Reading, Fast and Slow.

(The value of double speed and the pleasure of a paperback in bed.)

Lee Child. Like or loath, he knows a thing or two about selling books. (I loved Persuader and The Midnight Line). One key aspect of his style is that he writes the slow bits fast and the fast bits slow. In other words, he flies through the stuff that can be flied through and he savours every morsal of the action.

This can apply equally to our reading habits. We don’t have enough hours in our lives to read all the great works out there. Hence why it is so advantageous to fly through the stuff that can be comprehended quickly and easily. And then slow down for the bits that need a little bit more brain power, or that we just want to savour.

I long resisted playing audiobooks and podcasts at double speed. I love being productive. But turning my favourite pastime into one more thing to be optimised for efficiency was just a bridge too far.

But after watching a great YouTube video by Ali Abdaal on the subject I thought I’d give it a serious go. So, for a week I played all my Audible and Podcasts at double speed.

It was fantastic. Take one example. I just started the 24 hour long recording of “Benjamin Franklin” by Walter Isaacson on Audible. It’s a great book. But the recording is slightly dated now. With the voice actor having a slow drawl. Added to that the dense historical fact. I started on 1x speed. I was struggling. I love Isaacson’s work and wanted to stick with it. So, I bumped the speed up to 2x. Its sounder so much better! It was actually easier to comprehend than at 1x speed. The slow bits moved fast. And the “fast” bits - it was the 1700’s after all - moved at just the right pace.

Try it. You may just love it.

For me there are 2 key benefits to using multiple speed setting on your audiobook or podcast app:

1. You will double the amount of content you consume.

2. In turn you will reach the truly amazing books in half the time it would normally have taken you.

Currently I have 250 books on my “Want to Read” list. Most are non-fiction. I just don’t seem to have the time to read all the books I want. This new method is a game changer. I may even try to bump the speed up to 2.5x or 3x!

That being said, I will still be snuggling up in bed tonight with a paperback novel. With fiction its 1x all the way. No matter how inefficient. I get so much joy and pleasure from that. Which trumps efficiency any day.

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