It takes longer to listen to a book than read it

[Davros]

I was reading a hefty tome for Book Club on my Kindle. However, I felt I wasn't making fast enough progress so switched to Audible. At the same chapter, the kindle says 51 minutes to go and Audible says 2 hours. I've got through more on Audible as I can listen in the car, when I'm tidying the kitchen etc but I'm surprised that there is such a difference. Has anyone else noticed this?

This is why I hate the trend for people producing videos as a way of sharing information. I don't want to watch a 3 minute video to receive the same information that I could read in about 20 seconds, the latter also having the advantage that it's written down so easier to refer back to.

100% agree with this. I also remember words I have read more than words I have heard.

Of course! I thought it was me just being impatient or old fashioned. It makes me mad when I look up how to do something and I get a bunch of youtube videos.
Granted, now and again they are useful, but mostly I would much rather read step by step instructions.

I always listen to the sample and I won't buy it if the voice is annoying.

Those who also act/present - Michael Palin, Stephen Fry, Natalie Haynes etc - can read their own work. The rest... I would agree, I prefer to have someone else.

Same here. I have BorrowBox which is free so I don't feel too bad about dumping a book part way through.

Some make my ears bleed!

I sometimes increase the speed a little. Hard to find decent audiobooks though as there are so many terrible narrators. How on earth they get the job I can't imagine.

No idea y u r shocked, its common sense.

Probably because it doesn't pay very well because any one book from a vast catalogue won't sell masses of copies

There's an MNer who produces audiobooks, maybe she will pop up on the thread

I am a very fast reader and I've noticed this too. I can read a book in half the time it takes to listen to it.

See this blog:

Are audiobooks faster than reading?
Audiobooks are slower than reading a book. The average speed of audiobook goes about 150 words to 160 words per minute while an average reader can read about 250 words to 300 words per minute.

https://challix.com/blogs/reading/are-audiobooks-faster-than-reading

And voice notes on whatsapp? WHY? I have to listen to 90 seconds, when you could write a short version in half that and it would take me half of that time again to read it.

aaargh, yes!! and I can read whilst other people are in the room, I'm on the train etc!

Speed listening changed my life! I am steaming through so many of the classics. It's not the same as deep, slow reading, but it's great for bluffing at dinner parties😁. I actually feel a bit guilty speeding my way through Thomas Hardy or Tolstoy, but the reality is life's just too short. If I had the time, I'd slowly savour and meditate on Proust or Anthony Powell. But life's too short and I'm too thick.

That said, I do think some authors were just made for audio. Henry James, Virginia Woolf and George Eliot, to take three random examples, require slow and careful reading. You miss too much when they're read out loud (plus it's hard to maintain concentration). You certainly couldn't listen to writers like, say, Walter Pater or John Ruskin on audio.

Others are perfect though. Evelyn Waugh is great on audiobook. So is Dickens. For me, heaven is laying in a hot bath listening to Stephen Fry read Sherlock Holmes or P. G. Wodehouse.

@Bjorkdidit This is why I hate the trend for people producing videos as a way of sharing information. I don't want to watch a 3 minute video to receive the same information that I could read in about 20 seconds, the latter also having the advantage that it's written down so easier to refer back to.
I totally agree with this.
There are some great audiobook narrators - Stephen Fry of course, I'm also a fan of Sherlock Holmes and PG Wodehouse read by him, Samuel West has done lots, David Rintoul, David Suchet and Hugh Fraser reading Agatha Christie. Rory Kinnear should be good but he chose a bizarre voice for a Woman copper in some Anthony Horowitz books and I can't listen to them because of it. Definitely check the sample and you can return them quite easily

This is why I don’t like audio books, I prefer to read at my own (fast) pace. It’s more frustrating for me than relaxing!

Don‘t get me started on instruction videos and voice notes. I detest voice notes and refuse to listen to them. Particularly annoying when I’m travelling, i don’t want to play them on the train or whatever, just send me the info to read!

I can't listen to audiobooks cause I get annoyed at it going too slowly! I can only listen to podcasts when I'm doing something else.

I remember being very impatient being read to as a child after the age of about eight or nine, because I could read the book to myself a lot more quickly than it was being read to me. I still feel bad about disappointing my dad by saying this!

I also detest voice notes...

I find Stephen Fry’s high-pitched, shrieky voices for women and girls, especially Hermione, in his Harry Potter narrations, pretty much unbearable.

@Silenus I agree, I don't listen to Harry Potter because the voices are too extreme