ARTICLE – I’ve been an avid reader since I was a little kid. I have fond memories of my mom dropping me and my sister at the library while she did the grocery shopping. We’d go home with a huge stack of books and read them all weekend. These days, I don’t read physical books as often as I read eBooks. I don’t usually sit down and read for hours on my phone, tablet, or Reader, but I’m more of an opportunistic reader.
What is an opportunistic reader? It’s someone who reads when they have a little downtime or in between times that they can fill with reading. Here are a few personal examples. I like to read when I’m waiting for my better half to finish getting ready to leave for work in the morning, and then later, I will read when I’m waiting for my tea to steep for breakfast. That gives me around 15-20 minutes of morning reading time.
Then I like to read again while waiting for Jeanne to get home from work in the evening. That gives me another 15 minutes. I don’t do this every day, but several times a week. If you do some math, you’ll figure out I’m only reading around 30 minutes a day. That means that it takes me a long time to get through a book. So I brainstormed ideas about adding more reading time to my day without cutting into my working time.
I didn’t come up with any good ideas until I was chatting with Judie Stanford of Geardiary a couple of weeks ago. I asked her if she’d read anything good lately, and she told me to check out T.S. Falk’s books. So I checked to see if Relic by T.S. Falk was on the free Libby app that uses your local library card, and the book wasn’t there. Then I looked at the Everand app (it used to be called Scribed), and the book wasn’t there either. I finally found it through Kindle Unlimited and even though I don’t subscribe, I decided to go for the deal that Amazon is offering, where you can get two months of Kindle Unlimited for just $4.99. After that, you can either cancel or continue the subscription for $11.99 a month. So I signed up, checked out Relic, and started reading.
But then, I stumbled upon the fact that Kindle and Audible can sync! What does that mean? If you happen to be an Amazon Kindle reader on your phone or a dedicated Kindle device and you’re also an Audible subscriber, many books are available in both ebook and audiobook formats. If you get both, you can read the ebook with the Kindle app and switch over to listening to the same book through the Audible app and the really awesome part is that it will automatically sync your spot when you switch back and forth between formats. So I signed up for 3 months of Audible for just .99 cents. Yes, I’m frugal.
Are there any special hoops that you need to jump through in order to activate the syncing feature between Kindle ebooks and Audible audiobooks? All you have to do is make sure that there is an Audible version of the Kindle eBook and check out both. Then in the Kindle app, go into the settings and make sure that you have Whispersync enabled and Auto-Download Audible Books enabled. And in the Audible app go into the player settings and make you have the Sync listening position enabled.
Then when you switch back and forth between Kindle and Audible, a popup will display on either device to let you know it is syncing. Awesome!
Now I can do my ebook reading in the morning and evening and ebook listening while I’m working out in the afternoon. It’s also awesome that the Audible app allows you to speed up the playback. I also speed up watching YouTube videos so I can listen (and watch) more content in less time. It’s my own personal little productivity hack 🙂
Forgive me if this is common knowledge, and I’m just late to the ebook/audiobook syncing party, but this is a game changer for people like me who love to read but don’t seem to prioritize it.
The only downside to Kindle Unlimited and Audible is the fact that they are paid/subscription apps. I already pay for Everand, so I’m hesitant to add yet another monthly subscription. Everand has ebooks and audiobooks, but there isn’t a syncing feature. I wish there were! The same goes for the Libby app, which also offers both formats but no syncing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that they will gain this feature, and until they do, I will enjoy time reading and listening through Kindle Unlimited and Audible. 🙂
