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Listening to the audiobook is the same as reading if you are actively listening. When it comes to Russian writing, I am skeptical that you are fully absorbing the information just passively listening to it. But if you feel that you are, then it's reading.
Yeah, this was my thought.
Listening to a Harry Potter audiobook? Exact same as reading. No difference.
But with something like War and Peace, I feel like it's too easy to just zone out throughout.
Though I think that the reason I feel that way might be less about the density of the material, and more about the implied motivations.
If you listen to a Harry Potter audiobook, I assume it's because you want to hear the story. But even in the question as posed, it feels like you're reading War and Peace just so you can claim to be the kind of person who read War and Peace. It's clout chasing, not reading the book for it's own sake.
Which, to be clear, isn't a bad thing. I've read books just to say I did. But, it makes doing it as an audiobook a bit more sus, as it means you could just basically fall asleep while it's playing and still "get the clout," if you wanted to.
But, as you say, if you actively engaged with it, I certainly don't see a problem.
Not to mention, you can read a 1000 page harry potter book in like 3-4 hours. the language is very simple, it's written for 8 year olds.
war and peace will take you closer to 30. no 8 year old is reading War and Peace.
I don't know any Russian. It is entirely opaque to me. What is it about Russian writing that is different?
To be clear, I'm not assuming he's reading it in Russian. It's just that the famous ones that are published in English are very wordy. Long sentences, and the development of the ideas is long, complex, and not laid out straight like a typical hollywood story or simpler novel. They need to be thought about and discussed. Russian naming conventions also often confuse English readers, because they use multiple different names to refer to the same character.
Thanks. That makes sense.