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[Felina]

I listen to audiobooks at 2.5 speed. I read really slow though I do retain more when I actually read.

[Felina]

Anything less that 2x speed and they sound drunk to me. Ha ha.

[Nirkatze]

I still read faster than I listen... but I can listen for longer spans than reading... when reading, I tend to get up and do something every 6-10 pages, but when listening I just bully through everything...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I think I read at 1.5-1.75x speed... I know I read faster than 1x, which seemed slow, even before I started speeding up... now anything under 1.5-2x is horrible...

I've spent most of my reading time at 2x (gonna take alot more reading to change that statistic, because 2x is the cap on iBooks app, which I used to import most books for years)...

In 2020, I spent 6 months at 3x... then Covid torpedo'd me back to 2x for awhile... I've been back at 3x for most of this year...

Being up at 2.5-3x speed again, definitely makes me favor Audible & Hoopla for listening... I use Greenlit Audiobook Player for books I'd otherwise have to listen at 2x on iBooks... I definitely experiment a bit with 2.7x in Hoopla and Audible...

I try not to just blanket listen at 3x regardless of narrator... some speak faster than others, and it can get a bit like listening to an Eminem rap song or something, especially when they speed up for a motormouth character...

[Ann-Marie]

My max speed for audio is 1.5 speed but my comfort spot is 1.25. I have listened to 2 or slightly higher for book club books I hated but it was like Mickey & Minnie Mouse reading to me but I got through the books! Turns out I am not a Colleen Hoover fan lol I wish I was comfortable listening faster but I find I zone out and miss stuff. I have always been a fast reader and while I cannot say for sure my reading speed I'd guess for sure it would be like listening to 3 times speed pretty easily, especially if it is a book I am loving.

[Felina]

I’m a very slow reader. It takes me 2 minutes to read a standard paperback page. I have an app where you indicate when you’re reading, it times you and then averages out how long it takes you to read and tells you in hours when you’ll finish. And I’m slower if I really like the book because I devour every word. I’m not a skimmer at all.

[Ann-Marie]

I very rarely read physical books these days even if I own them because reading on a Kindle is so much easier for me. I can just sit and tear through a book. I'll turn off the indication that says how much longer is left in the book, either leave it blank or leave it on time in chapter. If I do buy a physical book I will read it once to ensure there are no printing issues then it goes on my shelf to look pretty <3

[Yanique, Thread Master]

This is so interesting.
I listen at 3.5-4x speed so Hoopla is great for me, Audible is #2. I find for retention it's best for me to listen at a speed that's close to my physical reading speed and 4x is the best I can get.
I mostly just read physically because it's faster and more enjoyable than listening.

[Ann-Marie]

Yanique wrote: "This is so interesting.
I listen at 3.5-4x speed so Hoopla is great for me, Audible is #2. I find for retention it's best for me to listen at a speed that's close to my physical reading speed and 4..."

I still have Spirit Witch in Hoopla and I just tried 4 times speed and yeah, that was crazy! I am impressed you can retain the info, that was way too fast for me!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I think faster listening speeds have a learning curve... re-reads help you adjust... when not ready for it, they can sound super fast and like chipmunks or disney mice, as noted above... but if you slowly ramp up, power through with a re-read, and/or just give yourself time to adjust, it starts sounding pretty normal, as your brain starts parsing what's being said at that speed in real time, basically... or something...

The most notable thing at higher listening speeds is the fact it basically cuts out all pauses the narrator takes to breathe, and when they speed up to illustrate motormouth characters, as noted above... or anxious characters... that happened a bit in the Beaufort Scales series, when one of the old ladies was almost hyperventilating over the crimes and giving info to the police...

[Felina]

It took me years to get to listening at 2.5x speed and even sometimes I have to slow it down depending on what I’m doing. If I’m cross stitching I can have it going really fast because I don’t have to sit and analyze anything when crafting. Depending on the chore, I can listen to it fast or may have to slow it down if I’m needing to make decisions or whatever. I cannot listen to audiobooks while working. My job is to analytical. However, I listen to podcasts at work at 2.5x speed and I can’t concentrate on work without them so that’s kinda weird.

