Consuming Books with Kindle & Audible

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I have always read physical books 📚. But recently, I started exploring other forms like Kindle and Audible.

My previous experience

I have always loved reading books. Wherever I’d go, I would always carry a book with me in my backpack. Somehow, I love the feeling of holding a book in my hand, turning pages that give a sense of accomplishment, and the smell of paper coming from books (I enjoy the smell of old books even more than the one from a new book). In college, I did start reading PDF books that were provided by our profs but never enjoyed reading on a laptop. So, my reading experience for pleasure was limited to tangible books.

Jump to Kindle

COVID gave a lot of opportunities to start something new. Two years ago, I bought myself a Kindle. Prior to this, I had never experienced Kindle in hand though I had been using Kindle mobile app since 2014. Reading books on Kindle was a completely new experience and I liked this change. I was happy with the amount of space I was saving at my home; I no longer had to hoard books and find a space for them😃. And, because I have been trying to lead a minimalist lifestyle for quite some time, this move helped a lot in saving space. I took Kindle Unlimited subscription and started reading. Actually, I was not expecting to enjoy Kindle than physical books but I was wrong; Kindle turned out to be a wonderful experience.

A quote that I liked from a book

Pros of Kindle

1. It helps in sustaining a minimalist lifestyle🌱. One no longer has to hoard books or find a place to keep them. Growing up, I loved the idea of having my own library of books and showing others how much I read thus I liked purchasing books but for the past few years, I have been practising minimalism and Kindle helped in achieving it in one form.
2. Comfortable to read🧐. Kindle has its own light that helps in reading in dim light and its e-ink reader also doesn’t harm the eyes. There are a lot of paperback books that use a font size of less than 14pt which is very painful to read and focus on while Kindle, on the other hand, is completely accessible😃; the option to increase font size is just bang-on! The costlier Kindle model would also give you dark mode if that excites you.
3. The smaller form factor makes it easy to carry🎒. I have tried carrying it a few times in my bag and it works like wonder. Also, reading thick physical books is always a challenge; one has to hold those heavy books while reading. But, Kindle is extremely lightweight, easy to hold, and carry; one can hold Kindle in just one hand. I keep my Kindle on my bed and read books before going to sleep.
4. Variety to read📚. Tangible books make it slightly tougher to switch books. One has to bookmark an existing book, put it aside, open another book, and start reading. While on Kindle, one can hold thousands of books at a time. I hold a little more than 20 books in my Kindle right now. I don’t switch beyond 2 books at a time but it’s still a good-to-have feature especially if you are travelling.
5. The choice to read PDFs📄. Kindle makes it easy to consume PDFs. If you get PDFs from your college for studies, you can simply transfer them to your Kindle and start reading. And, if your PDFs are not in readable text format but a scanned image then I would recommend you to convert them using the Acrobat desktop app or mobile app.
6. Annotate, highlight, and take notes📝. I am highly grateful for this feature. While reading books, I love taking notes, I used to either carry an extra paper inside the book on which I would write summary and quotes or I would click photos while I would be travelling on Metro. But, ever since Kindle came in, I simply highlight the favourite sentences or quotes and those get saved separately. (If Kindle’s UX team is reading this then please improve the consumption of the notes.)

Cons of Kindle

1. Slightly higher initial investment cost💰. Kindle may not be affordable for everyone. Its base price is as costly as the cost of 10–12 books. So, if one thinks of it from a long term investment perspective, it is good but its one-time cost pushes many people away. For me, this was the friction 3–4 years ago but today, I find it as a great investment.
2. Micro-USB for charging🔌. Sadly most of the Kindles aren’t updated regularly and still possess the old micro-USB port to charge. This might not be a big problem because a Kindle needs to be charged once in approximately 2–3 weeks only but I still find it weird when I have to find the other cable than that of my phone.
3. Losing the sense of accomplishment🏁. When reading the physical books and turning pages, I enjoyed it when I was nearing the end of the book, especially those of the thicker ones. And, finishing the books would always give a sense of achievement and accomplishment. Although I have read more Kindle books than I would have read physical books in the same time frame, Kindle couldn’t replicate this experience of completion with their tiny progress bar at the bottom.

Jump to Audible

Along with Kindle, I started listening to audiobooks via the Audible app a year ago. My Amazon Prime subscription allowed me to try the app for 3 months before I made any purchase. And, this led me to listen to 4 different books. And, I am glad I tried it. While working on the project to improve audio experiences in the Gartner mobile app, the thought of trying the Audible app as a user came to my mind and it worked really well.

Pros of Audible

1. One doesn’t have to read but listen🙈👂. Haha! The primary advantage. This sounds and seems pretty weird for someone just starting. And, frankly, this was the primary reason I never tried Audible before. I couldn’t imagine consuming books by listening even though I listened to a lot of AIR FM Radio growing up in school. Anyway, coming to the advantage — It allows one to close the eyes, patiently listen to a real person narrating the book. To my surprise, I liked the experience.
2. This too supports a minimalist lifestyle🌱.
3. Audio controls⛭. Audible comes with multiple speed controls allowing one to vary the speed as desired. I usually prefer speeds above 1.3x for consuming AV content and this feature comes in handy.
4. Availability of podcasts and other audio series🎙️. If you like consuming podcasts, Audible does have some podcast series. I never listened to these though.

Cons of Audible

1. Costly💰. Oh! This is certainly a costlier investment than a Kindle. After my trial ended, I had purchased the subscription and I found it reasonable for a couple of months but after that, I didn’t find it worthy enough to retain. Now that I am working with Adobe, I can purchase the subscription and claim reimbursement under employee benefits but I am not so keen right now.
2. Variable audio quality🎤. Audible has books that are actually read by real people and not an AI text to speech converter. And, with this, I have found that some people’s voice doesn’t have that positive influence over reading as the voice of others. Primarily, for this reason, I am not keen on resubscribing. In Kindle, I can read books without any bias or without anyone’s personality affecting my books’ consumption. So, if you are not lucky, you might get a boring person reading the book to you.
3. Can’t change the voice🎤. Following up on the above point, because the books are recorded by humans, one doesn’t have an option to switch voice as we do have in AI text to speech converters.
4. Heavy on phone’s memory💾. Because Audible downloads the entire book and its files are heavy, it takes up a lot of space on the phone’s ROM. This might be a concern for some like it was for me a year ago when I had 64GB of ROM. 

Closing notes

I believe that doing this experiment of reading books on Kindle and listening to them on Audible helped me a lot in reviving my interest in reading. 

If you are going through a phase where you feel that you aren’t reading as much as you used to read, try changing the method of consuming knowledge, it could be video lectures or book summaries on YouTube too. Some YouTubers do a nice job in summarizing the books and articulating in an enjoyable manner. And, that should help you bring back to the track of reading more books. Or, if you are one of those who say ‘I don’t like reading books,’ then maybe try listening to them on Audible or watching their summaries on YouTube but do start consuming books because books really help us grow and understand the world better.

PS: If you wish to try an AI text to speech reader, here's a good product.

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Related article: Picking New Hobbies