An easy audiobook hack that will have you reading more books than ever

If you want to squeeze more reading into your life – who doesn’t? – then audiobooks are the way to go.

Not only do audiobooks allow you to read while doing other daily activities like cleaning, cooking, and driving, but you can also speed them up to get the most out of your reading time.

While it’s certainly not for everyone, many people enjoy listening to audiobooks on 1.5x or 2x the normal speed. If you already enjoy listening to fast-paced talk shows or podcasts, you won’t have any trouble keeping up, and you’ll be surprised how quickly one book flies by.

Wondering how to do it? Read on for instructions.

How to speed up audiobooks on different platforms

Apple books

To speed up an audiobook on Apple Books:

• Play a book in the Apple Books app
• Tap the playback speed in the lower-left corner to change the speed

Audible

To speed up an audiobook on Audible:

• Tap on a title in the Audible app to play it
• Tap the 1.0x speed, then select the desired speed
• Note: you can’t adjust speed on audiobooks that have been synced via iTunes. However, you can work around it by listening on the Apple Music app.

Google Play

To speed up an audiobook on Google Play:

• Open the Google Play app and tap the audiobook you’d like to listen to in your library
• Tap the playback speed (set at 1x) to adjust it

Kobo

To speed up an audiobook on Kobo:

• Select the title you’d like to listen to in the Kobo app
• Tap 1.0x at the top of the screen to select your desired speed

Libby

To speed up an audiobook on Libby:

• Borrow an audiobook in the Libby app and download it
• Open the audiobook and click ‘play’
• Click on the clock in the upper-right corner to change the speed, or drag down on the icon to select a specific speed

Borrowbox

To speed up an audiobook on Borrowbox:

• Borrow a book, and download the entire book or select chapters
• Open the book to listen to it
• In the bottom-left corner, click on ‘1.0x speed’ to select different speed options

Slowing down audiobooks

Speeding up books is great, but what about when you want to slow down?

Whether you need to re-listen to a plot twist in your favourite fiction novel or scrawl down some notes from a self-help book, sometimes it’s necessary to slow down an audiobook to make sure you don’t miss anything.

To slow down an audiobook, follow the same steps listed above but select a slower speed rather than a faster one.

Ready to listen? Check out some of the best-selling audiobooks to get you started.