4 ms·

People must not read fast because audiobooks in most cases are soul crushingly slow if you give them your full attention so I cannot conceive of listening to an

by nibstwo 10y ago

People must not read fast because audiobooks in most cases are soul crushingly slow if you give them your full attention so I cannot conceive of listening to an audiobook and not multitasking.

SimonPStevens 10y ago
I've been an Audible subscriber for a few years and I listen to most audio books at between 2 and 2.25x speed. The Android app alows you to adjust it right up to 3x and in general it's still perfectly comprehendable at the individual word level even at that speed.
- posterboy 10y ago
  you have to be careful how you structure your sentences, or at least I should pay more attention. There is no way triple speed was comfortably understandable. 2 to 2.25 would be a lot already. 3x is probably a ludicrous maximum that no user should could complain about.
  - DanBC 10y ago
    > 3x is probably a ludicrous maximum that no user should could complain about. Blind people tend to listen to things on fast speed because they've had more practice. I can imagine blind people listening at that kind of speed. https://rdouglasfields.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/extraordinary-ability-of-blind-people-to-hear-ultrafast-speech/ https://rdouglasfields.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/extraordinar... > New research presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego shows that blind people can understand speech at ultrafast rates, well beyond what a sighted person can comprehend.
  - SimonPStevens 10y ago
    I'll agree that 3x to my ear sounds insane, but so did 2x a few years ago. I've definitely adapted to listening at higher speeds as I've got used to it. I can believe that some people are comfortable with it. But you're right, sentence structure does play a part. I've listened to Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson) and Excession (Iain M Banks) recently and both I had to drop to 2x because I couldn't follow at 2.25x. The latter because of the long ship names that sounded like sentences took too long for my brain to parse out and comprehended, and the quite technical language. The former because of the slightly old fashioned and uncommon language. On the other hand, with another recent book, Under The Skin (Michel Faber), I was totally comfortable at 2.25x. The narrator was nice and clear with no strong accent, and the language was modern and descriptive but not overly complex.

by nibstwo 10y ago

People must not read fast because audiobooks in most cases are soul crushingly slow if you give them your full attention so I cannot conceive of listening to an audiobook and not multitasking.

SimonPStevens 10y ago

I've been an Audible subscriber for a few years and I listen to most audio books at between 2 and 2.25x speed. The Android app alows you to adjust it right up to 3x and in general it's still perfectly comprehendable at the individual word level even at that speed.

posterboy 10y ago
you have to be careful how you structure your sentences, or at least I should pay more attention. There is no way triple speed was comfortably understandable. 2 to 2.25 would be a lot already. 3x is probably a ludicrous maximum that no user should could complain about.
- DanBC 10y ago
  > 3x is probably a ludicrous maximum that no user should could complain about. Blind people tend to listen to things on fast speed because they've had more practice. I can imagine blind people listening at that kind of speed. https://rdouglasfields.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/extraordinary-ability-of-blind-people-to-hear-ultrafast-speech/ https://rdouglasfields.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/extraordinar... > New research presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego shows that blind people can understand speech at ultrafast rates, well beyond what a sighted person can comprehend.
- SimonPStevens 10y ago
  I'll agree that 3x to my ear sounds insane, but so did 2x a few years ago. I've definitely adapted to listening at higher speeds as I've got used to it. I can believe that some people are comfortable with it. But you're right, sentence structure does play a part. I've listened to Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson) and Excession (Iain M Banks) recently and both I had to drop to 2x because I couldn't follow at 2.25x. The latter because of the long ship names that sounded like sentences took too long for my brain to parse out and comprehended, and the quite technical language. The former because of the slightly old fashioned and uncommon language. On the other hand, with another recent book, Under The Skin (Michel Faber), I was totally comfortable at 2.25x. The narrator was nice and clear with no strong accent, and the language was modern and descriptive but not overly complex.