[Yanique, Thread Master]

Iain is right. It takes your brain a little bit to adjust. 4x will always sound super fast when it starts, but your brain adjusts. Ramping up gradually may be the way to get up to that speed.
But 4x is close to how fast i read physically, so it works for me.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I don't know about you guys, but I also can't listen as fast on speaker vs earbuds... I need that instantaneous ear input...

[Yanique, Thread Master]

Timelord Iain wrote: "I don't know about you guys, but I also can't listen as fast on speaker vs earbuds... I need that instantaneous ear input..."

Same! It's like there's extra ambient noise on speaker and I don't understand anything, need headphones. But... I can't hear anything if I'm chewing so I can't listen while I eat.

[Felina]

100%. I have to go to normal speed when listening in a speaker or in the car.

[Ann-Marie]

You guys need to slow down, I listen to the same speed on speakers or ear buds lol

[Yanique, Thread Master]

Ann-Marie wrote: "You guys need to slow down, I listen to the same speed on speakers or ear buds lol"

Any slower and my brain gets tired of waiting and I start to ignore the book. I'll have the book playing in my earphones and actually forget I'm even listening to something. I'm not even exaggerating.

[Ann-Marie]

Yanique wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "You guys need to slow down, I listen to the same speed on speakers or ear buds lol"

Any slower and my brain gets tired of waiting and I start to ignore the book. I'll have the bo..."

I was kidding about you guys slowing down, I imagine listening to 1.5 speed would probably be painful once you are used to super speed :)

[Nyssa]

1.5 speed is my listening speed.. guess I read slowly in print and audio!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I agree 1x felt super slow to me, even before I learned to speed up... especially some narrators like Michael Kramer that are slower than others naturally... 2-3x speed lets me do tons of Buddy Reads, without having to spends days on a tome... there are only so many hours in a day, minus work and sleep/etc... and Wheel of Time & Malazan and Wandering Inn and Stormlight Archive books are 30-60 hours long...

Back in 2017, the audio for Way of Kings took me most of a week, back when I listened at slow speeds...

[Narilka]

Nyssa wrote: "1.5 speed is my listening speed.. guess I read slowly in print and audio!"

You and me both lol

[Nirkatze]

LOL I love the sloth gif.

I credit Vagabonds and y'all with getting me to try audiobooks in the first place. I first tried them in January of last year and I'm up to 3x speed on comfortable rereads & narrators, like InDeath, but down to 2.5 or less on new books and narrators.

4x would be about the same as my eye-reading, but I'm not there yet...

[Ann-Marie]

I put off audiobooks for the longest time then got sick of hearing people rave about Michael Lesley performing The Lightning-Struck Heart so I gave it a try and I have been hooked since. I listen more than I read now!

[Nirkatze]

Ann-Marie wrote: "I put off audiobooks for the longest time then got sick of hearing people rave about Michael Lesley performing The Lightning-Struck Heart so I gave it a try and I h..."

LOL That's good to know... have to pick that up on audio some day...

[Ann-Marie]

Nirkatze wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "I put off audiobooks for the longest time then got sick of hearing people rave about Michael Lesley performing The Lightning-Struck Heart so I gav..."

Be warned it is ridiculous, over the top, funny but with all the feels. I will definitely read it with you if you decide to give it a try. <3

[Beena]

@Felina

I’m a very slow reader. It takes me 2 minutes to read a standard paperback page. I have an app where you indicate when you’re reading, it times you and then averages out how long it takes you to read and tells you in hours when you’ll finish. And I’m slower if I really like the book because I devour every word. I’m not a skimmer at all.

I feel ya, I'm a complete slow poke as well, I'm one of the slowest readers here. The only time I can whiz through is if I'm loving every single second of it, but even then I might purposely slow myself down so that I can savour it, or will go back and re-read a bit etc. I think it's partly because I like to fully immerse myself into the story too. I reckon even my fastest would still be relatively slow compared to most peeps here (I was always one of the lowest scoring on the team competition).

What's the app? I'd be interested to time myself out of curiosity.

