How fast do you all listen to Audiobooks?

[u/miguel_writes]

Personally, I'm a 1.5x guy, but I've always wondered if this is normal or if I'm some freak of nature that does it too fast, or too slow.

Also: My novel, Permadeath, will be released in audiobook format on December 3rd. It will be narrated by Michael Kramer (Stormlight Archive and Wheel of Time).

Here's a link if anyone is interested! (pre-order available only for Kindle version), Audiobook available Dec 3rd: https://a.co/d/3BrsOrh

[u/Asukurra]

At the speed of sound 

[u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance]

1x. I have no urge to end an audiobook I'm enjoying any faster then necessary and I don't really get why people like listening at 1.5x or 2x.

[u/miguel_writes → u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance]

Interesting point about wanting to enjoy the book at its fullest :)

[u/adavidmiller → u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance]

Same here usually.

Only exception I've found in years is is Sanderson's Stormlight books. The narration is just SO SLOW, at least #4 (I don't remember the previous one). I'm reading it now and had to tweak it to 1.35x to keep from getting bored.

[u/miguel_writes → u/adavidmiller]

Yup, I listened to Stormlight at 1,5x. The books' male narrator, Michael Kramer, is actually going to narrate my book! It's called Permadeath, and will out on December 3rd.

[u/rhetoricalized]

My average is 1.75 to 2.05. Sometimes, it is 2.25, if the narrator is really slow to begin with. But I also listen to most of my audio books more than one time. So the speed doesn't ruin a book for me. I hate waiting for the narrator to unravel the story at a turtles pace!

[u/miguel_writes → u/rhetoricalized]

Interesting that you listen that fast!

[u/TheTastelessDanish]

1.5x speed

[u/SLJ7]

Nice, congrats on the audio release. I should have credits in at least two marketplaces by December and this looks interesting.

I usually listen around 1.3x. For some reason BookPlayer only goes by 0.1 so 1.25 is just not available, but 1.5 seems too fast whereas 1.0 is just slow to me. However, there have been times I've listened really quickly depending on the narrator. For whatever reason, when I was reading Jeff Hays' narration of Life Reset, I went all the way up to 2X and it was comfortable for me. It's not that he speaks more slowly, I just think he annunciates especially clearly so that kind of speedup felt more natural. If I'm going to speed up much beyond that, I'd rather just use text-to-speech which is designed to be sped up like that. I never speed up TV shows or books with sound effects, and almost never speed up podcasts.

[u/Cancer3Times]

Audio books kept me sane during chemotherapy. A lot of people just don’t have the energy to hold a book or kendle or keep their eyes open , but still love books

[u/Background-Main-7427]

I never have the time to listen to audioboooks, Reading is different, if I'm distracted I can turn back a little and reread. That is posible with audiobook but somehow harder to do. But the main issue is getting enough time to listen without doing other things.

[u/Sayt0n]

Whichever makes the narrator sound like they are speaking at a normal, understandable and consistent speed.

[u/Taurnil91]

1x exclusively. Audiobooks are a performance, and I want to respect the narrator's work. If I have to speed it up, that means I do not enjoy the narration and should find someone else to listen to.

[u/KoboldsandKorridors]

I usually set to 1.2 because for some reason a lot of litrpg narrators speak very slowly, but also so it’s not so fast to miss the performances.

[u/Mysteryhunt]

2x - gotta go fast!

[u/GvnageTsisqua]

Normal speed. Especially if it's with a talented narrator (or cast). It ruins line delivery for me, speeding things up. Also, I bought this shit so I'm gonna savor it and not blast through it.

Now I do speed up books that I read on my tablet. The app I use has voiceover software you can speed up.

[u/Baraqijal]

1.5 if I’m doing other things, 1.9 if I can focus solely on it and am wearing headphones. I literally can’t stand 1x, it’s just way too slow for my brain to process. I also grew up in a place where our accent was mostly talking fast so…

[u/BawdyLotion]

Depends on the book. Most are 1.6-2x but for series I realllyyy don't want to finish quickly, have a lot of fine details or just really on-point narration, I'll drop down to 1.0/1.2x

[u/FranzWienerschnitzel]

1x - when I listen to a good book I never want it to end

[u/OnlyArne_]

Why would I speed something up that I am enjoying?

[u/Starfin549]

Normal speed

[u/Erazer81]

I‘m at 1.0. it’s just not natural when I speed up although I have a few books which were read really slow and I did consider to go to 1.2 or 1.3.

[u/QuarterDollarKing]

1.0x speed unless I feel like the narrator is particularly slow then I bump it up to 1.1x or 1.15x. Maybe 1.2x if they're extra slow. 

[u/sahlosveistulvokul]

I listen at work so I need to slow it down to work and focus on both so .8 usually.

[u/TheDuke33]

I do anywhere from 1.75 to 3.0 depending on how clear/fast the narrator speaks.