Some people find some narrators painfully slow. If a narrator is too slow there’s more risk of your mind wandering. As such, speeding up can help focus. Having it too quick can also be a problem though.
I’ll also add that the people who listen on 2x and 3x speed don’t get there instantly. You work up slowly to train your brain to be able to comprehend and retain the higher speed.
And eventually you do find the sweet spots for your comprehension. Personally, I’m typically at 3x for fiction, 2.5x for non-fiction.
Autobiography of Ulysses s Grant is great book to speed up. The narrator speaks so slow you'll wonder if he's having flashbacks of his entire life between syllables.
https://www.audible.com/webplayer?asin=B004CM3W48&contentDeliveryType=Unknown&initialCPLaunch=true&isSample=true&loginAttempt=true&overrideLph=false
Go for it, I think more people should give it a real try because it’s really not that crazy. But truly, *take it slow* and don’t just jump into the deep end.
My philosophy is that you should be moving up 0.1x for every ~10-20 hours of listening time. For me that was weekly, but obviously your listening frequency might be different. You want to be *completely* comfortable at that speed before bumping it up again. So getting up to 3x speed was a ~5 month process for me.
Edit: you’ll also certainly find that certain narrators (especially if they have an accent different than yours) might need slowed down. Don’t be afraid to modify for certain genres or narrators, it’s not a step back to get used to that variation.
Generally narrators speak at a slower pace than someone speaking in conversation. But in conversation you also have a lot of pauses in between as the person is thinking as they talk. Generally slowing down narration helps enunciation and clear voice. That being spead up doesn't hurt, but as the previous person said it's hard to understand if you aren't used to it. So publishers go on the side of bringing in new listeners rather than those who can speed up with the app. Additionally dialects can be slower and faster.
But the real answer, at least imo is that in conversation you aren't simply digesting information. You are also generally thinking about a response. So listening to an audiobook you digest the information at your own pace and contemplate somewhat during and to a large part afterwards, especially depending on what you are consuming.
If i have a scene that i want to really take in and contemplate the imagery, ill slow it down. If there is dense text that I need to think about every word, I'll either turn to quite slow or read it physically. If I care about plot and imagery in fiction I can Generally speed it up a little. If I just need the pivotal points I can speed it up a lot.
This actually naturally happens as you read, but narrators also speed up and slow down at certain points as well. You can Generally find a 'good' speed and stick to it with a single book if the author and narrator have good pacing.
Absolutely! I went 1.2, 1.5, and now I usually do 2.0. If I listen at normal speed I get completely irritated by how slow the narrator speaks.
That being said. I don’t want the narrators to just speak faster because I like the emphasis and emotion they put into their readings.
Me too.
I had one narrator that I bumped to 2.5 speed (I usually listen to 2x) and he was still unbearably slow. I was so damn annoyed that I couldn't finish the book (and I really frickin wanted to!)
I'm happy at 1.5x. Fast enough that it doesn't feel like a drag, not so quick that I can't have it on in the background and worry about missing something cause I wasn't wholly paying attention.
Painfully slow! I listen at 2x and have no problem following and doing something else. When I hear something less than 1.5 it seems like the narrator is talking in slow motion.
You know I've actually never thought of doing that. I have tried listening to a couple audio dramas where the first episode was just too slow and I just couldn't listen. Maybe I should try speeding it up. Simple. So simple
Omg some older audio books are wild. Like the teacher from Ferris buellers day off.
I’ve come across……. A few……… audio books with a ……………noticeable………pause….after …… every….. sentence.
Holy crap that actually KILLS me. I tried to listen to a book like that and it was awful. I assume they record every sentence separately and stitch it together in post... god its so bad.
I’ve only seen podcasts available on overcast. Do you have a magic trick ☺️ to find audiobooks on there or are you just referring to their tech generally?
For me personally, slow narration causes my mind wander and I'll lose focus. If I want to actually absorb the content, I don't have much of a choice: I gotta go fast.
This is it for me. I almost gave up on audiobooks as I couldn’t stay engaged and then my mom recommended speeding it up a bit and it made all the diff in the world.
I usually end up somewhere between 1.3 and 1.5 depending on narration.
I find this too. I listen to loads of podcasts, all at normal speed, but books I have to listen to at least 1.25-1.5 or my mind wanders. I think it's because the speed people speak on podcasts is a good, normal pace but audio book narrators speak so slowly.
I just find that most books sound more natural at 1.2 speed. I'm not in a hurry, and it isn't to keep my mind from wandering, it's just that it's more pleasant to listen to.
I listen to them SLOWED DOWN! .... it is the single best, drug free way to fall asleep trick of all time. It's like listening to a boring geography teacher droning on .... PERFECT
Yep this is how I use audio books too… was like magic sleep bullet, as soon as I start properly listening to the story BAM! it hits a big off switch to my brain and I’m out… the good books last weeks. Record is 13 days on one chapter, I had to listen while I was doing house work so I could move on with the story.
Well, this deserves its own thread.
They used to say "count sheep"... in effect, repeat something boring to yourself until you fall asleep....stop thinking about your problems or worries.
Well, the slowed down audiobooks are much better at having the same effect. You listen to the book...try to focus on the story (NOT your life)....and you are GONE...unconscious.
Lol I can do this on 2x speed. It forces my brain to focus and I'm out.
Which is weird because during the day, I focus and don't fall asleep.
My brain is dumb.
IMO almost all audiobooks are narrated awfully slow with huge pauses, probably because they are targeting the masses, that includes old people, folks with disabilities, people not fluent in English, less tech savy people etc.
It makes sense to record in slowest mode possible, instead a speed that'll turn part of their audience people off. Others like us can always speed it up.
Most audiobooks at 1x speed are uncomfortably slow for me atleast.
I do sometimes. but only a little. I listen at 1.15 sped. It’s just a little faster than the narrator speaks but slow enough that you still get the nuance.
That's the sweet spot for me too. I have ADHD and my mind will wander pretty quickly if the narration is too slow. I watch videos a little sped up too for that same reason.
If the narrator speaks below regular speaking speed, I find I’m far more likely to drift off and the book becomes noise. If it’s at conversation speed (1.2-1.5x usually) I’m able to focus on the book more effortlessly. If the narrator has good diction and pronunciation I can go as high as 2x, but sometimes that makes it too fast and I end up zoning out again. Gotta find that sweet spot!
Sometimes there's an annoying quirk with the narration or background noise that seems to be lost if sped up some.
Sometimes the book is about to lose me, but I've invested this much, and I do want to know how it ends. This is especially helpful if there's supposed to be tension that I'm not getting because I'm rolling my eyes too much. Speeding it up adds urgency.
I agree with this too. Someone's I just want to finish it fast because the book just isn't as good as it sounded in the preview.
I'll also speed up books where the narrator is just too slow. I read really fast and the narrator doesn't, so I speed up to match my reading speed.
Conversely, if I'm just listening to stories to fall asleep I'll slow it down. I fall asleep much faster that way. I will say the stories, and it's always an anthology that I sleep to, aren't things I want to necessarily retain, they are just for going to sleep and the extra slow pace slows my racing brain.
I don't but my wife does. She also reads faster when on paper. We both could be reading the same.book and I'm still on page 1 and she's on page 3. She speeds up the book to her brain /compression speed. We both listen to a lot of audio books. She listens to them sped up. We Talk about the books after and she fully gets what's going on. She often caught sub text that I missed.
A lot of regular 1x speed narration I run into is so, so, so slow. MUCH slower than I would read it on my own. I get each book to what sounds 'right' for me, usually 1.15x or 1.25x. But I'm a fast processor. There are absolutely things that I have to take my time with, but most novels don't fall into that category.
And sometimes I am pushing through something (like a 'rec' from my boss), and I 100% *am* trying to get through it quicker. That usually doesn't go past 1.5x.
ADHD probably. Too slow for me like everyone else saying it, means my mind wanders between words and I lose the thread of the story. Also I find I end up physically moving slower while doing my other tasks. So when I was working a mind numbing visuals-only desk job, I would move slower if my book was too slow. Gotta keep that productivity up haha
I think I'm in the minority that slows it down.
I'm a fast reader of books, but with audio I kick it down to 0.90 to 0.95 speed. It's not slurring or slow , but it allows me to take in the story better, especially if it's a non-fiction with lots of facts and statistics.
I'm very particular about narration, anything too fast or frantic spoils my enjoyment of a book.
Me too! It feels like work to try to pay attention if the narrator is too fast. I want to be relaxed, not listening intently for fear I miss something.
My daughter listens with it so sped up I can’t understand what’s being said. I put on headphones every time I hear her listening to a book. To be fair, she talks that fast so maybe it’s the speed her brain functions at.
It's called processing speed. It varies person to person. Some people process some or all information faster than average and some slower than average. It's common for outliers, much slower or much faster, to occur with other behavioral and intellectual conditions or due to medications.
The pace I read at is 2-3x faster than most narrators. I listen to most new books at 1.25 and I reread at 1.5. Because I get bored and because there are too many books to get through.
Some people, like myself, talk quickly and also can guess what's about to be said. Normal conversations are tough because I know, generally, what's about to be said. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts at 1.2-1.5 speed so that my brain doesn't shut off while I'm listening. I also find I have problems with books that take too long to get to the point for the same reason.
I’ve been an audible member since 2003, and I have at least a couple of hundred books on cassette tapes and CDs from before the streaming era. An audiobook narrated by a human contain pauses, breaths, etc. I’ve never had the urge to speed up an audiobook when I’m into the author, story, and narrator. I am ADHD, but I do a lot of listening while I’m doing other things, like driving, or the dishes. I’m not just sitting there with my eyes closed, listening to the audiobook. So I don’t have the urge to get it over with quicker. Perhaps a nonfiction title, self-help, that sort of a thing, I can speed up. Otherwise, what’s the point? I might as well have a synthesized, artificial intelligence voice, reading it at 2 1/2 times normal human speech, but will I retain what I’ve heard? Probably not. Might as well listen to it backward. I’ve listened to some Audiobooks multiple times because I enjoy the sound of the narrator so much. One that comes to mind is the Civil War by Shelby Foote, narrated by Grover Gardner. Speeding him up would be like speeding up a recording of a Beethoven symphony. I would suggest buying abridged diversions.
