Time for some Real Talk: reading takes up a lot of time.
Seriously, even with my happy-go-lucky uni lifestyle I can hardly get in 1 hour of reading on my Kindle every day, meaning I usually only read around 4 books a year. This is despite the fact that, somehow, I find the time to listen to around 10 hours worth of podcasts every week.
But there’s a reason behind that divide: I listen to podcasts while doing other things (driving, walking etc).
Which is why Amazon’s cool Kindle/Audible feature, called Whispersync for Voice, sounds so cool. Basically, the new feature, which only just became available on Amazon Australia, lets you move between the Kindle and Audible versions of a book. So, say for example you buy that Hatching Twitter book (which you should) on your Kindle, but just haven’t found the time to read it. Now you could, for a little more cash, buy the Audible audiobook and listen to that. When you finally want to relax and read some more on your Kindle, your audiobook progress through the title will now match the page of your ebook. And it works both ways too, so if you’ve already read 50% of a book on your Kindle but are now going on a solo-cross-country roadtrip, then just plug it in, pay for the audiobook, and go. And some publishers even offer a discounted bundle price.
I’ll admit that it’s still an expensive proposition (buying both formats for Hatching Twitter, for example, costs $22), especially if you’re not subscribed to Audible’s premium Spotify-like service, but if you just haven’t got the time to read, or just want something to make your daily commute more bearable, it sounds like a pretty cool addition.
So far only around 25,000 titles support the feature, but, as with all new features, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that figure skyrocket. And if you want to see whether any books out of your library support Whispersync for Voice, Amazon has a handy tool here.