# 2026-06-03 - Immersive Reading by Chloee Weiner
I found a post about immersive reading, and am including the text
below [A].
I have never tried listening to an audio book simultaneously
while reading a book. The audio would probably be too distracting.
But i imagine some folks might need more external stimulation.
I have found it helpful to read the script prior to watching each act
of an opera. I have also found it helpful to write notes while
reading academic books, even well-written popular science books by
authors such as Rachel Carson and Carl Sagan. Writing notes forces
me to slow down and process the written material more carefully.
When i am reading a book that i enjoy, the joy itself causes me to
slow down and savor the book. After this kind of reading session,
i feel charged up, energized, and refreshed, which is the opposite
of fatigue. Sometimes i will dream about what i read and arrive
at fresh insights the following day. I imagine that this counts as
deep reading, because it has reached a deeper level of consciousness.
## [A] Immersive Reading article [1]
When Briggitte Suastegui heard about Christopher Nolan's film
adaptation of /The Odyssey/, she wanted to go back to its source
material. She decided to start reading The Iliad first but had
trouble getting through it.
Suastegui's friend had a suggestion for her: Why not try the
audiobook?
"He was like, 'Well, you know the oral tradition of epic poems,
right?'" Suastegui remembered. "'Originally these things were shared
down and passed down orally.'"
But Suastegui, 29, said she often lost her place while listening. So
she took it a step further: She tried reading a physical copy of
The Iliad and listening to the audiobook version at the same time.
"And that got me through the book," she said. "I was super engrossed
in it."
Suastegui, who lives in LA, had stumbled on immersive reading. The
idea is as old as audiobooks themselves, according to The Washington
Post. Several educators told NPR they use the strategy in their
classrooms to support students with dyslexia and ADHD.
But simultaneous listening and reading is picking up steam among
online book communities. Searches for "immersive reading" on TikTok
increased nearly 10 times between January and May of 2026, compared
to the four months prior--and are up 13 times year over year,
according to the company.
Many TikTok users compare immersive reading to watching a movie with
subtitles on. Some recommend titles that lend themselves particularly
well to listening while reading, including popular BookTok picks like
Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary or horror novels like Stephen King's
It. With both eyes and ears engaged, some readers say it's easier to
enter the world of the book. Some say they retain more. Others say
they can read faster.
"I did find that I was definitely zoned in more for longer periods of
time," Suastegui said. "Because I couldn't really use my phone for
anything else, I couldn't really stop."
Many TikTok users compare immersive reading to watching a movie with
subtitles on. Some recommend titles that lend themselves particularly
well to listening while reading, including popular BookTok picks like
Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary or horror novels like Stephen King's
It. With both eyes and ears engaged, some readers say it's easier to
enter the world of the book. Some say they retain more. Others say
they can read faster.
"I did find that I was definitely zoned in more for longer periods of
time," Suastegui said. "Because I couldn't really use my phone for
anything else, I couldn't really stop."
Carol Feldman, a retired nurse in Durham, N.C., said she discovered
immersive reading by accident because she "wanted to read faster."
"Just listening to an audiobook, I can't concentrate. My mind just
goes a million different ways and I totally lose track of the story,"
said Feldman, who's 80. "Reading the words themselves as
[the book is] being read to me allows me to focus on the story."
But Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist at UCLA, warns that
immersive reading doesn't always lead to what she calls
"deep reading."
Wolf directs the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners and Social
Justice at UCLA. She says the cognitive patience it requires to
struggle through words on a page is essential to deep reading skills
like critical thinking, empathy, and reflection.
"When I look at audio, whether it's audio with or without print
mediums, the reality is that the print reading medium in and of
itself gives more time, more attention to the development and
maintenance of these deep reading processes," she said.
But if immersive reading is bringing people back to books, Wolf said
she's all for it: "With a decline of reading for leisure, for
heaven's sake, do whatever we can to get our young and old to say
'this is a return to this experience of being immersed in other
worlds with other people.'"
In a time of distraction, immersive reading might be what it takes
for some readers to steal their attention back--and get lost in a
good book.
tags: article,literacy,science
# Footnotes
(HTM) [1] Immersive Reading article source
# Tags
(DIR) article
(DIR) literacy
(DIR) science