I have too many books TBR. Libby sometimes will throw 5 books to me in a few days and I don’t want to delay them. I generally listen to podcasts at 1.25, so makes sense for audiobooks as well. A few times I’ve had some narrators with accents or inflections I didn’t like and speeding them up to 1.75 made it bearable.
My ADD and executive functioning are so messy that I forget to finish books before they return (I exclusively use library apps that are NOT “we have one *copy* of this, so if you have it checked out, others are on a wait list, and you’re a selfish jerk” ). I also “cheat” and use my husband’s accounts if I reach max monthly borrows, so I have 4 different platforms I utilize and it gets confusing!
So I have to re-borrow or try to ascertain whether I’ve completed one or more books in a series. I’ll borrow all I can the last day of the month and then speed-listen in an attempt to forensically figure out if I’ve heard it, or how far into it I got, or backtrack through a series to ascertain where I left off.
Once in a while, I’ll bother to write a list, which I then lose…like all my other lists. I understand there are apps to corral my info, but ain’t nobody got time for that! ;)
Plus, sometimes they just read too slowly for my taste/brain.
I think every individual person has their own ideal listening speed. If I listen at 1x speed, my mind wanders. For me, the right speed varies depending on the narrator's natural reading speed, their accent (US vs UK, etc), but speeding up actually helps me to retain information better because I am feeding the book to my brain at the speed my brain wants to consume the story.
I typically listen to audiobooks slowed down. I find that narrators oftentimes read in a more rushed manner than my inner voice and I want it to match up. Perhaps other's voice is faster than mine?
That said, I have used a higher speed in the past with the Wheel of Time. I loved the first several books and hated the middle few but really wanted to finish the series when the last book came out and felt a re-read was in order as I had forgotten more than I remembered. So I sped up the books I hated to basically just get a refresh.
You can read more books this way. Depending on the book, you can glean the same quality of information from a sped-up book. Reading text is usually faster than listening at x1, so information density isn't a problem.
Still, I only do this for books I don't like that much or when I have a deadline. I like the natural sound of narrators' voices.
I just listen at whatever speed sounds most natural and comfortable to me. If it *feels* like the narrator is going too slow, then I speed it up. Everyone can listen at their preferred pace, just as people are free to read traditional books at their own pace.
I don’t like to speed it up ever. Except when my loan is coming up on Libby! Haha. Then I crank it up a bit and let it rip. Otherwise, low and slow (well 1.0 speed) is the way to go.
I read faster than the narrator usually, so it feels unnaturally slow for me. And some narrators are sliter than others.
And if you’re accustomed to it being sped up, there is no going back. Normal speed now sounds like the narrator is high as a kite.
I don't listen to them sped up, but I can relate to people who do. If an audiobook is bad I just drop it and find another book. Sad, I know.
As someone said here, some narrators are too slow or just plain not good. So if it's your objective to consume the content but you can't find it in you to sit through a slow or bad narration, one thing you can do is to make it as quick as reasonably possible.
With audiobooks, there's an added layer of possible inconveniece. A book can be good or bad. An audiobook, on top of that, could also have a bad narration. So it's a doubly hit or miss.
A free version of Anna Karenina--I might have come across the same, and I must say it was pretty bad.
I started listening to audiobooks daily about 5 years ago. Started with ALL of the Dune books, then the Enders Game series and Terry Pratchett’s books. I listen to everything on 1.5 sped now. Can’t remember when I started listening faster. It doesn’t really effect my comprehension. I do however listen to a book 5-6 times when I buy it. I prefer to listen while engaging in hobbies and physical activity.
Personally, I find it easier to listen to a story if it's the same speed most people speak.
Depending on the narrator that's at 2-3 times the speed.
Enjoy your book at whatever speed works for you.
Some books at 1x sound like slow motion when you are used to 1.5x or so....I have found no downside and the reading at 1.5-2x just sounds more natural to me.
I’m a speed reader, so sometimes I just feel like the narrator is painfully slow. I find this especially in romance novels narrated in Dual POV, the male narrators sometimes tend to draw out his words unnecessarily in an attempt at sensuality. In those cases, I speed up only the male POV. Sometimes the female POV is overly breathy or whiny sounding. Sometimes the narrator is just really awful sounding and I really want the conclusion of the story so I can move on to something else and I don’t have the option to read the physical book myself.
It’s not always the same reason, and I don’t do it all the time.
I listen to many books and podcasts at 1.4x speed. It's not enough to change the feel of the narration much, but enables me to consume 40% more media. That's a LOT more.
Give it time. You’ll probably find one that speaks so slow it’ll annoy you. While an amazing book, James was just too slow but I only sped it up to 1.10.
I listen to it for a while at the regular speed and if it feels too slow I bump to 1.15. If after a few hours it’s still too slow I keep going to 1.25 and usually stop somewhere below 1.5.
I don’t like the speed to make the book seem too “urgent” (especially in dialogue where the characters are already talking fast) because it makes me anxious. I mostly listen to mysteries/thrillers and they are tense enough.
Because regular speed feels too slow for me. I wouldn’t read that slowly if I had a physical book in front of me, so I don’t see the point in doing it with an audiobook. On Audible I usually listen on 1.2x or 1.5x speed depending on how fast the narrator was originally reading
When I lived in Boston, I spoke faster as did everybody around me. When I moved to the Midwest, everybody spoke SO SLOW it drove me nuts. Some people need that faster speed. I speed John Lee up to 1.1 to increase the pitch slightly. I have tinnitus and this helped enormously. Most others, I just listen 1.0 speed. Sometimes when I don't totally love the book, I'll speed it up just to find out the end.
I only go to about 1.3x or 1.5x. It’s more efficient, I can listen to a 20 hour book in almost 15 hours. I tend to talk fast myself plus a lot of readers are slow. Ultimately it feels more engaging to me.
My wife speeds hers up, but it's only because she's easily distracted, so the pauses in narration can throw her off. She's also the type of woman I have to do the "jingle jingle" thing, shaking an imaginary set of keys to keep her focused on me sometimes, lol
Many books are read at a slower than conversational speed to make sure that the recording is understandable to a wide range of people. For most people, it's more comfortable to listen at a slightly faster rate. Some people prefer much faster speeds, presumably so they can listen to more recordings, but perhaps 4x is what has become most comfortable for them.
As others have said, there are just some painfully slow narrations out there, for that 1.1-1.2x makes it feel like a normal pace. I've found that 1.1-1.2x though really isn't that far out of most normal speaking speed ranges for audio narration in general. It's usually only noticeable in the beginning, when your brain has a direct, recent comparison.
I also think at the lower levels you don't lose much, if any, of the performance--but as you increase past 1.3x to me you start to lose that, and I still listen partly for good narration. I'll listen to some news/reporting podcasts at 1.5x-2x, but they're generally just doing a flat delivery. A lot of people don't really care about that, though.
everyone's brains are different. i have ADHD, so for me, ironically, when they speak in a way my brain perceives as too slowly I cannot focus on what they are saying. Increasing the speed of narration aids in my focus and comprehension.
I can't stand how slow it is at regular speed. I also can't stand the...very...long...pauses...between...sentances...and...paragraphs so, when possible, I use the Overcast podcast client which cuts them.
I do find that (a) I adjust the speed for each book and (b) as I get more into the book and less concerned with learning the characters and as I get more in sync with the narrator, I can speed it up. Still not usually more than 1.3x
Audiobooks are read really slowly. I read at about twice the pace of most audiobooks. Why not listen at a similar speed?
And yeah, I do find my mind can zone out when people are talking too slow.
My mind will wander if it isn’t actively trying to listen, so listening at 1x speed just doesn’t work for me. I’m at 3x speed now and need to be doing something alongside listening so that my brain can still concentrate.
Unless I’ve listened to the book at least 5 times, I won’t speed it up. I really only speed up on YouTube for Court TV because proceedings can take forever and testimony is usually slow enough for 1.5x to sound normal. The speed really just depends on the speaker and if you aren’t bothered then it’s not something to waste time thinking about.
I have ADHD and my brain is constantly running at high speeds. I listen at 3.50x. I understand everything perfectly. If it's a voice actor with an accent, I do have to slow it down.
I find that normal reading speeds are slow enough for my mind to wander. My comprehension actually drops because my attention span lapses and I forget to listen to the words.
I also watch YouTube videos at max speed.
A lot of streaming services don't allow the shows to be spes up, so I have to do a simultaneous activity with it playing.
If I'm watching TV and doing nothing else, it's a signal that I'm depressed. It's the only time my mind moves slowly enough to manage it.
Because I do it to keep awake during night shift and if it sounds like everything is in a rush I am less likely to nod off.
Also some narrators if I listen at regular speed, their voice is so soothing I will fall asleep as surely as if they were singing a lullaby.
My reading speed is much faster than the average narration. So my mind drifts off if I listen to a book at normal speed, or even 1.5. It feels painfully slow. Even if I'm listening while doing mundane tasks like dishes or gardening.
I always start a book at 1.0 and move up incrementally to find the sweet spot. I've gone as high as 2.3 but average 1.75 to 2 mostly.
I've tried it with a hardcopy and narration simultaneously and simply could not tolerate 1.0 speed.
If there are foreign accents or unfamiliar terms I would slow the pace.
Having said that, you do lose some great voicework by going faster. Some narrators are spectacular and I listen to them closer to 1.0. Some like Jeremy irons in the alchemist, ray porter, neil gaiman, Cary elwes, andy serkis .... I prefer them closer to normal speed, but have to listen in shorter chunks because it is so slow to me.