[Beena]

@Narilka and @Nyssa, slow readers unite! Lol.

[Beena]

I always have it in the back of my mind that I'll try audio sometime, but never do. (Well, I actually kinda did, it was a free book on Spotify that was a thriller but I was bored within a few seconds lol. Need to try a fantasy, but I always end up picking up stuff I'm in the mood for physically. Can't win, haha.)

[Felina]

It’s called Bookly but you can track your reading speed manually.

[Nirkatze]

Beena wrote: "I always have it in the back of my mind that I'll try audio sometime, but never do. (Well, I actually kinda did, it was a free book on Spotify that was a thriller but I was bored within a few secon..."

Wandering Inn was my first audiobook. I did the audible free trial and used the free credit on it. I think it worked really well as a firstie--though it is long. It has very distinct characters and voices, so it was easy to follow. The In Death series audiobooks have been great too. Something with lots of dialogue I think, is good for starting, but it has to be a excellent narrator. For Wandering Inn, I also followed along on the webserial until I got used to it...

Or doing a reread on audio, but I think that was my second step. I tried Mistborn & Hobb's Farseer series on audio and I feel like that was the level up from great narrators with easy books...

I also tried some random books I'd never heard of on audio, and had more or less the same experience you did, Beena, with your first free audiobook...

[Beena]

Yeah, that was what I was thinking Nirkatze, a reread of a fave on audio, as I already know I love it, so should really be able to tell whether it's for me or not. Even if I do get on with it tho, I have a feeling that it'll never truly replace physical reading for me. Plus, I like listening to music when doing other mindless chores and stuff.

[Felina]

My mom was getting books of tape when I was little for road trips. I couldn’t tell you the first one I listened too. For a while right after college I had a part time job at the post office just doing data entry for letters where the computers couldn’t read the addresses. I used to get books on CD and burn them onto my computer and then listen to endless audiobooks doing that mindless job and I think that’s how I got good at it.

My fav audiobook is Duma Key by King read by John Slattery. I love it so much!

[Nyssa]

I'm not big on rereads outside of refamiliarizing myself w/ a series so that I can continue with said series.

The next time I try to finish The Hollows, for instance, I will have read book one for the 3rd time.

Edited to Add: That being said, there are a few titles from my tweens and teens that I would like to rediscover.

[Kirsten]

Ann-Marie wrote: "I am fine reading or listening for the most part but I definitely read faster than I am comfortable listening. If it is a new series with heavy world-building or a lot of characters thrown at you r..."

LIstening depends on the production or the narrator most of the time. Some books are done with a full cast which really brings a lot. Also, I do like it if it's set in a certain place the narrator has the proper accent. I also think that nonfiction and classic literature is better in audio.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Ann-Marie wrote: "Nirkatze wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "I put off audiobooks for the longest time then got sick of hearing people rave about Michael Lesley performing [book:The Lightning-Struck Heart|2..."

I might try it with you... I tried it a few years ago with Laura, and we weren't expecting the crudeness, after reading Wolfsong & Cerulean Sea, so it wasn't the best book to get back into Buddy Reading together, so we abandoned it... maybe, with more awareness, I can enjoy it more...

[Ann-Marie]

Kirsten wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "I am fine reading or listening for the most part but I definitely read faster than I am comfortable listening. If it is a new series with heavy world-building or a lot of characte..."

For sure a bad narrator can ruin a book! Personally I generally dislike when a series starts with one narrator then randomly switches for no reason. There are instances where it is unavoidable but just a business decision by the publisher? eff that noise lol

[Ann-Marie]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "Nirkatze wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "I put off audiobooks for the longest time then got sick of hearing people rave about Michael Lesley performing [book:The Lightn..."

I am in whenever anyone wants to do this!

[Felina]

Yes, a bad narrator will definitely ruin a book. I’m don’t like Will Wheaton. I know he’s very popular but he doesn’t work for me.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Felina wrote: "Yes, a bad narrator will definitely ruin a book. I’m don’t like Will Wheaton. I know he’s very popular but he doesn’t work for me."

I'm fine with him for Scalzi stuff, but don't really want him for anything else... Wheaton & Scalzi are friends, so that duo will likely never change for audio narration...

