know what’s buried between the covers.