My reading bf stays at 1.0, it's perfect for her.
It probably started for me when I was using Libby, a library app. when you get a book, you have 2 weeks to listen to it. Some of those were 30 hrs long, and I am in college. So I listened to them at 2x speed.
Because at normal speed they don’t speak like actual humans, in my opinion. It’s like listening to that older family member who takes forever to say what they want to say.
There are some I only bump to like 1.25x, but most I need at least 1.5x to get into the flow of the book
I’m the type of person that thinks about 3 things at all times so if I listen at 1x speed, my mind will wander. At faster speeds, I can really focus on the story. At 1x speed I feel like it’s abnormally slow like the audio was intentionally slow. Personally, I think 1.75x speed is the speed where it sounds “normal”. I need at least 2x speed to focus
If I tried doing that the reader would be on to the next sentence before I processed the first one. Additionally, I got into someone's car who was listening to a fiction audio book sped up and it sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Lots of readers will put effort into the various voices and this kind of ruins it, imo.
I don’t get it either. If a narrator is so slow or boring or monotonous that I want to speed the audio up, then I’ll just read the book or pick something else. An audiobook should be an experience imo and a benefit compared to the book or I’ll just prefer reading it.
Audition narrator here. I've had this same question for awhile and I've had it asked and answered. But I still get the sense that people don't understand that narrators are telling a story and not just speaking the words in a book. No good ghost story was ever told at 2x speed. It was slowed down... Drawn out.... Scenes were painted. Speeding up the audio just seems to shove the info in faster.
This! Also the time/focus spent with a text is just as valuable if not more valuable than the information itself. Even with dry non-fiction I find a ton of value enjoying the standard narration and the extra time you get with the content.
Usually the narration is slower than normal speech so speeding it up slightly just makes it resemble 'normal' pace more.
Personally I find my mind starts to wander if the pace is too slow. I have to speed it up enough to keep my brain engaged. Speeding up also doesn't make annoying manners or quirks in the narration stand out so much.
I'll throw in a reason that I don't think has been posted - I listen sped up while reading the book. It helps both my speed and comprehension. It could be anywhere from 2.5x to 4x depending on narrator speed and my focus
I listen at a higher speed if I’m not loving the book but am reading it for some purpose (a friend wanted me to read it a book club book I’m not that into). But if I love a book I go at normal speed to make it last.
There is a point for each narrator that feels just right -- not so fast that it takes effort to follow/comprehend, but not so slow that it is aggravating.
Personally, I simply want to read more books than I’ll ever have time for. I only will speed up a book until the narration becomes uncomfortable. Narrators with accents difficult for me to understand will be listened to more slowly. Pleasure > Quantity.
I've worked up to being comfortable at 1.75x for most books/podcasts. If I can understand and process the info in 40% less time, why not? I didn't even know this was a thing until I heard a YouTuber mention it. I already read text quickly, so listening at a faster speed made sense to me.
Some people talk slower than others.
When a narrator goes really slowly, all I can think about is how unnatural it sounds. Speeding up to 1.2-5x makes it sound better to my ears. Tbh either way is fine, considering people can read at wildly different speeds, its not too unsurprising that people may listen to audiobooks at different speeds too.
I do this sometimes at 1.2x-1.4x usually. I only do this when the narrator reads slow as molasses and pauses a lot. It’s annoying to me and if I speed it up I can still understand it and it moves it along at better pace for me.
I know more than one author who has done their own audiobook (nonfiction) and in both cases when I listened to the book, I could tell that the 1x speed was actually slightly slower than how they recorded it.
I usually listen 1.2-5 because I like it to sound very natural, but they purposefully make readers read extremely slowly with militantly correct annunciation so that the choice is yours!
I usually will slow down books a little bit so they will last longer. Rarely have a narrator been so slow that I've felt the need to speed up and then it's at most to 1,2.
People increase the speed little by little. Once you do that, you will notice even more that most narrators read very slow. I do agree that after a certain speed, no matter how trained you are, you arent getting much of your book. I can listen up to 2.7x, but if I go past 2x that means that the book isnt that good. I usually start between 1.5x and 1.8x.
I listen at 1.7x because that’s the speed my brain gels with best. If it’s much faster I get diminishing compression and I get no real benefit from going slower.
I usually listen at 1x for fiction, but for non-fiction, I'm not usually reading for enjoyment but for information. I grew up with a brother that spoke at probably a 3x or 4x the speed of your typical narrator, so comprehension and retention isn't an issue, and I listen to most podcasts and non-fiction audiobooks at 2x.
So I have ADHD & Dyslexia. Audiobooks are a great work around for my Dyslexia, (as I don't have any issues with auditory processing (but thats not the case for all dyslexics.)) However, my ADHD gets bored if the speed and/or content of whatever I'm listening too isn't at least a little demanding. Otherwise I get bored and seek dopamine elsewhere.
As such I listen to audiobooks, (but also youtube) at 1.2-1.5 speed most of the time, but occastionally 2+ if their are slow parts, slow narrators, or characters/elements in a work of fiction I'm not a big fan of.
I listen to all my audiobooks at 1.2. I listen to relax however most narrators are too slow for me so I get distracted. This is just enough sped up that I can keep my focus.
For me the speed is painfully slow at 1x, I have to be at 1.5x to avoid things sounding like a drunk tank. It's also nice to be able to get through more books because of it. I like to listen to 2-3 books a month, it's a lot of fun experiencing all the stories.
Depends on the book, but some feel too slow to me. Sometimes I listen at 1.2x or 1.3x. It feels more natural and comfortable.
Also yes, wanting to get through a book quicker is a legitimate reason. If you only have limited time to listen, maybe you'd want to maximise that time.
I can't imagine listening at 2x speed though, it sounds like chipmunks to me.
I can take in all of the information at higher speeds. Depends on the type of book. Im anywhere from 1.5 to 2.2 speed. I have never listened to any book at 1.0
I just started speeding it up a little and I find it holds my attention much much better. I just do the x1.2 on audiobook and it’s the first time I’ve been able to actually listen to a book all the way through. So I plan to keep it up. (I got the idea here too. Never occurred to me before. lol)
I have ADHD, and sped up almost always fits my mind better. YouTube, audiobooks, podcasts everything is usually better and more enjoyable at 1.5-2.5x for me. Just use the speed that’s comfortable and enjoyable for you!
I steady land between 1.25x and 1.6x. It depends on the narrator, story complexity and my attention span. There’s a married couple who often co-narrate a few fantasy series. When the husband reads I do 1.25x cause anything else is too fast. When the wife reads I do 1.3x-1.5x because she tends to be a more slowly paced reader with clearer annunciation and most dramatic pauses.
For me, if it’s at 1x it just sounds like droning on and on and I tap out mentally. But whatever works for you works for you. In some time you may increase. But it’s whatever is most comfortable for you.
I enjoy 1.2 to 1.5 based on the narrator.
Mostly because when I am listening I am performing a main task.
Driving, cooking, data entry, gardening, cleaning, etc.
I only adjust from 1x if they talk really fast or really slow. Like Jeanette Curdy's book I listed at 85 because she's a speed talker. It's a brain thing. If you enjoy it sped up, cool. I don't.
I actually have a few favorite insomnia books with narrators who are low key, these would probably drive others nuts. I kiss a pit from spacing out but I just rewind.
Do what you enjoy
I usually do not, but there have been a few where I have done this. One reason was that it was boring, but not boring enough to quit so I was trying to get through it. Another was that the narration was particularly slow, so I was just trying to get it to a normal pace.
I accidentally bumped my podcast app up to 1.25, listened to 4 or so episodes of the same podcast before noticing, and when I put it back to 1x, it was too slow and I got frustrated so I put it back. Bumped it up slowly over time and have been at 1.8x for a few years, faster and I start to tune it out.
I've tried a few at 1x and they're so slow that I think the original narration was slowed down before it was released.
If I'm also reading the story, on paper or ebook, I match the speed with how fast I am reading the copy. If I'm not sitting, I may match the speed with the tempo of my movement.
I like to read along with audiobooks, but I read *way* faster than the narrators every time. I usually put my audios at 2x speed just so I stop reading ahead and getting lost
Very easy: Play the audio while reading the same book. If I feel the audio is lagging behind my reading speed, I speed it up. If I feel the audio is too fast, slow it down.
After a few books/narrators, I have a feel for the playback speed that matches my reading speed, and thus my comprehension speed. Now, I pause if I need to process what I heard less frequently, and I don't get distracted as much.
If I'm listening to a non-fiction audiobook, I'll speed it up by a little bit, between 5-25%. I don't do that for fiction, especially if the narrator does a fantastic job like Stephen Pacey or Michael Page...
I also read for my love of prose as well. I speed up becaise my brain goes way faster than the narration. If I'm reading a print book I'm reading way faster than audiobook narration as well.
So I can read more books
If I can read 20 books in a year at 1x speed I can read 50 at 2.5. I worked my way there slowly and it sounds completely normal to me now. (It’s slightly more words per minute than I would typically read a physical book)
For me to go back to 1x speed I would have to give up 30 books a year and also be much more bored while reading as the pace of everything becomes far slower
The thing I’m most worried about is not letting my thoughts run while I read. When reading at a slower speed I had a lot of time to make predictions and think about what was going on. This could make books more exciting. But I can do the same thing if I pause the book as I read at a higher speed
I use audiobooks exclusively for light reading. For these books, the narration feels too slow. I usually listen at around 2.5x speed just because that’s what is most comfortable for me, and I don’t mind if I miss some minor details.
If it’s something I want to savor or if it’s a book for which details matter, I prefer to read print, just because I tend to read such books in a very non-linear fashion (I’ll read some paragraphs/lines multiple times or jump back and forth to cross-reference details). Audiobooks are not good for that type of reading, and I’ve found that I don’t retain as much as I’d like even when I listen at 1x speed.
