Do you want to read and listen to a book at the same time? To tell the truth, reading and listening simultaneously can let us enjoy the book content with better reading experience. Besides, we can be much more concentrated when someone reads aloud the books for us. More than anything, it can help improve reading and listening skills, understanding, intonation and pronunciation, which is the biggest advantage especially for those who want to learn something through reading.
Method 1. Read and Listen to a Kindle eBook on Kindle App/Kindle Device
With Immersion Reading, you can read and listen to your Kindle books at the same time using the Kindle App for Android/iOS or some Kindle Fire tablets. Just buy the Kindle ebook, and check add Audible book to your purchase for just xxx to buy the audio companion. When you read your Kindle book, you'll see a play button. Tap it to hear the narration, then you will read and listen simultaneously with real-time highlighting in the text.
- Highly Related Topic: 4 Methods to Lisent to Kindle books--Turn Kindle ebook into Audiobook.
Notice:
1 There are over 700,000 (still growing) Kindle eBook titles that come with audiobook narrations. Or you can use the Audible Matchmaker on Amazon to search whether your owned ebook titles have an audio companion or not: https://www.amazon.com/gp/audible/matchmaker.
2 This method is available on Kindle App for Android/iOS, Fire HD 6 Tablet, Fire HD 7 Tablet, Kindle Fire HDX 8.9.
3 You have to buy both the ebook edition and the audiobook to read and listen at the same time with Immersion Reading.
Method 2. Read and Listen to Any eBook via Text to Speech
Another cool method to read and listen to a book at the same time is to take advantage of a Text to Speech app. Text to Speech (TTS) is a modern technology that can convert text to audio and read aloud the texts in any file.
Compared with Method 1 which only works for limited Kindle books, this method works for almost all of your ebooks from all sources. You can read and listen to any ebook in Text to Speech app since most Text to Speech apps support DRM-free EPUB, TXT, or PDF files.
There are lots of excellent Text to Speech apps in the market that you can download for free on your computer or smartphone. Here are some recommendations for your reference.
TTS App for Windows Natural Reader
TTS App for Mac Natural Reader
TTS App for Android @Voice Aloud Reader. (You can also explore more TTS apps for Android)
TTS App for iOS Voice Dream Reader
Notice:
1 Most Text to Speech apps only support reading and listening to DRM-free files. If you'd like to use a TTS app to listen to DRM-protected ebooks from Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Google Play or anywhere else, you have to do one more thing at first--remove eBook DRM. A highly-recommended tool that I want to share with you is Epubor Ultimate, the best eBook DRM Removal & eBook Converter, which can help you convert any DRM-free ebooks and DRM-protected Kindle/Kobo/Nook/Google Play ebooks to ePub/PDF/TXT format that's supported by any Text to Speech app.
2 With a TTS app, you don't bother to find or buy any audiobooks to match your ebooks, which saves a lot of time and money.
3 This method is available on any platforms of Windows/Mac computer and Android/iOS mobile devices.
FAQ: What's the difference between Text to Speech and audiobooks?Text to Speech technology sounds amazing. But before I try this method, I'd like to know if there is any difference between Text to Speech and audiobooks.
The difference mainly lies in the narration. Audiobooks are professionally narrated by authors, actors or famous public figures. However, Text to Speech is technology that reads aloud digital texts with a computer-generated voice, which are less emotional and immersive than audiobooks. With the development and enhancement of the technology, the voices created by Text to Speech tend to be more and more natural. And those TTS apps even allow you to choose the female or male sound as you like. So I believe that TTS could help you a lot in listening to ebooks.
Method 3. Find Audiobook Companion for a Physical Book/an eBook
The last method to be mentioned is to simply search an audiobook companion through the internet for your owned physical book/ebook. In this way, you can read a physical book/an ebook and at the same time listen to the audiobook with an audiobook player.
There are lots of online audiobook stores. But undoubtedly, the biggest name in the audiobook industry is Amazon Audible, which is the largest commercial audiobook provide around the world. Or of course, you can also find the free titles on some torrent sites for audiobooks.
1. Read and Listen to Physical Book at the Same Time
This method is particularly suitable for those who prefer physical books to ebooks or those who already own a physical book.
2. Read and Listen to eBook at the Same Time
Besides matching a phyisical book with an audiobook, you can also try to find an audiobook companion to an ebook. For example, you own some ebooks purchased from online ebook vendors like Amazon Kindle, Google Play etc, or some titles got from some free ebook download sites. Then you can search the internet for the audiobooks.
Notice:
1 By default, Audible audiobooks can only be played on limited devices since they are all DRM-protected. To unlock Audible audiobooks to play on any device or any MP3 player, you can convert Audible to MP3 with the best Audible DRM Removal & Audible to MP3 Converter--Epubor Audible Converter.
2 It might be a bit difficult to find an audiobook that perfectly matches your physical book or ebook due to different editions and publication times of the same book.
3 This method is universally available to all as long as an audiobook companion to the physical book/ebook can be found.
4 Once you have found the audiobook for your ebook, you can read your physical book (or read ebook with any ebook reader) and at the same time listen to its audiobook companion with any MP3 player device or MP3 player app (Audible audiobooks must be converted to MP3 at first).
Which is the Best Method to Read and Listen to a Book at the Same Time?
By analyzing all these 3 methods, it's hard to decide which is the best method. Instead, before choosing the method, you ought to know what you really need and what you own. Each method has its own pros/cons and requirements. You can pick up the one that suits you best.
Suggested Reading
Michelle loves technology & reading very much. She seeks the methods to enjoy eBooks and audiobooks more freely and wants to share everything new she has got with you.
