Advice about Reading and Listening

se1961 · 07-20-2019, 02:41 PM

Hi folks!

I'm hoping to gather some suggestions about how best to switch back and forth between ebooks and audiobooks.

I find that I really like the Kindle/Audible marriage, which lets me listen to a book in my car, and then continue reading it at night, when I get home. HOWEVER, I get most of my books from the library-- buying the ebook and the audiobook is not a feasible for me, financially, at least not on a regular basis. Also, it turns out to my delight that almost all the books I want are available in both formats from my library. The only trouble I am having is that finding my location is a little bit tricky. Sadly, most audiobooks don't give chapter marks.

I read about the new software that will create a sync map for you, but that's way more time than I want to spend on this. At the moment I'm thinking I will just have to set bookmarks in my car, and try to fast forward, to see if I can catch up by hunting.

Any simple, geeky suggestions that I'm missing here?

CRussel · 07-20-2019, 03:37 PM

I deal with this fairly regularly, for many of the same reasons. My solution has been to combine and convert the MP3 from the library into an M4B file with software that can recognize and create chapter marks based on the Overdrive chapters. Then read the audio book with something like Bound on iOS or Smart Audiobook Player on Android. Bound is free, Smart Audiobook Player has a limited but useful free version and a more full-featured paid version that I don't have access to because of the limitations of Amazon Fire devices.

There are certainly multiple software packages that will do the MP3 to M4B side, and I won't pretend to suggest one, except to say that using iTunes doesn't help. I personally use one that's no longer readily available or supported, but that works for me on a Windows machine.

When you're done, you can at least manually align yourself on a chapter boundary, and fast forward to the approximate place in the chapter. It works adequately for me, but not as well as full WhisperSync for Voice on Audible+Kindle.

se1961 · 07-20-2019, 10:01 PM

Thank you so much for this! Bound is not free for me, but I downloaded and paid for it (far less than an audiobook or even an ice-cream cone) and discovered that it somehow finds and creates chapter marks without my converting the MP3's. This is brilliant! and SO much better than iBooks, which never identifies chapters. Plus Bound connects with iCloud Drive, so I can just put my Overdrive audio books in folders in iCloud and download them to my phone when I am ready. Much less time consuming than the iTunes route, plus I get bookmarks and chapters.

I noticed that the Bound app had a few complaints in the reviews, people saying that not all parts had downloaded, and that did happen with the first book I tested-- all parts appeared to have downloaded, but only six parts got compiled into a book. So I went back to the cloud, individually selected each part, and clicked "add" again and somehow Bound recompiled the book, with all the parts, but didn't re-download anything. So perhaps one has to kick the tires to get it to work.

I'm so happy!!

CRussel · 07-21-2019, 12:56 AM

Excellent. Glad I could help! (And I love the Cloud feature -- it appears to work with just about any cloud, including mine - OneDrive. )

07-20-2019, 02:41 PM	#1
se1961 Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2016 Device: Paperwhite	Advice about Reading and Listening Hi folks! I'm hoping to gather some suggestions about how best to switch back and forth between ebooks and audiobooks. I find that I really like the Kindle/Audible marriage, which lets me listen to a book in my car, and then continue reading it at night, when I get home. HOWEVER, I get most of my books from the library-- buying the ebook and the audiobook is not a feasible for me, financially, at least not on a regular basis. Also, it turns out to my delight that almost all the books I want are available in both formats from my library. The only trouble I am having is that finding my location is a little bit tricky. Sadly, most audiobooks don't give chapter marks. I read about the new software that will create a sync map for you, but that's way more time than I want to spend on this. At the moment I'm thinking I will just have to set bookmarks in my car, and try to fast forward, to see if I can catch up by hunting. Any simple, geeky suggestions that I'm missing here?

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07-20-2019, 03:37 PM	#2
CRussel (he/him/his) Posts: 12,159 Karma: 79742714 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sunshine Coast, BC Device: Oasis (Gen3),Paperwhite (Gen10), Voyage, Paperwhite(orig), Fire HD 8	I deal with this fairly regularly, for many of the same reasons. My solution has been to combine and convert the MP3 from the library into an M4B file with software that can recognize and create chapter marks based on the Overdrive chapters. Then read the audio book with something like Bound on iOS or Smart Audiobook Player on Android. Bound is free, Smart Audiobook Player has a limited but useful free version and a more full-featured paid version that I don't have access to because of the limitations of Amazon Fire devices. There are certainly multiple software packages that will do the MP3 to M4B side, and I won't pretend to suggest one, except to say that using iTunes doesn't help. I personally use one that's no longer readily available or supported, but that works for me on a Windows machine. When you're done, you can at least manually align yourself on a chapter boundary, and fast forward to the approximate place in the chapter. It works adequately for me, but not as well as full WhisperSync for Voice on Audible+Kindle.

07-20-2019, 10:01 PM	#3
se1961 Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2016 Device: Paperwhite	Thank you so much for this! Bound is not free for me, but I downloaded and paid for it (far less than an audiobook or even an ice-cream cone) and discovered that it somehow finds and creates chapter marks without my converting the MP3's. This is brilliant! and SO much better than iBooks, which never identifies chapters. Plus Bound connects with iCloud Drive, so I can just put my Overdrive audio books in folders in iCloud and download them to my phone when I am ready. Much less time consuming than the iTunes route, plus I get bookmarks and chapters. I noticed that the Bound app had a few complaints in the reviews, people saying that not all parts had downloaded, and that did happen with the first book I tested-- all parts appeared to have downloaded, but only six parts got compiled into a book. So I went back to the cloud, individually selected each part, and clicked "add" again and somehow Bound recompiled the book, with all the parts, but didn't re-download anything. So perhaps one has to kick the tires to get it to work. I'm so happy!!

07-21-2019, 12:56 AM	#4
CRussel (he/him/his) Posts: 12,159 Karma: 79742714 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sunshine Coast, BC Device: Oasis (Gen3),Paperwhite (Gen10), Voyage, Paperwhite(orig), Fire HD 8	Excellent. Glad I could help! (And I love the Cloud feature -- it appears to work with just about any cloud, including mine - OneDrive. )