As a fairly proficient ESL guy 1.5x is the fastest I can do for audiobooks. Most books are read slowly on purpose I think so they’re easiest for most people to

As a fairly proficient ESL guy 1.5x is the fastest I can do for audiobooks. Most books are read slowly on purpose I think so they’re easiest for most people to understand and everything is enunciated perfectly. Speeding up makes them feel like normal talking speed. Mind you audiobooks have less filler than natural speech so they’re a little more information dense than someone shooting from the hip. I find the best way to enjoy them is on a nice run where the situation holds me captive and I can’t retreat into a more distractive media. In my experience audiobooks can’t keep my attention, not fast paced enough, and I pull out my phone. As soon as that happens I no longer hear/process the audiobook. But if I’m running it’s juuuust perfect enough to keep my attention and sort of embed the ideas into my subconscious even if I’m not actively listening. It’s a lot like speed reading in that way. With speed reading I always felt like I was rushing and had no idea what I’m reading. But ask me questions and I could recap the information back flawlessly. However, I purposefully avoid speed reading fiction because it detracts from the experience. You get the info, but you lose the feel.