[Nirkatze]

Ann-Marie wrote: "For sure a bad narrator can ruin a book! Personally I generally dislike when a series starts with one narrator then randomly switches for no reason...."

I remember folks were talking about this earlier--I think this happened in Dresden Files, they were saying? And it had to do with the main narrator being overbooked and unable to do the narration on schedule. So they had someone else come in... but rerecorded later with main narrator due to complaints/demand.

This happened in the Innkeeper Chronicles--and the first book was jarring, but I got used to it... I just wish that the new narrators would compare notes, or do their research first, and maybe have a "narrator's foreword" to explain choice differences...

Regarding The Lightning-Struck Heart, how about April? I am game for earlier (anytime from December onwards), but it takes an audible credit and my credits don't renew until April, lol. I blame Iain.

[Ann-Marie]

Nirkatze wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "For sure a bad narrator can ruin a book! Personally I generally dislike when a series starts with one narrator then randomly switches for no reason...."

I remember folks were talking about this earlier--I think this happened in Dresden Files, they were saying? And it had to do with the main narrator being overbooked and unable to do the narration on schedule. So they had someone else come in... but rerecorded later with main narrator due to complaints/demand."

That was me complaining about the narrator shift for no good reason but Iain pointed out that James Marsters had re-recorded the book so now I will be listening rather than re-reading when I work through the series at some point.

[Ann-Marie]

Nirkatze wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "For sure a bad narrator can ruin a book! Personally I generally dislike when a series starts with one narrator then randomly switches for no reason...."

I remember folks were tal..."

I am willing to revisit Verania whenever. These are part of my faves that I listen to as I fall asleep each night and I was listening to The Consumption of Magic 2 nights ago and I had to stop because there is a really sad event that happens and I started tearing up which is hardly an ideal situation when I was trying to fall asleep lol

[Yanique, Thread Master]

I wish narrators for Sci-Fi would figure out how to pronounce words before they got on the mic, because the things I've heard.... then again, some of those authors don't know what they're writing either so...

[Felina]

The Stephanie Plum books changed narrators after the thirdish book. It was originally CJ Crit (sp?) and they changed to Lorelei King. I liked CJ a lot better but I’m on book 12.5 now so I’m used to Lorelei at this point.

[Ann-Marie]

Yanique wrote: "I wish narrators for Sci-Fi would figure out how to pronounce words before they got on the mic, because the things I've heard.... then again, some of those authors don't know what they're writing e..."

I listened to an audio and the appraiser mispronounced egregious twice in the first bit of the book and I was like nope! It was a different appraiser than the first book which annoyed me as well but that was it for me. Thankfully I bought it when the whispersync prices were ridiculously cheap so I only wasted like $2 but I will never listen to that audio.

[Nirkatze]

Yanique wrote: "I wish narrators for Sci-Fi would figure out how to pronounce words before they got on the mic, because the things I've heard.... then again, some of those authors don't know what they're writing e..."

So ditto this. And for foreign words too. Or even just names. Or any words in general. Research!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Ann-Marie wrote: "Yanique wrote: "I wish narrators for Sci-Fi would figure out how to pronounce words before they got on the mic, because the things I've heard.... then again, some of those authors don't know what t..."

What annoys me is when I think a word is being pronounced wrong, but the internet says either I'm wrong, or it has 2 valid pronunciations... I'm always right, Google...

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "Yanique wrote: "I wish narrators for Sci-Fi would figure out how to pronounce words before they got on the mic, because the things I've heard.... then again, some of those authors..."

That happens to me a lot too. Feels bad. :D

[Nirkatze]

OMG, like that one word in the Abercrombie books... what was it again... oh yeah! GrimACE.

[Yanique, Thread Master]

Nirkatze wrote: "Yanique wrote: "I wish narrators for Sci-Fi would figure out how to pronounce words before they got on the mic, because the things I've heard.... then again, some of those authors don't know what t..."

OMG!
When the book has a few sentences of a foreign language and the narrator just goes for it.... Then I'm like "wait... is this supposed to be FRENCH??!!!"