Tried Libby for audiobooks after years of hating e-readers, and now I get it

I’ve always been a print book person. Refused to use anything digital for reading. But last month I had a 6 hour drive to see my sister in Spokane and forgot to grab a physical book. My buddy told me to download Libby through my library card. I figured I’d give it a shot just for the trip. Finished two audiobooks in one day. The trick was setting the speed to 1.25x. At normal speed it felt too slow. Does anyone else have a preferred speed for Libby or other audiobook apps?

2 comments

2 Comments

angelacooper24d ago

Stick with 1.25x for fiction but bump it to 1.5x or even 1.75x for non-fiction. Found that out the hard way when I tried listening to a history book at regular speed and wanted to fall asleep behind the wheel. Biographies and self-help stuff usually have a slower natural pace so they benefit from the boost. Fiction with a lot of dialogue or action scenes sounds weird if you go too fast though. Just takes some experimenting to figure out what works for each book.

corad8424d ago

Wait, do you really not find that fiction at 1.25x still drags? I feel like most narrators talk way too slow even at that speed. I actually do the opposite, I bump fiction to 1.5x or 1.75x because the regular pace drives me crazy. Maybe it depends on the narrator though. Some of them read like they're falling asleep themselves. Non-fiction I'll go up to 2x if the person speaks clearly enough, especially for self-help stuff where they repeat points a lot. I tried listening to a thriller at 1.25x once and wanted to fast forward through the whole thing. Guess we just have different ears for this stuff lol.