Audiobooks count as reading. I've had this argument in three different book clubs and I want to state my position clearly and then stop arguing about it.

Reading is the processing of written language. The medium through which that language reaches you is irrelevant to the cognitive and emotional act taking place. Listening to a narrator perform a novel requires comprehension, retention, and interpretation. These are the same things that reading print requires. The delivery mechanism is different. The activity is the same.

The argument that listening is passive and reading is active is empirically false — passive listening produces no retention, and good audiobook listeners are anything but passive. The argument that you can listen while doing other things is true, but you can also read while waiting for coffee or commuting on a bus. Neither is 'pure.' I will add one caveat: a bad narrator can ruin a good book in a way that bad typography can't. Choose your narrator carefully.