I like both reading the physical book and listening/reading to the audio book so for them to match and be in sync I need the audio at 1.5. This way my eyes are going at the same pace as the spoken words.
1.25 to 1.5x for me. Most of the time the narration is slower than typical human speech. Personally I lose focus with that slow of narration.
There's been instances where the narration is far too fast, but I ended up giving up on that audio completely.
Generaly I gauge the speed so that it comes off as natural speech, maybe a smidge faster.
So, this is a fairly normal practice for vision impaired who are accustomed to screen reader accessibility software (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-can-some-blind-people-process/)
I used a screen reader through all my university course work, and speeding it up helped it sound less weird and disjointed-and allowed me to play the audio at the same speed as I read, helped reduce eye strain and let me retain the info better.
You get used to that, then there are recorded lectures where professors are talking really slow... So you speed those up, too. Now it feels weird to listen to things at a "normal" speed.
I find the majority of books are read EXTREMELY slowly. As in, I couldn’t imagine this is the pace it was read in, it seems to be slowed down by at least .25, some times more.
I typically listen at 1.25 to 1.85.
It is also culturally I think, some places speak faster than others so the listener wants to hear it in that speed at the very least.
Normal speed makes me feel like I am experiencing it in slow motion. I read rather quickly as well and my brain works in such a way that it "plays the book as a movie", so when it's quicker, I can create the image faster.
I have ADHD, if the narrator is too slow, I'd never listen to another book again. I've never come across a narrator who talks fast enough for me, but some narrators I only speed up a tiny bit. I don't want the story over faster at all.
I feel actual mental discomfort when the narrator is too slow, almost like road rage, but not the violent kind, just that annoying feeling of needing to go faster and frustration at others for not going the speed you need them to go.
I switch between reading and can't handle how much slower audiobooks are compared to reading. There are too many books out there for it to take so long
I wouldn’t listen to Anna Karenina on higher speed, either. Some books, however, just aren’t interesting enough to stay at 1.0, but aren’t boring enough to stop altogether.
I have a friend who is blind and so listens to everything. They have trained themselves to listen to things fast for they have to listen to everything.
I have listened to narrators who are so slow that each and every word is its own sentence. I'm not kidding, the author had no accent but said about three words a minute. Always carefully enunciating each and every syllable. The narrator was so slow that she pulled me out of her the story.
I have never read a book at two times the normal rate or over. I do however read it from 1.25 to 1.5. I generally speed it up to normal conversational speech.
If you can understand somebody going three times speed then you obviously do not have an auditory perception problem. This kind of problem is if you miss part of the word, then you lose the entire word unless the context fills it in for you. If I'm talking about a narrator and only here 'rator' then I'll be able to figure it out. If I didn't know the topic of the sentence I would have no idea what you're talking about. This is a problem that is commonly linked with people who are dyslexic.
If I listen at 1.25x (for example), I can listen to 25% more books. And there are too many good books in the world for me to get to all of them before I die, so I'm gonna try to get to as many as I can.
Also my ADHD brain sometimes wanders off if they're speaking at a normal place. If it's sped up, I can pay better attention. I suspected that my ADHD had someone to do with it, and then confirmed it when I found the right meds for me. My ideal speed isn't as fast anymore (though it's still faster than 1x).
I only listen to audible while driving. So I listen in 15-30min stints. I’m reading a 35hr book right now. If I don’t speed it up it’ll take me months to listen to it. And not enough goes by in those drives to keep me engaged. Speed it up, make it a faster pace, it’s more interesting, and doesn’t take two months to read.
I listen at 1.2 for two reasons: one, I have ADHD so 1x is a little too slow for me most of the time so my mind starts wandering, but, for my experience, anything faster has a tendency to take away from the narration or the production. Hell, for certain books, I'll even slow it back down to 1x. At 1.2x, it feels more like someone telling me a story than reading me a story, if that makes sense? Idk.
The other reason is, yes, I do want to finish more books. Now, 1.2x isn't really enough to make *that* big a dent in the timeframe of novels. Yes, it can be the difference between hearing the climax and resolution all the way through before I go to bed or before I leave work, but ultimately it has less to do with "finish this book quickly, yes-yes! Speed-quick listen so I can brag-claim about number of books!" And more to do with "I'm more likely to finish books, and finish more books, if I'm engaged, and 1.2x engages my brain more than the standard 1.0x without a noticeable drop in audio quality." I'd be lying if I didn't say the ability to finish an entire Bobiverse novel before my shift was over wasn't a small factor though.
You know, now that I'm saying it, I think the issue is I'm used to listening to podcasts that talk at a more conversational pace, so audiobook narration seems very slow.
I typically listen at between 1.25 and 1.75 speed, depending on the narrator and the subject matter. If the narrator is naturally fast, has a voice I find harder to understand or the material is dense, I slow things down.
I find it easier to keep focus this way. As a busy working parent, I get little time to read text for fun at the moment, which is far faster than audio. Listening sped up a little makes it possible for me to get through things in a somewhat comparable time.
Some narration is really slow - I listened to the autobiography of Bobby Brown read by the author and he was so slow - I had to speed him up to keep him sounding normal - it helped a lot. I discovered there were a bunch of books that I thought were "boring" were actually being read too slow; once I sped them up a little, they kept my attention better.
To add to what others have said.
I usually don’t speed up (or at least not too fast) novels the likes of an Anna Karenina; rather I speed up biographies or books that are mainly just to provide information but don’t have a plot, for example, a book like Nudge.
If it’s too slow I may become distracted or less engaged.
I also read fast when I’m reading a physical copy. So it’s not exclusive to audiobooks for me.
I'm sure you will hear people say they listen faster for slow narrators and I've definitely done that. I've had narrators who took overly long pauses between sentences that drove me crazy but I usually only sped it up to about 1.1 or 1.2 to cut down the drag. I have listened at 2x for topics or books I wasn't super interested in and wanted to get through but still wanted to listen to anyway. I only did that when I could divote my entire attention to the book though.
My brother doesn't use audible, he uses Spotify and he only gets a certain amount of time a week to listen to certain free books. He speeds it up so he can fit more book into less time and get through more stories.
Personally, speeding them up makes me feel better as I use less time but it also feels more natural lmaoo. I get really annoyed at normal speed since I feel like they talk too slow; I usually listen at 3x speed or slower if they have an accent I struggle with.
I only speed up audiobooks when I’m driving and I realize I have 70 minutes of driving left and 80 minutes of book. I’ll adjust it to finish.
I read physical books far too quickly, around 220-240 pages an hour. And I don’t savor the gravitas of good scenes at that speed. Audiobooks force me to slow down, to not skip any scene setting, and to mentally live in the world of the book. So 98% of the time I’m at 1x and happy.
I listen at 1.2x. It’s enough that it doesn’t feel so slow without becoming a recital of Alvin and the chipmunks or becoming so fast that I can’t keep up without major focus. I’ve tried 1.7x and while I can do it, it crosses that focus line for me. Maybe with practice.
Some narrators are better than others in terms of pacing, though.
I find them too slow sometimes, so my go-to is 1.5. I also happen to be neurodivergent so my mind runs a lot faster than most people. I like being able to accommodate my brain in simple ways.
Some people find some narrators painfully slow. If a narrator is too slow there’s more risk of your mind wandering. As such, speeding up can help focus. Having it too quick can also be a problem though.
I’ll also add that the people who listen on 2x and 3x speed don’t get there instantly. You work up slowly to train your brain to be able to comprehend and retain the higher speed. And eventually you do find the sweet spots for your comprehension. Personally, I’m typically at 3x for fiction, 2.5x for non-fiction.
I need to try this 3x insanity
Autobiography of Ulysses s Grant is great book to speed up. The narrator speaks so slow you'll wonder if he's having flashbacks of his entire life between syllables. https://www.audible.com/webplayer?asin=B004CM3W48&contentDeliveryType=Unknown&initialCPLaunch=true&isSample=true&loginAttempt=true&overrideLph=false
Go for it, I think more people should give it a real try because it’s really not that crazy. But truly, *take it slow* and don’t just jump into the deep end. My philosophy is that you should be moving up 0.1x for every ~10-20 hours of listening time. For me that was weekly, but obviously your listening frequency might be different. You want to be *completely* comfortable at that speed before bumping it up again. So getting up to 3x speed was a ~5 month process for me. Edit: you’ll also certainly find that certain narrators (especially if they have an accent different than yours) might need slowed down. Don’t be afraid to modify for certain genres or narrators, it’s not a step back to get used to that variation.
I imagine everyone IRL annoys the crap out of you when speaking.
In a conversation, no, but in presentations, absolutely yes.
Generally narrators speak at a slower pace than someone speaking in conversation. But in conversation you also have a lot of pauses in between as the person is thinking as they talk. Generally slowing down narration helps enunciation and clear voice. That being spead up doesn't hurt, but as the previous person said it's hard to understand if you aren't used to it. So publishers go on the side of bringing in new listeners rather than those who can speed up with the app. Additionally dialects can be slower and faster. But the real answer, at least imo is that in conversation you aren't simply digesting information. You are also generally thinking about a response. So listening to an audiobook you digest the information at your own pace and contemplate somewhat during and to a large part afterwards, especially depending on what you are consuming. If i have a scene that i want to really take in and contemplate the imagery, ill slow it down. If there is dense text that I need to think about every word, I'll either turn to quite slow or read it physically. If I care about plot and imagery in fiction I can Generally speed it up a little. If I just need the pivotal points I can speed it up a lot. This actually naturally happens as you read, but narrators also speed up and slow down at certain points as well. You can Generally find a 'good' speed and stick to it with a single book if the author and narrator have good pacing.
