If it's a really good reader then the performance become a key part of the enjoyment, much like a great actor can really enhance the play or movie they're in.

If it's not a great or interesting performance then I just use the audiobook app to speed up the playback to the point where I find a good balance between speed and intelligibility.

Walking, riding, driving, working out, washing dishes, doing laundry - these are tasks not at all harmed by listening to something while you do them, and indeed people have so alleviated their monotony since the commercialization of radio.

A task like programming is something else entirely, in terms of cognitive complexity, and attempting to partake simultaneously of something that requires attention to follow means one or the other probably isn't going to get done very well.

In a more programmer related parlance, you can't perform the most rigorous part of driving concurrently with paying attention to an audiobook, but you -can- task switch pretty easily. The driving is pre-emptive.

Except for the fact that you're operating a two-ton death machine.

Walking is much more interesting.

Multi-tasking is a fallacy. It's not possible to do anything that requires a reasonable amount of concentration with mindfulness and quality if you're also trying to do something else at the same time. To try multi-task is to short change yourself of truly deep and engaging experiences.

http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/narrators/john-lee/

Listening to these audiobooks at anything other than 1x diminishes the result.

By the way, you can always listen to books while doing some simple chores like cleaning the house or walking the dog, right.