How I Read Over 100 Books a Year (Speechify)

In this video I explain exactly how and why I read about a book a day this year using Speechify - hope it helps x

To save you some time:
0:00 👋 Intro
0:52 🏁 How to Set it Up
1:44 🏃‍♂️ Speed Read
2:17 🐌 Shouldn't You Read Slowly and Enjoy Books?
3:23 😩 Surely You Just Forget Everything?
4:03 📚 Digital vs Physical Books
5:22 💰 How Speechify is so Much Cheaper
6:07 💷 Speechify vs Audible
7:07 🥰 Outro

[humanalltoohuman]

I read fast as well. I use audiobooks and I listen to them with 2x speed, while taking notes. No, I do not forget most of what I read. The reason is because of the notes. Listen fast, take notes, go through the notes when you finish, do a monologue where you explain what you wrote on your notebook and you should be fine. :)

[KoiAcademy]

the ability to highlight what you just heard is so underrated

[julianduqueg]

I've read 4 books since watching this video. I hadn't read a book in a while. Thanks!

[yosmuc]

What a great review! Thank you! Especially the part about Audible and the price and the fact that seeing the text in front of you while hearing it speaking enhances the understanding, and it is easier to take up notes. I wish Apple would buy them and integrate their technology as a standard in every device and platform. This is a true game-changer, especially for people with learning, reading, comprehension disabilities.

[forgoroe]

To people's question about "surely you just forget everything":

I remember that some of the best times of my life (times in which I also read the most, most regularly) were had when I would read consistently for its own sake. It would eventually bring me the highest amounts of confidence, creativity and flow I ever felt growing up and... I wasn't looking for any of those effects/outcomes either. Nor was I attempting to retain any particular piece of knowledge. Okok- except perhaps in some of my later teenage years cause, "Oooh fluency; oooh clear thinking; ooh quick witted (felt like I had a response for everything)", but all of that still had come only as a consequence of my interest in reading in the first place, and the sense of "peace" experienced after pushing myself to read a little more than I was comfortable with. It didn't follow from conscious attempts made to absorb any kind information or reaching any particular goal.

All in all, it was stemming from some kind of hunger for the words themselves and the wonder I felt in having it all appear easily in my mind's eye. And a feeling that "I got this" (understood it) and that what I read could almost always be connected to some parts of my life I either experienced or were at least somewhat parallel to them, no matter the genre.

And yet, somehow, without any goal in mind I got everything, and a little more, than I could have possibly gained from the activity had I had a specific rigid memorisation goal or whatever in mind while reading (I believe).

My point is: try reading for reading's sake from time to time. Rinse and repeat. Trust your mind and enjoy yourself. You'll be surprised

Aside:

There's a really good video that this "avid reader on video" up here published, which details pretty perfectly (imo) how to take notes/memorise what you read more effectively. If reading for reading's sake sounds too extreme, that is.

I forget what the video's name is... Pretty meta. But should be easy enough to find. Would recommend (am recommending it).

[Drivabletree]

You don’t listen to books at 900 words per minute, just tried it and it’s absolutely incomprehensible

[jennifer]

girl thank you, you inspire me to read books. God bless

[enessaidsezer]

this video really confirms the phrase : “there are no unique messages, only unique messengers” for me. i must’ve heard speechify being mentioned tens of times before, but this video was the one to resonate with me the most and i convinced myself to start using it. especially the comments on your mum’s comment. btw, as an econ student, i really wonder how many people ali abdaal will convince to start a youtube channel, and how this will impact the traffic per youtuber (supply goes up but demand stays the same). i guess i’ll worry about it AFTER i start my channel.. keep up the good work!

[ThadySenior]

Do you think listening to audiobooks so quickly has increased the speed at which you talk? Or did you always talk faster than concord?

[khanji]

No wonder I can’t catch up your speaking speed even 😄

[drivers]

I like to combine the audible narration and the kindle ebook. You can read, then switch to audio, or even do both at the same time (kindle or the kindle app will highlight the sentence while it’s being read and turn the page automatically). That helps me get through a book quickly because I can still listen when I’m busy. The physical kindle can also read just the ebook electronically out loud. Didn’t know about speechify. That’s cool especially since it would work for non-kindle stuff.

[sgchanda]

That point about forgetting is golden. Great review, thanks.

OMG! You changed my life!! Thank you!!

[brandonten-fah]

Some Audible books can have text on the screen but it would have to be a Whisper Sync enabled title. The drawbacks to this are (1) You have to buy both the kindle and audible versions so it can be quite costly and (2) not all titles are Whisper sync enabled (Harry Potter most notably comes to my mind). I do quite enjoy text and audio, it's quite relaxing but it looks like Speechify wins out for versatility and cost. Will definitely have to give it a try sometime!

[EB-pidt]

I tried the app and when I blasted through 3 books in 2 days (100k words) I was informed that I ran out of "HD words" I was so disgusted. It's a really sneaky way to hide the true pricing model so if you are planning on working through a lot of books watch out.

[FilmyReact]

I will always prefer to read slowly. I enjoy the journey of it rather than seeing The End.

[buddhabillybob]

I was a political philosophy major in college, and I read VERY slowly. It's a good habit for philosophical texts, but I am trying to retrain myself for other types of text. It's been a lifelong struggle for me. Thank you for this method: I shall try it.

[Rekonstructio]

I’m using Libby and I am reading a book a week, but if I really want to read a book a day, I think I can... but I have to work too! Since I gave up on Facebook and other useless apps, I have read over 20 books in the last 6-7 months. I read the first 4 books of Harry Potter and still going, read the books of Yuval Harari, Feynman, Napoleon Hill, Stephen Hawking etc... listening is the best way of reading now... I don’t remember who said this: “Culture is what’s left after you forget everything you ever read”.
Your speech speed is very good. I’m glad I discovered your channel 👍👍 You just one new subscriber 😊

[rerere]

I wish I could listen to quantum physics at 900 wpm. 😭

[itssuhaibalrumi]

In fact the iPhone has a feature in accessibility call spoken content . You can choose any sound, language, speed {0 to 2x} and highlight the sentence and the word is being pronounced. It’s quite similar to speechify