Filterworld

Filterworld eventually showed up on the New Books display in the lobby of the academic library where I work. I checked it out and skimmed pages I had already read in the Kindle sample. I considered whether to read this as a physical book or to buy the ebook. After all that, I listened to this book on Spotify.

During my on-again, off-again relationship with Audible, I discovered there were certain books (usually non-fiction) that my brain preferred to take in as audiobooks played at 1.5X to 2.0X speed. Chayka’s book fits the bill.

In November 2023, Spotify added “access to a catalog of more than 200,000 audiobook titles—including titles from all the Big Five publishers” for premium subscribers, such as me. Spotify offers authors a suite of tools for growing and expanding audiences similar to musicians, but their exact author royalty rate is hard to find online.

Instead of purchasing books with credits like Audible, Spotify gives users 15 hours of listening on any number of audiobooks each. Spotify users have the option to pay extra to “top off” hours, but 15 was enough for Filterworld’s 11 hour and 56 minute playtime. Now Spotify knows to recommend book titles similar to Filterworld to me.