Time-starved S’poreans can read 1 book a week without actually reading anything

Because audiobooks can be voraciously consumed.

Belmont Lay | | Sponsored | April 04, 2020, 11:06 AM

Reading is good for you.

But having someone read a book to you, anytime anywhere?

That would probably be the next best thing.

And it is highly doable these days with audiobooks that can be retrieved from your phone that can be listened to on the go.

Attention-deficient adults can turn to audiobooks

In this day and age where attention is in short supply, and social media is addictive, the first casualty is reading.

But the economy of audiobooks is making literature highly accessible and cheap.

It is now feasible to access some 180,000 titles via an app on your phone -- such as Storytel -- with a click of a finger because everything has been reduced to ones and noughts

Here’s how the economy of audiobooks works out for the time-starved and frenetic amongst you, and how to fit them into one’s daily routine to consume up to four books a month.

Travelling

The average travelling time per journey in Singapore is approximately 30 to 40 minutes.

An hour or more is, therefore, spent on daily commutes.

If you were to listen to an audiobook with 100,000 words on normal speed, you can finish it in 10 to 11 hours.

But as with all forms of information processing, you can make your way through an audiobook in six hours by listening to it in 1.75 times to two times the regular speed -- without degrading your understanding of the content.

This strategy works especially well for non-fiction books while you’re holed up in your vehicle stuck in traffic or packed in a cabin with many other people who you are trying to shut out.

Getting acquainted with the material in double time is highly economical.

There is also always the option of rewinding and slowing things down if you want to process the same information slower.

Sometimes, the audiobooks are even narrated by the authors who wrote them, which means you literally can hear the voice of the writer, such as Barck Obama’s Dreams From My Father.

Recommended titles on Storytel:

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure by Tim Harford

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt

Eating alone

Why just nourish your body when you could, at the same time, nourish your mind?

There are tonnes of short books for people who want to get in some info without having to devote their existence to consuming a hefty 700-page tome.

For each 20-minute meal time, you can get smarter by indulging in areas of knowledge you wouldn’t even be inclined to find out or encounter in your day-to-day job.

Listening to an audiobook also does not put a premium on your eyes, as you can multi-task and do the eating part more deliberately.

Recommended titles on Storytel:

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life, and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga

Exercising

When you exercise, strange things happen to your body.

But largely it is either constantly trying to call it quits, or zoning out. A lot.

While watching TV is a good distraction and reading a real book is impossible when working out, listening to vivid stories on audiobooks is a good way to summon your emotional stamina as well.

Literature is littered with writers who are also runners. (Haruki Murakami comes to mind.)

Consuming the words on a page produces the same effect as letting your feet gobble up the running track.

If listening to audiobooks isn’t a nice tribute to the author-runner, then they are an excellent way of keeping time.

A 15-minute set allows a fiction story to trudge along while you try not to think too much of your laboured breathing and fire in your chest.

Recommended titles on Storytel:

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

99 Classic Horror Short Stories, Vol. 1

Keep Your Brain Alive: Neurobic Exercises to Help Prevent Memory Loss and Increase Mental Fitness by Manning Rubin, Lawrence Katz

Bedtime

There are two states people go into when it is time for bed.

They either sleep instantly, or become insomniacs.

As more research is finding out how artificial lighting from fluorescent glares to your mobile phone screens are affecting sleep patterns and chipping away at restfulness, the final step to getting some shut-eye is to lull yourself into deep sleep by activating your ears.

Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Audio Collection, Vol 1

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Be Calm by Jill P. Weber


Mothership readers can use this link (www.storytel.com/mothership) to get a 30-day Storytel free trial, where there are 180,000 titles available, and tonnes of audiobooks to stay entertained at home because you can’t really go out anyways.

This article was brought to you by Storytel.