Without really noticing, over the past few years my reading has gradually decreased. I wasn’t really sure why. Reading has been my passion for donkey’s years, yet the books I was actually getting through was diminishing substantially.
Or at least it was until I learnt about Audibles.
I began my subscription with Audibles about eight months ago and I have seen the number of books I am getting through increase exponentially each month.
It’s incredible to me that I let it go for so long. Reading enriches my life, my brain, encourages me to see life in different ways and is just all round a really positive thing I can do for myself.
My eyesight has declined over the past ten years, with prescriptions getting stronger and stronger as my sight got weaker and weaker.
And I think it is this which discourages me from reading with my eyes so much. They get tired much quicker than they used to and reading is simply not as comfortable or as easy as it once was.
Audibles has been a God-send!
My granny was blind for most of her life and she ‘read’ her books by listening to them. She was always well-read, intelligent and very interesting to talk to.
Since I have begun listening to the majority of my books (I do still read the odd paper version as well) on Audibles, my whole life has opened up as I go on all sorts of adventures. It feels like a hole I didn’t even know existed has been filled in.
At the weekend, I discovered I could listen to books on a quicker speed! This is an amazing feature because I naturally read fairly quickly and have found the normal speed sometimes frustrating to listen to.
I now listen to the books at 1.7 times the speed, which seems to be about my natural reading speed, although at bedtime I like a slightly slower speed of 1.5 times for relaxation purposes.
Apart from the fact it feels more natural for me to listen at this speed, it has the added advantage of decreasing the length of the books I am listening to. So a twelve hour book becomes about eight hours instead.
This means more books, people!!! (insert a groan from Gary as he considers the cost of these books😬). Oh. My. Goodness. It’s my newest hobby! I love, love, love reading and Audibles allows me to do it as much as I want without the headaches or eyestrain! ❤️.
And (yes, there’s more!) I get to listen as I clean and tidy, as I cook, as I bath, as I brush my teeth….well, you get the picture!
This is productivity at its absolute best!
I use an app called Libby (free through our local library) to listen to audiobooks and I too tend to listen at faster than normal speeds. Though I have found that it takes a bit of adjustment with some of the narrators since they can sound funny at too high of a speed.
I completely agree! I’ve just finished C S Lewis’ A Grief Observed and the narrator sounds like cartoon character sped up! However, I’m listening to Brideshead Revisited and the reader of this book sounds perfectly normal sped up, I think because he reads very slowly naturally.