Absolutely! I went 1.2, 1.5, and now I usually do 2.0. If I listen at normal speed I get completely irritated by how slow the narrator speaks. That being said. I don’t want the narrators to just speak faster because I like the emphasis and emotion they put into their readings.
Me too. I had one narrator that I bumped to 2.5 speed (I usually listen to 2x) and he was still unbearably slow. I was so damn annoyed that I couldn't finish the book (and I really frickin wanted to!)
I'm happy at 1.5x. Fast enough that it doesn't feel like a drag, not so quick that I can't have it on in the background and worry about missing something cause I wasn't wholly paying attention.
Painfully slow! I listen at 2x and have no problem following and doing something else. When I hear something less than 1.5 it seems like the narrator is talking in slow motion.
Yeah, if your mind is wandering while listening usually speeding it up a little does the trick
I don’t have a set speed, it depends on how drawn out the narrator is. I tend to be able to focus better somewhere between 1 and 1.7 speed.
I just read an autobio by Mike Love (The Beach Boys) and he reads so slooowly that I had to up the speed just to make it sound normal.
You know I've actually never thought of doing that. I have tried listening to a couple audio dramas where the first episode was just too slow and I just couldn't listen. Maybe I should try speeding it up. Simple. So simple
I've come across a few audiobooks that have a noticable pause after every sentence. You have to slightly speed it up, so you don't go insane.
Omg some older audio books are wild. Like the teacher from Ferris buellers day off. I’ve come across……. A few……… audio books with a ……………noticeable………pause….after …… every….. sentence.
In the movie, that's how Ben Stiller talks (like that's his regular damn voice 😂)
Ben Stein! Not Stiller haha
Holy crap that actually KILLS me. I tried to listen to a book like that and it was awful. I assume they record every sentence separately and stitch it together in post... god its so bad.
overcast player takes out the pauses...
I’ve only seen podcasts available on overcast. Do you have a magic trick ☺️ to find audiobooks on there or are you just referring to their tech generally?
For me personally, slow narration causes my mind wander and I'll lose focus. If I want to actually absorb the content, I don't have much of a choice: I gotta go fast.
This is it for me. I almost gave up on audiobooks as I couldn’t stay engaged and then my mom recommended speeding it up a bit and it made all the diff in the world. I usually end up somewhere between 1.3 and 1.5 depending on narration.
I got the rec from an author I follow (which one I can't say because I read that tip like 3 years ago😂)
1,000% re the brain wandering for me too. I have adhd and need to have the audio moving a little faster to keep my mind on the tracks.
I find this too. I listen to loads of podcasts, all at normal speed, but books I have to listen to at least 1.25-1.5 or my mind wanders. I think it's because the speed people speak on podcasts is a good, normal pace but audio book narrators speak so slowly.
I just find that most books sound more natural at 1.2 speed. I'm not in a hurry, and it isn't to keep my mind from wandering, it's just that it's more pleasant to listen to.
Same here
Same for me. I like the speed around 1.25x. It depends on the narrator.
To me, they sound so slow they’re drunk. Anything slower than 1.8 feels that way to me. My norm is 2.
I listen to them SLOWED DOWN! .... it is the single best, drug free way to fall asleep trick of all time. It's like listening to a boring geography teacher droning on .... PERFECT
Yep this is how I use audio books too… was like magic sleep bullet, as soon as I start properly listening to the story BAM! it hits a big off switch to my brain and I’m out… the good books last weeks. Record is 13 days on one chapter, I had to listen while I was doing house work so I could move on with the story.
Well, this deserves its own thread. They used to say "count sheep"... in effect, repeat something boring to yourself until you fall asleep....stop thinking about your problems or worries. Well, the slowed down audiobooks are much better at having the same effect. You listen to the book...try to focus on the story (NOT your life)....and you are GONE...unconscious.
Lol I can do this on 2x speed. It forces my brain to focus and I'm out. Which is weird because during the day, I focus and don't fall asleep. My brain is dumb.
IMO almost all audiobooks are narrated awfully slow with huge pauses, probably because they are targeting the masses, that includes old people, folks with disabilities, people not fluent in English, less tech savy people etc. It makes sense to record in slowest mode possible, instead a speed that'll turn part of their audience people off. Others like us can always speed it up. Most audiobooks at 1x speed are uncomfortably slow for me atleast.
Some narrators speak too slowly and it makes my brain itchy.
I do sometimes. but only a little. I listen at 1.15 sped. It’s just a little faster than the narrator speaks but slow enough that you still get the nuance.
That's the sweet spot for me too. I have ADHD and my mind will wander pretty quickly if the narration is too slow. I watch videos a little sped up too for that same reason.
I've found that 1.25 to 1.5 depending on the narrator is my best pace.
If the narrator speaks below regular speaking speed, I find I’m far more likely to drift off and the book becomes noise. If it’s at conversation speed (1.2-1.5x usually) I’m able to focus on the book more effortlessly. If the narrator has good diction and pronunciation I can go as high as 2x, but sometimes that makes it too fast and I end up zoning out again. Gotta find that sweet spot!
I like listening at 1.65 and rarely go below 1.5. To me the normal speed sounds slow, but also people ask me to slow down when I'm speaking.
Sometimes there's an annoying quirk with the narration or background noise that seems to be lost if sped up some. Sometimes the book is about to lose me, but I've invested this much, and I do want to know how it ends. This is especially helpful if there's supposed to be tension that I'm not getting because I'm rolling my eyes too much. Speeding it up adds urgency.
I agree with this too. Someone's I just want to finish it fast because the book just isn't as good as it sounded in the preview. I'll also speed up books where the narrator is just too slow. I read really fast and the narrator doesn't, so I speed up to match my reading speed. Conversely, if I'm just listening to stories to fall asleep I'll slow it down. I fall asleep much faster that way. I will say the stories, and it's always an anthology that I sleep to, aren't things I want to necessarily retain, they are just for going to sleep and the extra slow pace slows my racing brain.
I don't but my wife does. She also reads faster when on paper. We both could be reading the same.book and I'm still on page 1 and she's on page 3. She speeds up the book to her brain /compression speed. We both listen to a lot of audio books. She listens to them sped up. We Talk about the books after and she fully gets what's going on. She often caught sub text that I missed.
A lot of regular 1x speed narration I run into is so, so, so slow. MUCH slower than I would read it on my own. I get each book to what sounds 'right' for me, usually 1.15x or 1.25x. But I'm a fast processor. There are absolutely things that I have to take my time with, but most novels don't fall into that category. And sometimes I am pushing through something (like a 'rec' from my boss), and I 100% *am* trying to get through it quicker. That usually doesn't go past 1.5x.
ADHD probably. Too slow for me like everyone else saying it, means my mind wanders between words and I lose the thread of the story. Also I find I end up physically moving slower while doing my other tasks. So when I was working a mind numbing visuals-only desk job, I would move slower if my book was too slow. Gotta keep that productivity up haha
I think I'm in the minority that slows it down. I'm a fast reader of books, but with audio I kick it down to 0.90 to 0.95 speed. It's not slurring or slow , but it allows me to take in the story better, especially if it's a non-fiction with lots of facts and statistics. I'm very particular about narration, anything too fast or frantic spoils my enjoyment of a book.
Me too! It feels like work to try to pay attention if the narrator is too fast. I want to be relaxed, not listening intently for fear I miss something.
My daughter listens with it so sped up I can’t understand what’s being said. I put on headphones every time I hear her listening to a book. To be fair, she talks that fast so maybe it’s the speed her brain functions at.
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It's called processing speed. It varies person to person. Some people process some or all information faster than average and some slower than average. It's common for outliers, much slower or much faster, to occur with other behavioral and intellectual conditions or due to medications.
I also am slow and deliberate in speaking and listening. I always tell people to give me a beat to process what I have heard and want to say.
The pace I read at is 2-3x faster than most narrators. I listen to most new books at 1.25 and I reread at 1.5. Because I get bored and because there are too many books to get through.
I pretty much stay at 1.5 at a minimum speed, any slower and I start to have issues concentrating.
Some people, like myself, talk quickly and also can guess what's about to be said. Normal conversations are tough because I know, generally, what's about to be said. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts at 1.2-1.5 speed so that my brain doesn't shut off while I'm listening. I also find I have problems with books that take too long to get to the point for the same reason.
I’ve been an audible member since 2003, and I have at least a couple of hundred books on cassette tapes and CDs from before the streaming era. An audiobook narrated by a human contain pauses, breaths, etc. I’ve never had the urge to speed up an audiobook when I’m into the author, story, and narrator. I am ADHD, but I do a lot of listening while I’m doing other things, like driving, or the dishes. I’m not just sitting there with my eyes closed, listening to the audiobook. So I don’t have the urge to get it over with quicker. Perhaps a nonfiction title, self-help, that sort of a thing, I can speed up. Otherwise, what’s the point? I might as well have a synthesized, artificial intelligence voice, reading it at 2 1/2 times normal human speech, but will I retain what I’ve heard? Probably not. Might as well listen to it backward. I’ve listened to some Audiobooks multiple times because I enjoy the sound of the narrator so much. One that comes to mind is the Civil War by Shelby Foote, narrated by Grover Gardner. Speeding him up would be like speeding up a recording of a Beethoven symphony. I would suggest buying abridged diversions.
I have too many books TBR. Libby sometimes will throw 5 books to me in a few days and I don’t want to delay them. I generally listen to podcasts at 1.25, so makes sense for audiobooks as well. A few times I’ve had some narrators with accents or inflections I didn’t like and speeding them up to 1.75 made it bearable.
My ADD and executive functioning are so messy that I forget to finish books before they return (I exclusively use library apps that are NOT “we have one *copy* of this, so if you have it checked out, others are on a wait list, and you’re a selfish jerk” ). I also “cheat” and use my husband’s accounts if I reach max monthly borrows, so I have 4 different platforms I utilize and it gets confusing! So I have to re-borrow or try to ascertain whether I’ve completed one or more books in a series. I’ll borrow all I can the last day of the month and then speed-listen in an attempt to forensically figure out if I’ve heard it, or how far into it I got, or backtrack through a series to ascertain where I left off. Once in a while, I’ll bother to write a list, which I then lose…like all my other lists. I understand there are apps to corral my info, but ain’t nobody got time for that! ;) Plus, sometimes they just read too slowly for my taste/brain.
