I was presented with a challenge by a good friend of mine (shout out Taylor!) to see if one could purchase a book on Kindle and Audible, toggling between the two in your quest to finish a book. I’m here to tell you, the answer is yes! And here’s my case study.

Becoming by Michelle Obama

The February selection for book club was the one I chose to use in testing functionality across multiple platforms. This was aided by the fact that my sister (thanks, Christine) had already purchased the book on Kindle (and, as a result of our Kindle household, I also benefitted), so it did not bug me to be purchasing a book twice. (As you may have been able to tell from my previous blog posts on how to read good books while not breaking the bank, you might have noted that I try to be frugal with my book buying.) Also helping to sway me was the fact that Michelle herself narrates the audiobook. I love when authors do this; I think it makes the audiobook so authentic!

How it works

I started the book on my Kindle Fire. I was about to be in for a long drive, Philadelphia to D.C., or about 3 hours, so it seemed like the perfect time to test Taylor’s theory.

First awesome thing to note: You can’t purchase an audiobook through the app on the Kindle. You have to go to the web browser. It takes a bit of advanced planning to do so, in my opinion. So, go to the web browser, navigate to your book and select “add audible narration.”

After you’ve completed the purchase, you can download the book on your phone. For me, this was for the Audible app on my iPhone. Knowing I was already chapters into the book, I opened the book in the app, selected the “…” and saw where I had just dropped a bookmark on my Kindle. Once downloaded, I could click on “Go to bookmark” and Audible would pick up from there.

OK, so once I was no longer driving, I wanted to read Becoming via the Kindle. I selected the book from my home screen as I normally would, and on opening it, I was prompted with a pop up telling me that I had progressed beyond this point in the book, would I like to go there? I selected yes and it took me to the page in the book where I had left off via Audible. I was shocked to find out that there was very little wiggle room. I assumed I would have to go back or forward a page or two due to a margin of error, however that wasn’t the case!

After downloading the book and getting everything set up, I only needed to open the Audible app and be prompted by a similar pop up alerting me that I had read beyond that point in the book, would I like to jump to my most recent stopping point? Yes, I would, is the answer every time.

Give it a try!

Ultimately, I think this is a great way to complete a book, especially where the writer narrated it! In addition to the time that I spent listening to the book while driving, I also listened to it by asking Alexa to play Audible while I was cleaning my apartment. Another note: even adding this third device into the mix I was able to seamlessly read the book. Alexa picks up on where Audible left off.

Any way you choose to consume a book, I support you! Happy reading.