Last Saturday Thej told me that many people listen to audio books at 2x speed. I just could not believe him. 1x itself is difficult for me to understand. 2x? Noway.
[img_assist|nid=282|title=Transcend MP850|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=150|height=272]I started with 1.14x on Monday. I was pretty comfortable with the speed. Yesterday I tried 1.33x (the max speed in my Transcend MP850 music player), I could not miss a word. So this means 33% savings in time. I can now listen to 33% more books. Since the words are faster, my brain now concentrates better. Thanks a lot Thej, for this tip. 1.33x is an optimal speed. I doubt whether I can listen to audio books at 2x speed.
I listen to the courses from the teaching company. I don’t recommend people to listen to audio books when they drive in heavy traffic. Even listening to radio can be distracting, especially while changing channels. I keep a low profile on Bangalore’s roads and manage with listening to books on my way to office.
One of the key things in improving your listening capabilities in traffic is to [img_assist|nid=283|title=Creative EP630 Earphones|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=290|height=290]use ‘Noise Isolating earphones’, if not the costly ‘Noise cancelling earphones’. I use Creative EP630. Such earphones are crucial since as audio book listeners we have to focus on almost every spoken word.
‘Cycling + Audio books = New Sharada Prasad’. ‘Sharada Prasad’ is a variable and can be replaced by any other name – the equation would still hold true.