How Kindle Unlimited Changed My Life

Maybe that’s a little dramatic… but it did light a fire under my reader’s heart.

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A little background…

I have been reading and writing for as long as I can remember. When I was in second grade, I can vividly picture discovering the magic of the computer in the room. During free time, the teacher let me type and print a story. It was maybe two sentences per page at the bottom of each page with 3/4 of the space reserved for crayon drawings… something about magical foxes.

Then, of course, as a 90’s kid, I grew up reading things like Magic Treehouse, Animorphs, Harry Potter, etc. The earliest book I can remember taking home from the library and devouring was Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was not a huge book, but I feel like it was my first reading where something suffered and it stood out to me. Experiencing and recognizing empathy at that age was strange for me. It was something about the cats in the rain, losing their mom, etc, but I remember the feelings when I read it.

Scoot ahead in the timeline a bit from second grade to some time in middle school. My grandma bought me A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and whew that book. It pushed me into reading like nothing else. The story was the perfect mix—for my brain—of fantasy and reality. Victorian-era urban fantasy? Gaslamp fantasy before I even knew the word for it. That was the vibe. It may have been one of the bigger catalysts for my reading and writing journey. I had always been a fantasy oriented girl… playing dragons and faeries in the yard with my friends… but this book pushed me into the next version of myself.

In high school, my parents divorced. Escapism was real. In the midst of discovering myself, having boyfriends, learning to navigate split households, and all that fun stuff… I started to lose some of my reading bug. I did read, but I feel like at that time I was watching more movies come to life from the stories I once read. Harry Potter, Eragon, and when Avatar came out, that was a big one for me. Like my dreams of escaping to these fantasy worlds were displayed and made (pretend) reality. Growing up, I wanted nothing more than to slip through some portal and land in another world.

You’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with Kindle.

When I went to college, I stopped reading. I stopped! I can recall people asking me what I’d read lately and I said “Nothing! I spend all my time reading textbooks. I don’t have time for any fun reading.” And I was so sad about it. Crushed. That didn’t change, all through college, I think I maybe picked up one fun book.

Then I had kids. If you know, you know, they sucked the life out of me. Wouldn’t change it for the world, but I could not pick up a book. Not only that, but the grubby little cheetoh fingers left no room for paperbacks in my house. Every book would be destroyed, and even if they were safe on a shelf, I wouldn’t have been able to read them. Nothing frustrates me more than starting a book and having to stop and close it over and over again.

“But you have to read… you’re a reader… right?” I am! I do! One day about three years ago (that means my daughter was 4 and my son was 2) my friend started talking about their Kindle. I thought wow, if I could just set down a tablet and keep all my books digitally, I would read all the time. But I didn’t have a Kindle! We started talking about it, and that was when I learned, I could get the app on my phone.

When I tell you EVERYTHING CHANGED…

I could read again! I started the Kindle Unlimited trial and I devoured so many books. It ignited my love for reading again like a wildfire. I can’t tell you how many books I went through. I wish back then that I had understood the relationship between Kindle and Goodreads, because I missed the opportunity to track everything I read.

Don’t get me wrong, there is something special about having a physical copy in hand, collecting hardcovers and bookmarks. I still dream of having a beautifully stocked bookshelf, but for now, this is what I need. Access to books in this way has literally fed something in me that died. A huge piece of my heart that fuels my imagination broke away and withered when I stopped reading. This is also how I started writing again. It literally poured my passion for books back into my soul.

Any time someone is struggling to read, I ask if they have tried Kindle. Not because I’m a die-hard Amazon fan (I mean… I do keep the entire Prime business afloat with my purchases lol) but because it really is a game changer for on the go moms like me. I can read in the car, sitting next to the kids while they take a bath, waiting in line, the list goes on.

Kindle does have some features that make life so much easier too:

  • Dark Mode & Adjustable Brightness: Perfect for sneak-reading in bed when the house is finally quiet, without shining a giant spotlight or waking anyone up.

  • Whispersync Across Devices: I can read a few pages on my phone while waiting in the school pickup line, and my progress syncs seamlessly so I never lose my spot. It does the same for Audiobooks! They track progress between the two.

  • Instant Dictionary & Highlight Search: When I come across a word or character detail I want to remember, a quick tap lets me look it up without breaking my reading flow.

  • Customizable Fonts & Text Size: On days when my eyes are completely fried, being able to bump up the font size or switch to a cleaner typeface makes reading infinitely easier.

  • In-App Page Flip & Progress Tracking: Seeing the exact percentage left in a chapter (or time left in the book) helps me judge whether I can squeeze in "just one more chapter" before moving on to the next task.

What about Audiobooks?

Audiobooks don’t fit my brain. It doesn’t work that way. I have always had issues with parsing out audio, whether that’s kids talking over the tv and the cats are meowing, or listening to someone talking via audiobook or podcast while also processing internal thoughts…. my internal thoughts will always win. I can’t listen to two things at once, and my internal voice is LOUD.

I worked from home for five years, and just last year started working in a physical office again. I never had a commute or any kind of escape time to listen to things. (The story of work from home is a whole other post… I felt like a bird trapped in a cage. Wake up at home… work at home… evening at home… it never stopped.) Anyway, now that I commute 20 minutes to and from work, I do have a little capacity for audiobooks!

The first hardcover book I had in hand in 10 years was Brimstone, courtesy of my bestie for my birthday. When I was home, I read the physical copy, but when I was driving, I listened to it! That was my first time dipping my toes in audiobooks, and it works for commute. I actually started listening on Spotify, but then pivoted to an Audible trial when I published my book and wanted to listen to it. This was actually last November that I started that. The downside is that the drive home is one of the few times my husband and I can catch up without wrangling kids, so we spend most of the drive chatting rather than listening, but technically I could boot him off and listen any time I wanted. haha

So Kindle isn’t magic?

Nope! Not magic. Just a fantastic way to access ebooks. Of course, in a perfect world, I’d buy an ebook direct from an author. As an author myself, I understand the benefit better than anyone. The reason I actually like to publish on Kindle Unlimited is for access. It’s a way to get my book in the hands of so many. Not for sales. Just access. It’s no more complicated than that. But for me, as a reader, the only reason I could read again was ease of access. I can log in, tap a book, and start reading.

Moral of the story? Read however you can, whenever you can. Happy reading!