I am more and more impressed by the capabilities of Amazon’s Alexa. Like most owners, I am willing to say that most of those capabilities go unused. I do the same things over and over. Like play music. I fail to take advantage of capabilities that make sense because I rely on existing habits.
Here is a capability I encourage book lovers to consider. I was aware that Alexa would read me my Kindle or Audible books.
- Alexa, play the book, [title] (Audible)
- Alexa, read me my Kindle book
The Audible books are the same recorded voice you would normally hear when listening to an Audible book. The Kindle narration is a computer voice but not that bad.
I use Kindle and Audible in different ways. I use Kindle when I want to read carefully – take notes and highlight. I listen to Audible about an hour before I go to sleep. So, the real benefit of Echo is for my Audible books.
I have avoided using Echo for book listening for one reason. I sometimes doze off and I did not want the recording to continue. With a device – usually my iPad – I could set a time limit to end a listening session. I have now discovered how to do the same thing with the Echo.
- Alexa, set sleep timer for xxx minutes
Works great