It's worth noting that the narrator - Michael Kramer - is exceptional. One of the characters in this particular series is known for his ability with accents, so listening to the audiobook with a good narrator is an extra amount of fun.
I've read most of Sanderson's books in print, but for this one I also bought the audiobook specifically for that kind of narration.
Technically, no. But sometimes it is used for that purpose. Most people you talk to expect “reading” to mean physically reading the book. But if you listened to it, you know the content as well as someone who read it. There’s usually not a reason to clarify because it’s not usually a useful distinction unless you want to discuss the narrator.
Audiobook listeners ;) get really defensive about it but think about it this way: when you teach a child how to read, what kind of image pops in your head? Are they listening to mp3s??
It didn’t used to be, but now it is quite common. I think that, as listening to audiobooks has become more and more popular (as per this thread), folks have tired of saying “listened to the audiobook of” and are switching to just “read”. Pretty standard linguistic evolution following subject frequency.
I've read most of Sanderson's books in print, but for this one I also bought the audiobook specifically for that kind of narration.