5 ms·
I'm fairly convinced that audio books are deliberately read slower than normal speech to cater for the widest possible audience. I don't think people new to aud
by SimonPStevens 9y ago
I'm fairly convinced that audio books are deliberately read slower than normal speech to cater for the widest possible audience. I don't think people new to audio books are put off by it being slower than necessary, but if you found it too fast to follow you would give up fairly quickly. So by recording at a slow speed that caters for something like 90% of listeners you retain the maximum number of listeners.
This is basically a long winded way of saying that I think audio book makers expect the average person to bump the speed up a little.
[I listen to audio books on Audible at around 2x speed.]
- legohead 9y agoI could see doing that for academic material, but when I listen to fantasy/scifi (which I do most of the time), I enjoy the voice acting too much to speed it up. In some cases it makes the books a lot better than they were written.
- aluhut 9y agoVictor Bevine is like enjoying a drink near a camp fire. This guy could read a book about the worst moments in my life and I'd still enjoy it.
- visarga 9y agoCan you give examples of audiobooks that have great voice acting?
- legohead 9y agoSure: https://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/The-Blade-Itself-Audiobook/B014LL6R5U/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1511283060&sr=1-1 https://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/The-Blade-Itself-A... The voice actor, Steven Pacey, is so amazing I've considered listening to other books he's narrated solely due to his performance. I haven't quite gone that far yet, though :) However, I do recommend this book/series -- if you like fantasy.