Slightly off topic, but how many books do you all read a month? I have a hard time getting past 1 a month.
Especially when you realize that you can listen to a lot of books at 1.5x - 2x speed, with very little loss of comprehension.
Is it enjoyable, though?
Some readers are excruciatingly slow, so 1.25 just makes them sound normal. Other readers speed along, so 1x is like 1.5x on other books.
Some books need to be played at 1x if you're gonna follow the intricacies. Others with neither dense logical argument or thick, nuanced soul, like bestseller nonfictions where you have a sequence of little stories to illustrate "what studies have shown", can profitably be listened to quite fast, especially when also allaying their boringness with a Geometry Wars or Kingdom Rush addiction. (You might say, why read them then? Personally: as an excuse to play Kingdom Rush.)
If I'm not too into a part I'll even go faster than 2x to pick up the gist unto it catches my interest again.
Really, it's just like normal reading. Any displined reader has different speeds depending on the how much time the material is worth (Adler's How to Read a Book gives a nice model).
I've also noticed that the ability to comprehend spoken words can be trained; I started off at 1.25x speed and have gradually built up to 2x. Now when I listen to audio at 1x, it is just so slo-o-o-w. Anecdata, but I don't think my comprehension or enjoyment have gone down as I increase speed.
However, the fact that I usually notice it after listening on 1.5x makes me think that it's really an illusion. Does anyone have any "insider" info on this?
Since I mostly read non-fiction I find 1.5 a bit too fast if I want to really comprehend stuff without hitting replay all the time, so I just hear all books at 1.25 and it works well for me.
I don't want a robot to read the book, but I also don't want the reader adding "color" by reading some characters with different voices (or - as i've heard in some cases - multiple readers each "in character").
Is this common?
James Marsters reads the Dresden Files books and he is amazing. It really is a performance by a good actor and (IMHO) adds to the book. He does use "voices" for different characters and it works really well. Most other readers will try to do this has well. It can be hit or miss.
A really good ensemble book is World War Z by Max Brooks. The cast is incredible (Alan Alda, Martin Scorsese, Simon Pegg, and more)
Benefits of an e-book reader over a phone or a tablet include a better screen for reading, and it being a dedicated device that doesn't distract you with notifications or the ability to start browsing random shit on the Internet.
I also have a 10-15 minute walk in the commute for podcasts, which, combined with walking the dog and running, gives me about an hour of listening in. I haven't listened to any audiobooks in the last few years, but it's definitely an option for if I suddenly lost my commute or had to drive myself (and thus couldn't read).
For non-fiction, I need to be stuck on a plane or have a clear weekend morning.
If it had worked, you'd have a surefire way of massaging your brain with good content. Win-win either way, imho.
2) There is no step two.
Conditions allowing that:
- I nearly always read on my phone.
- I can read on my commute.
- I read before going to sleep.
- I read quickly.
I used to read a lot more books ... but over the past couple years I've achieved intermediate levels of rock climbing and skiing a built a mobile coffee trailer, so there's that.
I think I'm the opposite. When I was in school I was able to learn things much faster by attending the lecture compared to reading on my own.
my bet is if you test yourself on a book you listened to two years ago you will not remember 99% of it, and if you read it it's probably more like 95% percent of it.
then again, everyone's mind is different, so maybe you retain voice more than audio
Huh, I'm the opposite, but I think it depends on the subject matter and how much you're reading. I have read about 70+ fantasy and science fiction audiobooks in the last year, but only each one once, and remember most details of all the books. Some characters from some series I've no doubt forgot their names, but soon as I listen to passage from the series my memory is brought back and I remember the details.
Non-fiction on the other hand I don't do too well with audio books. e.g. listening to an audio book on programming is never going to happen for me.
Start off with something easy like 10 pages per night.
Then increase in increments of 10 pages every week or so.
By the time you're reading 50 pages per night or more, you'll be working through quite a few books per month.
Love this idea! I'm going to try that too. Very soon, I'll be quitting my day job and should have a bunch free time which is currently taken up with busywork. Time to re-read and get more out of my books.
Personally I've found over the years that this balance between reading a very small number of books closely and a whole lot casually has worked well and has led each set to complement the other.
I'd not worry about "retaining" in the sense of being able to mouth all sorts of facts and figures and arguments and story details several weeks later. Sometimes this stuff is important, but for me anyway I only "retain" in this sense when I take the further step of taking notes after finishing a chapter, etc. Most books aren't worth that IMO given you can just pull them off the shelf when you need to look something up. But books can affect you in other dimensions, especially in slowly enlarging your perspective in ways you hardly even notice.
(But I mean, if you literally couldn't talk -at all- for a few minutes about a book you read last month, that's a different story!)