By: Muhammad Emirul Firdaus bin Elias

The Office of the Deputy Dean (Postgraduate, Research, and Innovation)

Audiobook is defined as a recording of a book or a magazine being read aloud (Merriam-Webster, 2025). It’s slowly becoming a staple in filling the void of our daily routines. Audible, Spotify, Google Play Books and so many more have become an crucial outlet for the public to listen to their favourite story while they are commuting, cooking or cleaning the house. The rising popularity of audiobook users have sparked a debate amongst the bibliophile community whether listening to an audiobook is considered as cheating and is it truly better than the conventional reading?

Have you ever listened to some podcast or story while you’re in another task such as cleaning, cooking or commuting? I can guarantee you have done that because we possess the feeling of being a productive person. Being productive makes you feel good about yourself. Furthermore, audiobooks provide convenience as you’re able to move while still committing to the auditory task. Unlike in conventional reading, some people have to seclude themselves from the public and be within a quieter and calmer area to ensure distractions are minimal and your focus would not sway.

Audiobooks also provide an immersive listening experience to the listeners. Usually, an audiobook is created to mimic the details written down in the physical copy and this translates to the sound effects, speaker’s capability to entice the listener with their word inflections and articulation to deliver a realistic experience to the listener. This sort of having a drama played to you but with no visual aid can enhance your comprehension and imagination. Bibliographies and history are some of the audiobook genres which can utilize the immersive experience to heighten their understanding of the topic. However, sciences and statistics come differently and are encouraged to be read in a conventional reading mode as the reader will require to concentrate and absorb intricate details which the immersive listening experiences may not be helpful in. In this way, one’s visualisation becomes clarified with the guidance of visual aid and information can be received accurately.

 Lastly, having to listen to audiobooks is much cheaper and more accessible too. Within an app on your device, you can reach a plenty of book genres, at which some can be difficult to obtain if you’re trying to get a physical version of those. One subscription and your experiences are endless. Don’t get me wrong though, physical copy is still a top-tier reading material. To clarify it further, our minds have the tendency to wander off while you’re trying to focus on a particular task and it can be a challenging task to continuously commit to doing it in a one-time sitting. In conventional reading, you get to pause whenever you want to take a break, going back and rechecking the former sentences to help in establishing the foundation of the script you’re reading through and processing the information. One can still do it with an audiobook but it is not that simple as compared to inserting a bookmark in between the pages and coming back after your little pause.

It is not simple to put a distinction between choosing one or the other since both of them are equally important in increasing your comprehension skills, experiences and knowledge. Listening has eased the way we look for new information and expand our intelligence while reading is the glue that holds that knowledge longer in your memory. So, why not do both while you can!

References

Audiobook. (2025). Retrieved 8/2/2025, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/audiobook

Conner, K. (2025). Retrieved 8/2/2025, from https://blog.audiobooks.com/2024/04/can-audiobooks-make-you-smarter/

Heid, M. (2018). Are audiobooks as good for you as reading? here’s what experts say.
Retrieved from https://time.com/5388681/audiobooks-reading-books/

 

 

 

Date of Input: 09/02/2026 | Updated: 12/03/2026 | nur_jasni