Can You Have Your Kindle Read To You? Yep, Here's How

As book lovers know, there's nothing worse than having to step away from your current read in the middle of the action. But sometimes, life calls, and you have to close the pages on your steamy romance or that addictive thriller readers are obsessing over. You need to go do some laundry, pick up your kids, or attend to any number of other daily responsibilities. In these frustrating, willpower-testing moments, wouldn't it be nice if your book could keep narrating itself while you multitask?

For Amazon customers, the brand has already offered one clever solution: WhisperSync allows Kindle users to switch between their e-book and the equivalent audiobook from Audible. But apart from occasional deals, this usually means buying two copies — one digital, one audio. If you'd rather not shell out for the same book twice, there's another, less advertised option: using text-to-voice features. Amazon devices like the Fire Tablet have built-in accessibility features for the visually impaired. In addition to being helpful for those who need such assistance, text-to-voice provides a free, audiobook-less way to have your e-book read itself to you.

Are these accessibility features of the same fluent, human-voice quality as getting an actual audiobook? Generally speaking, no. So if you're looking for a theatrical performance, you're better off turning to services like Audible after all. But if stilted speech doesn't bother you, text-to-voice features can be a useful and inclusive way to maximize your Kindle reading time and experience e-books in a new dimension.

Want to keep the adventure going? Kindle users who read their e-books on a Fire tablet running FireOS 5 or higher can benefit from a feature known as Text-to-Speech, which will read the text of your Kindle purchases aloud. Plus, it's relatively easy to use. If you want to give Text-to-Speech a try on your Fire tablet, here's how to turn it on.

First, open the book or document of your choice and navigate to the page where you'd like Text-to-Speech to begin its reading. Once there, tap the center of your screen to bring up the header menu, and either tap the "Aa" menu icon or the three vertical dots. Using the former, select "More," or for the latter, select "Additional Settings." Scroll to the "Text-to-Speech" option and move the toggle from "Off" to "On." Return to your e-book and tap the middle of the screen to bring up the progress bar at the bottom. Press play beside the progress bar, and voilà! Your tablet should begin reading the text aloud. You can also highlight a specific word or passage to be read if that's all you need.

This feature works on most Kindle content and even some personal documents. Not sure whether your next book is an eligible candidate? Just check its product page. Beneath the "Product Details" section that lists elements like the publisher and page count, you should see a note marking it as "Text-to-Speech: Enabled."

What if you're not using a Fire tablet? Are you out of luck? Happily, there is a similar equivalent for Amazon e-readers like the Kindle Paperwhite. This feature is called VoiceView — but since these Kindles don't have their own built-in speakers, using it will require an external sound device like a Bluetooth speaker or wireless headphones. Note: You'll need to have your Bluetooth setting turned on and your audio device registered on the Kindle before beginning.

To activate VoiceView, navigate to your Paperwhite's settings, then select the "Accessibility" menu. Tap the option for "VoiceView Screen Reader" and — ensuring that your desired speaker or headphones are turned on for pairing — shift the VoiceView toggle from "Off" to "On." A window may pop up to help you connect it to your Paperwhite. If the window doesn't appear, instead press "Bluetooth Devices" at the bottom of this menu to choose your audio device. From the VoiceView menu, you can also adjust details like volume and reading speed. After that, simply navigate to your e-book, where VoiceView will automatically begin reading aloud from the displayed page.

Right now, VoiceView can only read in English, and its cadence is robotic at best. As such, it's no replacement for well-acted audiobooks. But it is still a handy accessibility feature for vision-impaired readers, multitaskers, and anyone who wants to make the most of their Kindle libraries without repurchasing titles via Audible.

Even if you don't own an Amazon tablet or e-reader, many people still access their digital libraries on other devices through the Kindle app. This app doesn't have Text-to-Speech or VoiceView built in, but if you're using an Apple device like an iPhone or iPad, it turns out that there is a workaround already available in the operating system.

To get your Apple device to read aloud from the Kindle app, go to the device settings. Scroll down to select the "Accessibility" menu, and then tap on "Spoken Content." Here, you should see an option for "Speak Screen." Toggle this from "Off" to "On." On this same menu, you can also scroll down to change the default language — that's right, it can handle more than English! — and even change the voice that will read to you. There's also a convenient "Speaking Rate" slider that lets you change the reading speed along a scale from slow turtle to quick hare.

Once this is set up, open your Kindle app, choose a book, and navigate to the page you want to read. To activate Speak Screen, drag two fingers downward from the top of your screen. A pop-up should appear with reading controls and your selected voice will immediately begin orating the visible text. Like VoiceView, the voice options are fairly robotic, but Speak Screen is still a useful hack to get your Kindle app to read to you.