I don’t need it, strictly speaking, but I definitely prefer it. White noise is okay if I need to drown other sound out.

No but I need complete silence when I fall asleep trying to read a book though.

It might be auditory processing disorder. The second more than one person is talking (and books count) I begin to crave death.

Not at all.

I grew up in a big family, in a busy household. My kids laugh at me because when reading (and it really is only when I am reading) I tune out everything. They would be yelling “mom! MOM!” and I wouldn’t notice.

No, but it depends on the sounds. I can read in a park when there aren’t people being loud. Nature tunes out. And I can read while listening to instrumental music. I can’t tune out human voices.

I don’t really need silence to read, but I much prefer it.

Getting really good noise cancelling headphones was one of my best qol improvement in the last years. I often wear them without even listing to anything.

No, but I can tune out some noises better than others. There are some noisy situations in which I simply cannot get through even a single sentence.

How else would I hear the narrator in my head?

I don’t need silence, I usually read to instrumental music. But if you throw in any lyrics or speak while I’m reading I’ll look at you angrily get up and move.

For me in a way, yes. When I used to read books on a regular basis, I found it more easier to digest if I had nobody or nothing around to make noise. I can deal with small noises like random cracks or a pop here and there. Long as it wasn’t amplified or anything. When I listen to things such as music or take in sound in general, my mind goes everywhere and it can’t focus on the pages of a book.

I always hated it when people try talking to me when louder noise is present and expect me to hear them perfectly. My mind is not focusing on your words, it’s focusing on that obnoxious noise that’s disrupting things.

I need complete silence for stuff that require precision and concentration, working and reading are the main ones. I could read manga or something in a not so quiet environment but that’s it.

No. I would read on the bus. I can read in the most crazy of spaces…

The Expanse was something I was absolutely absorbed with. Each new book was magic to my imagination.

I rode public transit and had to walk a lot to get to work, through downtown Seattle

I would read and walk, I knew the best/optimal path that would have the least traffic and still get me to work on time. My bosses boss found me one day reading and waiting for the crosswalk and then crossing in rush hour traffic and it blew her mind. I was listening to the world around me but I was in that book!

Quite the opposite. I read best in the corner of a busy bar, or with music in the background. I guess that’s just the AuDHD talking though.

Similarly with audiobooks, I prefer them when doing menial tasks like driving. Something that I don’t need to actively think about, but which keeps my hands busy. If I’m just listening to the audiobook without doing anything else, I’ll find myself understimulated, and I’ll inevitably reach for my phone. And then at that point I’ll stop paying attention to the audiobook entirely, which defeats the purpose. I need tasks which hit that “Minecraft parkour brain rot” sweet spot to keep me busy but not distracted.

I have industrial deafness, that is an audio processing disorder that is associated with background noise. This also affects my reading.

If there is any form of background noise, I can’t understand speech. Eg, if I turn the air conditioner on in the living room, then I can’t understand what’s said on the TV, even at reasonable volume levels. Turing the volume up can help, but not a lot.

If I’m standing next to the fridge and you walk up to talk to me, I can see your mouth moving, I can hear your words, but I can’t understand anything, the small noise of the fridge compressor completely wipes out my comprehension.

If we are in a busy cafe with lots of people talking at once, I can’t understand the staff when they ask to take my order, even if they are right in front of me, speaking clearly directly at me. It’s like my brain can only concentrate on the background noise and it has no processing power left to interpret foreground words.

This is the same with reading and writing. I am a software engineer, so I spend all day writing code. Many of my colleagues like to listen to music while they work. I cannot. If I put on music, then I can no longer write. Nothing comes out. My mind is blank, concentrating on listening to the music. Even instrumental background music affects me.

So to answer your question, I can’t read with background noise. Perhaps you could check if you have a form of industrial deafness too.

I have tinnitus that makes concentrating on anything in complete silence absolutely aggravating. The tiniest bit of background noise makes it so I don’t notice it anymore, so I generally have an instrumental playing when I need to focus on something like homework or reading.