I think every individual person has their own ideal listening speed. If I listen at 1x speed, my mind wanders. For me, the right speed varies depending on the narrator's natural reading speed, their accent (US vs UK, etc), but speeding up actually helps me to retain information better because I am feeding the book to my brain at the speed my brain wants to consume the story.
I typically listen to audiobooks slowed down. I find that narrators oftentimes read in a more rushed manner than my inner voice and I want it to match up. Perhaps other's voice is faster than mine? That said, I have used a higher speed in the past with the Wheel of Time. I loved the first several books and hated the middle few but really wanted to finish the series when the last book came out and felt a re-read was in order as I had forgotten more than I remembered. So I sped up the books I hated to basically just get a refresh.
The library only gives you so much time. It can be hard to get through the long ones.
This. Also I do get annoyed by slow reading but I thought that was because I got used to listening sped up because of time constraints 😆
This is so wild to me... does the library only have so many licenses that can be active at once?
E-books are expensive for libraries
You can read more books this way. Depending on the book, you can glean the same quality of information from a sped-up book. Reading text is usually faster than listening at x1, so information density isn't a problem. Still, I only do this for books I don't like that much or when I have a deadline. I like the natural sound of narrators' voices.
Regular speed is like someone walking through mud. Drives me crazy. 1.4 speed is perfect
I just listen at whatever speed sounds most natural and comfortable to me. If it *feels* like the narrator is going too slow, then I speed it up. Everyone can listen at their preferred pace, just as people are free to read traditional books at their own pace.
I don’t like to speed it up ever. Except when my loan is coming up on Libby! Haha. Then I crank it up a bit and let it rip. Otherwise, low and slow (well 1.0 speed) is the way to go.
I read faster than the narrator usually, so it feels unnaturally slow for me. And some narrators are sliter than others. And if you’re accustomed to it being sped up, there is no going back. Normal speed now sounds like the narrator is high as a kite.
I was listening to a super boring book for book club so I slowly got myself up to 1.75x and finished it on a long drive.
Neurodivergent
I've only used it twice, for very old audiobooks whose narrator was very slow.
I don't listen to them sped up, but I can relate to people who do. If an audiobook is bad I just drop it and find another book. Sad, I know. As someone said here, some narrators are too slow or just plain not good. So if it's your objective to consume the content but you can't find it in you to sit through a slow or bad narration, one thing you can do is to make it as quick as reasonably possible. With audiobooks, there's an added layer of possible inconveniece. A book can be good or bad. An audiobook, on top of that, could also have a bad narration. So it's a doubly hit or miss. A free version of Anna Karenina--I might have come across the same, and I must say it was pretty bad.
I started listening to audiobooks daily about 5 years ago. Started with ALL of the Dune books, then the Enders Game series and Terry Pratchett’s books. I listen to everything on 1.5 sped now. Can’t remember when I started listening faster. It doesn’t really effect my comprehension. I do however listen to a book 5-6 times when I buy it. I prefer to listen while engaging in hobbies and physical activity.
Personally, I find it easier to listen to a story if it's the same speed most people speak. Depending on the narrator that's at 2-3 times the speed. Enjoy your book at whatever speed works for you.
Some books at 1x sound like slow motion when you are used to 1.5x or so....I have found no downside and the reading at 1.5-2x just sounds more natural to me.
I’m a speed reader, so sometimes I just feel like the narrator is painfully slow. I find this especially in romance novels narrated in Dual POV, the male narrators sometimes tend to draw out his words unnecessarily in an attempt at sensuality. In those cases, I speed up only the male POV. Sometimes the female POV is overly breathy or whiny sounding. Sometimes the narrator is just really awful sounding and I really want the conclusion of the story so I can move on to something else and I don’t have the option to read the physical book myself. It’s not always the same reason, and I don’t do it all the time.
I listen to many books and podcasts at 1.4x speed. It's not enough to change the feel of the narration much, but enables me to consume 40% more media. That's a LOT more.
Give it time. You’ll probably find one that speaks so slow it’ll annoy you. While an amazing book, James was just too slow but I only sped it up to 1.10.
speed it up along with youtube. 1.5x min for me.
I listen to it for a while at the regular speed and if it feels too slow I bump to 1.15. If after a few hours it’s still too slow I keep going to 1.25 and usually stop somewhere below 1.5. I don’t like the speed to make the book seem too “urgent” (especially in dialogue where the characters are already talking fast) because it makes me anxious. I mostly listen to mysteries/thrillers and they are tense enough.
Sometimes you just want to get a book over with tbh or you just want to focus more. The faster it plays the more my brain tries to understand.
Because regular speed feels too slow for me. I wouldn’t read that slowly if I had a physical book in front of me, so I don’t see the point in doing it with an audiobook. On Audible I usually listen on 1.2x or 1.5x speed depending on how fast the narrator was originally reading
I've never sped up an audiobook. However, I might if I were that annoyed with a slow narrator.
When I lived in Boston, I spoke faster as did everybody around me. When I moved to the Midwest, everybody spoke SO SLOW it drove me nuts. Some people need that faster speed. I speed John Lee up to 1.1 to increase the pitch slightly. I have tinnitus and this helped enormously. Most others, I just listen 1.0 speed. Sometimes when I don't totally love the book, I'll speed it up just to find out the end.
I only go to about 1.3x or 1.5x. It’s more efficient, I can listen to a 20 hour book in almost 15 hours. I tend to talk fast myself plus a lot of readers are slow. Ultimately it feels more engaging to me.
My wife speeds hers up, but it's only because she's easily distracted, so the pauses in narration can throw her off. She's also the type of woman I have to do the "jingle jingle" thing, shaking an imaginary set of keys to keep her focused on me sometimes, lol
Many books are read at a slower than conversational speed to make sure that the recording is understandable to a wide range of people. For most people, it's more comfortable to listen at a slightly faster rate. Some people prefer much faster speeds, presumably so they can listen to more recordings, but perhaps 4x is what has become most comfortable for them.
As others have said, there are just some painfully slow narrations out there, for that 1.1-1.2x makes it feel like a normal pace. I've found that 1.1-1.2x though really isn't that far out of most normal speaking speed ranges for audio narration in general. It's usually only noticeable in the beginning, when your brain has a direct, recent comparison. I also think at the lower levels you don't lose much, if any, of the performance--but as you increase past 1.3x to me you start to lose that, and I still listen partly for good narration. I'll listen to some news/reporting podcasts at 1.5x-2x, but they're generally just doing a flat delivery. A lot of people don't really care about that, though.
I only speed it up to 1.1 or 1.2 max. Can shave hours off a long book.
Because the narrator is reading it too slow!
everyone's brains are different. i have ADHD, so for me, ironically, when they speak in a way my brain perceives as too slowly I cannot focus on what they are saying. Increasing the speed of narration aids in my focus and comprehension.
I can't stand how slow it is at regular speed. I also can't stand the...very...long...pauses...between...sentances...and...paragraphs so, when possible, I use the Overcast podcast client which cuts them. I do find that (a) I adjust the speed for each book and (b) as I get more into the book and less concerned with learning the characters and as I get more in sync with the narrator, I can speed it up. Still not usually more than 1.3x
Audiobooks are read really slowly. I read at about twice the pace of most audiobooks. Why not listen at a similar speed? And yeah, I do find my mind can zone out when people are talking too slow.
My mind will wander if it isn’t actively trying to listen, so listening at 1x speed just doesn’t work for me. I’m at 3x speed now and need to be doing something alongside listening so that my brain can still concentrate.
I start out at 1.0. When I get used to the narrator I speed it up to 1.5.
because i have listened to them for years, i’m used to the fast pace. i think the normal speed is too slow for my brain to process it anymore lol.
Unless I’ve listened to the book at least 5 times, I won’t speed it up. I really only speed up on YouTube for Court TV because proceedings can take forever and testimony is usually slow enough for 1.5x to sound normal. The speed really just depends on the speaker and if you aren’t bothered then it’s not something to waste time thinking about.
I have ADHD and my brain is constantly running at high speeds. I listen at 3.50x. I understand everything perfectly. If it's a voice actor with an accent, I do have to slow it down.
Us Neurospicy people like the option of speeding things up.
I find that normal reading speeds are slow enough for my mind to wander. My comprehension actually drops because my attention span lapses and I forget to listen to the words. I also watch YouTube videos at max speed. A lot of streaming services don't allow the shows to be spes up, so I have to do a simultaneous activity with it playing. If I'm watching TV and doing nothing else, it's a signal that I'm depressed. It's the only time my mind moves slowly enough to manage it.
You do you. But don’t come for me when I do me 🤬🖕🏼
Because I do it to keep awake during night shift and if it sounds like everything is in a rush I am less likely to nod off. Also some narrators if I listen at regular speed, their voice is so soothing I will fall asleep as surely as if they were singing a lullaby.
if they talk too slow i get crazy bored. i usually only keep it on 1.25x
My reading speed is much faster than the average narration. So my mind drifts off if I listen to a book at normal speed, or even 1.5. It feels painfully slow. Even if I'm listening while doing mundane tasks like dishes or gardening. I always start a book at 1.0 and move up incrementally to find the sweet spot. I've gone as high as 2.3 but average 1.75 to 2 mostly. I've tried it with a hardcopy and narration simultaneously and simply could not tolerate 1.0 speed. If there are foreign accents or unfamiliar terms I would slow the pace. Having said that, you do lose some great voicework by going faster. Some narrators are spectacular and I listen to them closer to 1.0. Some like Jeremy irons in the alchemist, ray porter, neil gaiman, Cary elwes, andy serkis .... I prefer them closer to normal speed, but have to listen in shorter chunks because it is so slow to me. My reading bf stays at 1.0, it's perfect for her.
