Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited service just got heaps better for lazy Aussie booklovers

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By Sharmishta Sarkar
published

Listen to your favourite Hollywood stars narrating your favourite classics

Amazon has given Australian book lovers something to be excited about.

The internet giant today announced that thousands of professionally narrated Audible audiobooks are now accessible to Aussie Kindle Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost.

The narrations include bestselling Audible titles like Mark Edward’s Follow You Home, Richard Adam’s Watership Down, Benjamin Law’s The Family Law and Robert Dugoni’s My Sister’s Grave.

The library also includes well-regarded classics read by big Hollywood stars, such as The Great Gatsby narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal, Pride and Prejudice with Rosamund Pike, David Copperfield with Richard Armitage, The Turn of the Screw with Emma Thompson and Jane Eyre narrated by Thandie Newton.

Other titles available include Because She Loves Me, The Butterfly Garden, No Coming Back, The Moonlit Garden, The Last Girl, Rough Riders and The Works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Regarding the new additions, Amazon’s David Naggar (Vice President, Kindle) said, “We think that Australian readers will love the convenience of switching from reading to listening on the go. Kindle Unlimited means that readers can access over one million books and thousands of audiobooks for less than the cost of a best-selling paperback.”

Listen to your favourite book

WhisperSync is perhaps one of Amazon’s best tools available for both Audible and Kindle. It allows readers to seamlessly switch between the ebook and audio versions of titles in their library without losing their place between them.

Audible integrated the WhisperSync for Voice feature in 2012 and, with access to millions of ebooks and thousands of their audio counterparts that are WhisperSync-for-Voice enabled, Kindle Unlimited customers can listen to a few chapters of a title on their morning ride to work, then pick up where they left off on the ebook version before bed.

Unlimited reading

Kindle Unlimited it available to Australian subscribers for $13.99 a month and is accessible on any Kindle device or the free Kindle reading app for smartphones and tablets.

If you aren’t a subscriber already, Amazon offers a 30-day free trial, giving Aussies the chance to sample Amazon’s wares before deciding if the Kindle library suits their reading needs or not.

Sharmishta Sarkar
Sharmishta Sarkar
Managing Editor (APAC)

Sharmishta is TechRadar's APAC Managing Editor and loves all things photography, something she discovered while chasing monkeys in the wilds of India (she studied to be a primatologist but has since left monkey business behind). While she's happiest with a camera in her hand, she's also an avid reader and has become a passionate proponent of ereaders, having appeared on Singaporean radio to talk about the convenience of these underrated devices. When she's not testing camera kits or the latest in e-paper tablets, she's discovering the joys and foibles of smart home gizmos. She's also the Australian Managing Editor of Digital Camera World and, if that wasn't enough, she contributes to T3 and Tom's Guide, while also working on two of Future's photography print magazines Down Under.