Booking Through Thursday - What is Reading, Fundamentally?

What is reading, anyway? Novels, comics, graphic novels, manga, e-books, audiobooks — which of these is reading these days? Are they all reading? Only some of them? What are your personal qualifications for something to be “reading” — why? If something isn’t reading, why not? Does it matter? Does it impact your desire to sample a source if you find out a premise you liked the sound of is in a format you don’t consider to be reading? Share your personal definition of reading, and how you came to have that stance.

(Two weeks late for Reading is Fundamental week, but, well…)

To me, it is simple: If there are words and imagination, it is reading. Even though "reading" audiobooks and Braille books don't include the visual method of seeing words, they still include processing words and creating images in the mind. About the only thing I wouldn't count as reading would be watching a movie, play, or television program. In those cases, too much is done for me and not enough left to my imagination.