In conversation with a few parents the other day, one mom felt that audiobooks didn’t count as reading.
She wanted her son to read book-in-hand, one-word-at-a-time, undistracted, in reality.
…But, why do we read?
Is it so we can exercise our eyes? So we can practice decoding and understanding text? So we can practice being still and concentrating our attention?
Maybe…
But, most importantly I’d say it’s to expand our mind by infecting it with the stories and ideas shared within.
And I’d say there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing that via audiobook… or via graphic novel… or via kindle… or via classic paper text… or even via listening to someone else read it to you in person.
The problem isn’t the kid not wanting to read IRL books.
The problem is trying to force the kid to obtain the life expanding, mentally nourishing, spiritually evolving ideas buried in books via a medium that doesn’t align with them.
It’s too easy to just go back onto TikTok and scroll your life away instead.
Show them where the real depth of life lies… show them where the worlds of the imaginations can truly go… show them how much better a 20 hour time spent book is vs 20 hours spent watching 5-60 second nonsense videos.
Align; don’t force.
P.s. You can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week here.