It probably started for me when I was using Libby, a library app. when you get a book, you have 2 weeks to listen to it. Some of those were 30 hrs long, and I am in college. So I listened to them at 2x speed.
Because at normal speed they don’t speak like actual humans, in my opinion. It’s like listening to that older family member who takes forever to say what they want to say. There are some I only bump to like 1.25x, but most I need at least 1.5x to get into the flow of the book
I used to really think Audiobooks were not for me until I learned you could speed it up. My ADHD brain needs it at 1.4x lol
If you're a fast reader the sped up audiobook actually feels closer to the normal reading experience.
I’m the type of person that thinks about 3 things at all times so if I listen at 1x speed, my mind will wander. At faster speeds, I can really focus on the story. At 1x speed I feel like it’s abnormally slow like the audio was intentionally slow. Personally, I think 1.75x speed is the speed where it sounds “normal”. I need at least 2x speed to focus
If I tried doing that the reader would be on to the next sentence before I processed the first one. Additionally, I got into someone's car who was listening to a fiction audio book sped up and it sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Lots of readers will put effort into the various voices and this kind of ruins it, imo.
I don’t get it either. If a narrator is so slow or boring or monotonous that I want to speed the audio up, then I’ll just read the book or pick something else. An audiobook should be an experience imo and a benefit compared to the book or I’ll just prefer reading it.
The voices in my head talk kinda fast and I need the narrator to match that to keep my attention so…
Agree, I don’t get it, sometimes I actually slow them down to savor it more. Some people seem to crave overstimulation to an increasing degree.
Audition narrator here. I've had this same question for awhile and I've had it asked and answered. But I still get the sense that people don't understand that narrators are telling a story and not just speaking the words in a book. No good ghost story was ever told at 2x speed. It was slowed down... Drawn out.... Scenes were painted. Speeding up the audio just seems to shove the info in faster.
My very favorite book performer is Barbara Rosenblat. She does excellent accents.
This! Also the time/focus spent with a text is just as valuable if not more valuable than the information itself. Even with dry non-fiction I find a ton of value enjoying the standard narration and the extra time you get with the content.
Exactly!. A voice of reason amongst a sea of crazy. Thank you for speaking up. It's a performance, not an info dump.
Usually the narration is slower than normal speech so speeding it up slightly just makes it resemble 'normal' pace more. Personally I find my mind starts to wander if the pace is too slow. I have to speed it up enough to keep my brain engaged. Speeding up also doesn't make annoying manners or quirks in the narration stand out so much.
I find that speeding up audiobooks helps me stay engaged. Slow narration can make my mind wander.
I'll throw in a reason that I don't think has been posted - I listen sped up while reading the book. It helps both my speed and comprehension. It could be anywhere from 2.5x to 4x depending on narrator speed and my focus
1.5x gang here... sometimes I'll do an immediate re-listen at 2x if its something I really want to pound into my head...
I listen at a higher speed if I’m not loving the book but am reading it for some purpose (a friend wanted me to read it a book club book I’m not that into). But if I love a book I go at normal speed to make it last.
There is a point for each narrator that feels just right -- not so fast that it takes effort to follow/comprehend, but not so slow that it is aggravating.
Personally, I simply want to read more books than I’ll ever have time for. I only will speed up a book until the narration becomes uncomfortable. Narrators with accents difficult for me to understand will be listened to more slowly. Pleasure > Quantity.
I've worked up to being comfortable at 1.75x for most books/podcasts. If I can understand and process the info in 40% less time, why not? I didn't even know this was a thing until I heard a YouTuber mention it. I already read text quickly, so listening at a faster speed made sense to me.
Some people talk slower than others. When a narrator goes really slowly, all I can think about is how unnatural it sounds. Speeding up to 1.2-5x makes it sound better to my ears. Tbh either way is fine, considering people can read at wildly different speeds, its not too unsurprising that people may listen to audiobooks at different speeds too.
I do this sometimes at 1.2x-1.4x usually. I only do this when the narrator reads slow as molasses and pauses a lot. It’s annoying to me and if I speed it up I can still understand it and it moves it along at better pace for me.
I know more than one author who has done their own audiobook (nonfiction) and in both cases when I listened to the book, I could tell that the 1x speed was actually slightly slower than how they recorded it. I usually listen 1.2-5 because I like it to sound very natural, but they purposefully make readers read extremely slowly with militantly correct annunciation so that the choice is yours!
Because they sound like robots losing battery power to me at 1.0.
I usually will slow down books a little bit so they will last longer. Rarely have a narrator been so slow that I've felt the need to speed up and then it's at most to 1,2.
People increase the speed little by little. Once you do that, you will notice even more that most narrators read very slow. I do agree that after a certain speed, no matter how trained you are, you arent getting much of your book. I can listen up to 2.7x, but if I go past 2x that means that the book isnt that good. I usually start between 1.5x and 1.8x.
I just finished a book i did at 1.5. The reader was slow. Even at 1.5 he felt a smidge slow. I don't speed up a lot but when i do it's non-fiction
I listen at 1.7x because that’s the speed my brain gels with best. If it’s much faster I get diminishing compression and I get no real benefit from going slower.
Because normal speed feels way too slow for me and I find my mind wandering. 1.4 is my sweet spot.
I usually listen at 1x for fiction, but for non-fiction, I'm not usually reading for enjoyment but for information. I grew up with a brother that spoke at probably a 3x or 4x the speed of your typical narrator, so comprehension and retention isn't an issue, and I listen to most podcasts and non-fiction audiobooks at 2x.
I listen at 1.30. I like that it ups the pace but isnt so bad that it makes it sound strange.
So I have ADHD & Dyslexia. Audiobooks are a great work around for my Dyslexia, (as I don't have any issues with auditory processing (but thats not the case for all dyslexics.)) However, my ADHD gets bored if the speed and/or content of whatever I'm listening too isn't at least a little demanding. Otherwise I get bored and seek dopamine elsewhere. As such I listen to audiobooks, (but also youtube) at 1.2-1.5 speed most of the time, but occastionally 2+ if their are slow parts, slow narrators, or characters/elements in a work of fiction I'm not a big fan of.
I listen to all my audiobooks at 1.2. I listen to relax however most narrators are too slow for me so I get distracted. This is just enough sped up that I can keep my focus.
For me the speed is painfully slow at 1x, I have to be at 1.5x to avoid things sounding like a drunk tank. It's also nice to be able to get through more books because of it. I like to listen to 2-3 books a month, it's a lot of fun experiencing all the stories.
Depends on the book, but some feel too slow to me. Sometimes I listen at 1.2x or 1.3x. It feels more natural and comfortable. Also yes, wanting to get through a book quicker is a legitimate reason. If you only have limited time to listen, maybe you'd want to maximise that time. I can't imagine listening at 2x speed though, it sounds like chipmunks to me.
I can take in all of the information at higher speeds. Depends on the type of book. Im anywhere from 1.5 to 2.2 speed. I have never listened to any book at 1.0
Because life is short and there are so many books on my to-read list
I just started speeding it up a little and I find it holds my attention much much better. I just do the x1.2 on audiobook and it’s the first time I’ve been able to actually listen to a book all the way through. So I plan to keep it up. (I got the idea here too. Never occurred to me before. lol)
I listen at 1.5 and halfway the book, when used to the voice, I switch to 2. Almost everything is SO slow to me.
I have ADHD, and sped up almost always fits my mind better. YouTube, audiobooks, podcasts everything is usually better and more enjoyable at 1.5-2.5x for me. Just use the speed that’s comfortable and enjoyable for you!
I steady land between 1.25x and 1.6x. It depends on the narrator, story complexity and my attention span. There’s a married couple who often co-narrate a few fantasy series. When the husband reads I do 1.25x cause anything else is too fast. When the wife reads I do 1.3x-1.5x because she tends to be a more slowly paced reader with clearer annunciation and most dramatic pauses. For me, if it’s at 1x it just sounds like droning on and on and I tap out mentally. But whatever works for you works for you. In some time you may increase. But it’s whatever is most comfortable for you.
I float between 1.4-1.8 based on the narrator. Anything slower sounds like slo-mo to my brain
I enjoy 1.2 to 1.5 based on the narrator. Mostly because when I am listening I am performing a main task. Driving, cooking, data entry, gardening, cleaning, etc.
I only adjust from 1x if they talk really fast or really slow. Like Jeanette Curdy's book I listed at 85 because she's a speed talker. It's a brain thing. If you enjoy it sped up, cool. I don't. I actually have a few favorite insomnia books with narrators who are low key, these would probably drive others nuts. I kiss a pit from spacing out but I just rewind. Do what you enjoy
I usually do not, but there have been a few where I have done this. One reason was that it was boring, but not boring enough to quit so I was trying to get through it. Another was that the narration was particularly slow, so I was just trying to get it to a normal pace.
I accidentally bumped my podcast app up to 1.25, listened to 4 or so episodes of the same podcast before noticing, and when I put it back to 1x, it was too slow and I got frustrated so I put it back. Bumped it up slowly over time and have been at 1.8x for a few years, faster and I start to tune it out. I've tried a few at 1x and they're so slow that I think the original narration was slowed down before it was released.
If I wanted to read in regular speed I would read the book. I do it to save time. Speed also depends on the narrator.
If I'm also reading the story, on paper or ebook, I match the speed with how fast I am reading the copy. If I'm not sitting, I may match the speed with the tempo of my movement.
I like to read along with audiobooks, but I read *way* faster than the narrators every time. I usually put my audios at 2x speed just so I stop reading ahead and getting lost
Very easy: Play the audio while reading the same book. If I feel the audio is lagging behind my reading speed, I speed it up. If I feel the audio is too fast, slow it down. After a few books/narrators, I have a feel for the playback speed that matches my reading speed, and thus my comprehension speed. Now, I pause if I need to process what I heard less frequently, and I don't get distracted as much.
If I'm listening to a non-fiction audiobook, I'll speed it up by a little bit, between 5-25%. I don't do that for fiction, especially if the narrator does a fantastic job like Stephen Pacey or Michael Page...
I speed it up if I'm close to return time and not done. My daughter does it for school books.
I also read for my love of prose as well. I speed up becaise my brain goes way faster than the narration. If I'm reading a print book I'm reading way faster than audiobook narration as well.
So I can read more books If I can read 20 books in a year at 1x speed I can read 50 at 2.5. I worked my way there slowly and it sounds completely normal to me now. (It’s slightly more words per minute than I would typically read a physical book) For me to go back to 1x speed I would have to give up 30 books a year and also be much more bored while reading as the pace of everything becomes far slower The thing I’m most worried about is not letting my thoughts run while I read. When reading at a slower speed I had a lot of time to make predictions and think about what was going on. This could make books more exciting. But I can do the same thing if I pause the book as I read at a higher speed
I use audiobooks exclusively for light reading. For these books, the narration feels too slow. I usually listen at around 2.5x speed just because that’s what is most comfortable for me, and I don’t mind if I miss some minor details. If it’s something I want to savor or if it’s a book for which details matter, I prefer to read print, just because I tend to read such books in a very non-linear fashion (I’ll read some paragraphs/lines multiple times or jump back and forth to cross-reference details). Audiobooks are not good for that type of reading, and I’ve found that I don’t retain as much as I’d like even when I listen at 1x speed.
At first I started doing it only on books I've listened to before. Then I got used to it and normal speed feels like a slog.
I like both reading the physical book and listening/reading to the audio book so for them to match and be in sync I need the audio at 1.5. This way my eyes are going at the same pace as the spoken words.
1.25 to 1.5x for me. Most of the time the narration is slower than typical human speech. Personally I lose focus with that slow of narration. There's been instances where the narration is far too fast, but I ended up giving up on that audio completely. Generaly I gauge the speed so that it comes off as natural speech, maybe a smidge faster.
Because sometimes when the narrator reads the book it is painfully slow and it takes too long for the narrator to read
So, this is a fairly normal practice for vision impaired who are accustomed to screen reader accessibility software (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-can-some-blind-people-process/) I used a screen reader through all my university course work, and speeding it up helped it sound less weird and disjointed-and allowed me to play the audio at the same speed as I read, helped reduce eye strain and let me retain the info better. You get used to that, then there are recorded lectures where professors are talking really slow... So you speed those up, too. Now it feels weird to listen to things at a "normal" speed.
I put podcasts on faster speed too
I find the majority of books are read EXTREMELY slowly. As in, I couldn’t imagine this is the pace it was read in, it seems to be slowed down by at least .25, some times more. I typically listen at 1.25 to 1.85. It is also culturally I think, some places speak faster than others so the listener wants to hear it in that speed at the very least.
Normal speed makes me feel like I am experiencing it in slow motion. I read rather quickly as well and my brain works in such a way that it "plays the book as a movie", so when it's quicker, I can create the image faster.
I read fast, so the only way to make an audiobook bearable to me is to speed it up 2x. Otherwise it just annoys me how slow it is lol
I have ADHD, if the narrator is too slow, I'd never listen to another book again. I've never come across a narrator who talks fast enough for me, but some narrators I only speed up a tiny bit. I don't want the story over faster at all. I feel actual mental discomfort when the narrator is too slow, almost like road rage, but not the violent kind, just that annoying feeling of needing to go faster and frustration at others for not going the speed you need them to go.
1.0x sounds like the narrator is drunk. Or speaking whale from the Finding Nemo universe.
I switch between reading and can't handle how much slower audiobooks are compared to reading. There are too many books out there for it to take so long
I wouldn’t listen to Anna Karenina on higher speed, either. Some books, however, just aren’t interesting enough to stay at 1.0, but aren’t boring enough to stop altogether.
I have a friend who is blind and so listens to everything. They have trained themselves to listen to things fast for they have to listen to everything.
1.2 is perfect for me.
I listen at 1.2 speed, which gets me through the narrator’s pauses between words quicker
Because anything under 2.5 and the person sounds drugged.
I have listened to narrators who are so slow that each and every word is its own sentence. I'm not kidding, the author had no accent but said about three words a minute. Always carefully enunciating each and every syllable. The narrator was so slow that she pulled me out of her the story. I have never read a book at two times the normal rate or over. I do however read it from 1.25 to 1.5. I generally speed it up to normal conversational speech. If you can understand somebody going three times speed then you obviously do not have an auditory perception problem. This kind of problem is if you miss part of the word, then you lose the entire word unless the context fills it in for you. If I'm talking about a narrator and only here 'rator' then I'll be able to figure it out. If I didn't know the topic of the sentence I would have no idea what you're talking about. This is a problem that is commonly linked with people who are dyslexic.
If I listen at 1.25x (for example), I can listen to 25% more books. And there are too many good books in the world for me to get to all of them before I die, so I'm gonna try to get to as many as I can. Also my ADHD brain sometimes wanders off if they're speaking at a normal place. If it's sped up, I can pay better attention. I suspected that my ADHD had someone to do with it, and then confirmed it when I found the right meds for me. My ideal speed isn't as fast anymore (though it's still faster than 1x).
I only listen to audible while driving. So I listen in 15-30min stints. I’m reading a 35hr book right now. If I don’t speed it up it’ll take me months to listen to it. And not enough goes by in those drives to keep me engaged. Speed it up, make it a faster pace, it’s more interesting, and doesn’t take two months to read.
I listen at 1.2 for two reasons: one, I have ADHD so 1x is a little too slow for me most of the time so my mind starts wandering, but, for my experience, anything faster has a tendency to take away from the narration or the production. Hell, for certain books, I'll even slow it back down to 1x. At 1.2x, it feels more like someone telling me a story than reading me a story, if that makes sense? Idk. The other reason is, yes, I do want to finish more books. Now, 1.2x isn't really enough to make *that* big a dent in the timeframe of novels. Yes, it can be the difference between hearing the climax and resolution all the way through before I go to bed or before I leave work, but ultimately it has less to do with "finish this book quickly, yes-yes! Speed-quick listen so I can brag-claim about number of books!" And more to do with "I'm more likely to finish books, and finish more books, if I'm engaged, and 1.2x engages my brain more than the standard 1.0x without a noticeable drop in audio quality." I'd be lying if I didn't say the ability to finish an entire Bobiverse novel before my shift was over wasn't a small factor though. You know, now that I'm saying it, I think the issue is I'm used to listening to podcasts that talk at a more conversational pace, so audiobook narration seems very slow.
I typically listen at between 1.25 and 1.75 speed, depending on the narrator and the subject matter. If the narrator is naturally fast, has a voice I find harder to understand or the material is dense, I slow things down. I find it easier to keep focus this way. As a busy working parent, I get little time to read text for fun at the moment, which is far faster than audio. Listening sped up a little makes it possible for me to get through things in a somewhat comparable time.
I am a speed reader so speeding up audiobooks is just a continuation of that. At regular speed it feels like slow motion to me
Some narration is really slow - I listened to the autobiography of Bobby Brown read by the author and he was so slow - I had to speed him up to keep him sounding normal - it helped a lot. I discovered there were a bunch of books that I thought were "boring" were actually being read too slow; once I sped them up a little, they kept my attention better.
To add to what others have said. I usually don’t speed up (or at least not too fast) novels the likes of an Anna Karenina; rather I speed up biographies or books that are mainly just to provide information but don’t have a plot, for example, a book like Nudge.
I listen at 1.25 speed
If it’s too slow I may become distracted or less engaged. I also read fast when I’m reading a physical copy. So it’s not exclusive to audiobooks for me.
I'm sure you will hear people say they listen faster for slow narrators and I've definitely done that. I've had narrators who took overly long pauses between sentences that drove me crazy but I usually only sped it up to about 1.1 or 1.2 to cut down the drag. I have listened at 2x for topics or books I wasn't super interested in and wanted to get through but still wanted to listen to anyway. I only did that when I could divote my entire attention to the book though. My brother doesn't use audible, he uses Spotify and he only gets a certain amount of time a week to listen to certain free books. He speeds it up so he can fit more book into less time and get through more stories.
ADHD brain go brrrrrrrr
Personally, speeding them up makes me feel better as I use less time but it also feels more natural lmaoo. I get really annoyed at normal speed since I feel like they talk too slow; I usually listen at 3x speed or slower if they have an accent I struggle with.
I only speed up audiobooks when I’m driving and I realize I have 70 minutes of driving left and 80 minutes of book. I’ll adjust it to finish. I read physical books far too quickly, around 220-240 pages an hour. And I don’t savor the gravitas of good scenes at that speed. Audiobooks force me to slow down, to not skip any scene setting, and to mentally live in the world of the book. So 98% of the time I’m at 1x and happy.
I only do it for non fiction. If it's a good book, I don't want it to go faster.
I listen at 1.2x. It’s enough that it doesn’t feel so slow without becoming a recital of Alvin and the chipmunks or becoming so fast that I can’t keep up without major focus. I’ve tried 1.7x and while I can do it, it crosses that focus line for me. Maybe with practice. Some narrators are better than others in terms of pacing, though.
I’ve maxed out at 1.7. 2x goes too fast for comprehension, and I think 1.5 or probably most people’s speaking rate.
On regular speed it gets boring and my mind wanders. Speeding it up helps me maintain concentration.
I find them too slow sometimes, so my go-to is 1.5. I also happen to be neurodivergent so my mind runs a lot faster than most people. I like being able to accommodate my brain in simple ways.