August 5, 2024
Hello and welcome!
Real Books is your accessible media service powered by RealSAM.
This user guide will help you to learn everything your new Real Books device can do! Select a topic to learn more:
This guide will teach you everything that Real Books can do; and how to speak to Real Books.
With Real Books you can listen to a collection of over 120000 books, available in the NLS Talking Book Collection.
To start the Real Books Skill on your Amazon Alexa Speaker, say, Alexa, open Real Books each time you want to use the service. If you have issues logging on, please advise your NLS Network Library.
To help you find the information you want, the user guide is organized into sections. Within those sections you will find topics referred to by Real Books as articles.
The Real Books user guide is available in different formats like, audio, web page, and PDF. Because there are so many formats; some of the commands you will learn for reading a book, do not work to read the audio version of the user guide. For example, the playback speed can not be changed; and you can not use the jump back or jump forward commands. You can play a section or article again, just say, repeat. You can select an article to play using the item number or title. You can say, next or go back to move between sections and articles.
To get started with browsing the available books, say Alexa, List books, or, if you want to listen to a specific book you can say something like Find books titled Little Women. It is also possible to search for books by author or by topic, to do this, you can say something like Find books by Stephen Fry or Find books about the moon.
Once you have selected a book, you will be able to say, jump forward or jump backward, to move between sections, and set the reading speed to your preference. You can learn more about these features and others by listening to the other sections of this user guide.
Additionally, if you have previously started reading a book using Real Books, once you have opened Real Books by saying Alexa, open Real Books, you can simply say play to resume listening to the last book you were reading. Real Books always remembers where you are up to in your books, and will continue reading from there, so you do not have to worry about remembering or skipping to where you left off.
While listening to a book, if you decide that you would like to restart and listen to the book from the beginning, you can say Alexa, stop, then say Alexa, restart book. Your speaker should then begin playing the book from the beginning.
To access Real Books on your speaker say: Alexa, open Real Books and follow the instruction on how to authenticate your account.
Real Books will welcome you to the service and inform you that the service is reserved to patrons of The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. You will then be advised of the two ways to authenticate your account.
The first option when prompted by Real Books is to say: Web. You will be provided a NLS webpage address and a code to enter.
The second option is to use voice only authentication. This option lets you say a numeric or alpha code directly to the speaker. Voice only authentication is a simple five step process.
Step 1
Tell Real Books your phone number associated with your NLS account, when prompted.
Step 2
Select how to receive your passcode. Real Books will tell you to say for text messages say: message; for email say: email and for a phone call, say phone.
Step 3
Obtain your one time numeric or alpha pass code from the method you have selected either by a phone call, text message or from an email.
Step 4
Open Real Books by saying: Alexa, open Real Books.
Step 5
Say the code when prompted by Real Books. You will now have authenticated your account!
Helpful Tips
Make sure to say your phone number one number at a time like 9, 8, 7, 5, 6.
If your mobile number is a non US phone start saying the phone number with plus, then the international code.
For support contact your local library, say to Real Books Find my Library in Washington. Make sure to replace Washington with your state.
If you selected a phone call and have missed the call, but have a voicemail system you will be left a voice message with your temporary phrase and code. If you do not have a voicemail system and miss the call you will need to open Real Books. To do this say: Alexa, open Real Books. Then say, restart.
There are six tutorials:
1. How to Interact with My Talking Books
2. Lists and How To Use Them
3. How to Search for a Book
4. How to Get Information about a Book
5. Navigating Within Books
6. Basic Parameters
To access a list of all the available tutorials. First say, Alexa, open Real Books. Then, say: Tutorials or Getting Started Tutorials.
To make a selection from the options say the tutorials number like, Number 1 or some words from the title like, How to Interact
Once a tutorial is selected it will play like an audiobook. This means you can pause, resume, rewind and fast forward.
To stop the tutorial, say, Alexa ,Pause.
To resume the tutorial after pausing say, Alexa , Continue.
To rewind the tutorial say, Alexa, jump back 10 seconds.
To fast forward the tutorial say, Alexa, jump forward 5 seconds.
Helpful Tip
You can say any length of time as long as it does not exceed the length of the tutorial.
To return to the list of tutorials, say, go back or tutorials.
IMPORTANT
Real Books will remember the last position the tutorial was playing from. This means that if you exit the tutorial to try a command, when you return the tutorial will play from your last position. If you want to play from the start of the tutorial, say: Alexa, pause, then say Alexa, where am I? to check your position in the audio. Next say Alexa, restart.
Preference Settings allow you to personalize your Real Books experience.
There are three preference settings categories. They are:
2. Search Results and Lists
3. General
To hear more about these categories, please listen to the next few articles.
2. Jump backward time
3. Audio Reading Speed
4. Sleep Timer
About Jump Forward Time:
While reading you can move forward by saying, Alexa, pause, and then saying, jump forward. When you say, jump forward, without giving an amount of time to jump by, your preferred jump forward time is applied. You can set this to any length of time. Just make sure that you say if it is in seconds, minutes, or hours.
About Jump Backward Time:
While reading you can move backward by saying, Alexa, pause, and then saying, jump back. When you say, jump back, without giving a time to jump by, your preferred jump backward time is applied.
About Audio Reading Speed:
Reading speed, also known as playback speed, controls how slow or fast audiobooks are read. This speed setting does not control the rate of speech for your speaker. You can choose from five settings:
2. Very slow
3. Normal
4. Fast
5. Very fast
6. Extremely fast
Important
Setting your preferred reading speed will only affect new books, not books that have already had a speed change. This means that if you have already started a book, and asked to adjust the reading speed by saying something like, Alexa, pause, and then, read faster. When you set your new preferred reading speed, the reading speed of that book will not be changed.
About the Sleep Timer:
Setting your preferred Sleep Timer allows you to use the command, Go to sleep as usual. This command will stop the audio you are listening to after the time you set, and save your current position in the audio.
2. List information
3. List sort order
4. Number of options in a list
About List Numbering:
When Real Books gives you a list, each option in the list will be given a list number. You can choose how your options are numbered, either, continuous, or, repeated. When lists are large, the list will be broken into groups. For example, in a list of 100 books, Real Books might give you groups of 10 at a time. If you choose continuous, the list numbers will run continuously, like one to one hundred. If you choose repeated, each new group will start from one.
About List Information:
List information describes the type of information that is given in a list, including the title, author, narrator, or series. You can choose your preferred combination of information. There are six combinations available. These are, with examples:
2. Title and Author: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling.
3. Title and Series: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, series, Harry Potter.
4. Title and Author and Series: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling, series, Harry Potter.
5. Title and Author and Narrator: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling, read by Jim Dale.
6. Title and Author and Narrator and Series: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling, read by Jim Dale, series, Harry Potter.
About List Sort Order:
Choose how your BARD Wishlist, Streaming History, and Bookshelves are organized, by selecting your preferred sort order. The options are:
2. By date of addition to the list, oldest first
3. Alphabetical by title
4. Reverse alphabetical by title
5. Alphabetical by authors last name
6. Reverse alphabetical by authors last name
Important
Real Books will remember any sort order used on a list. For example if you said, My wishlist, then said a sort command like, sort by title. The list will stay sorted by title, even if your preferred sort order is alphabetical by authors last name.
To return your list to your preferred sort order say, reset sort, or, reapply order. If you want to return to the default sort order, which is, by date of addition to the list, most recent first, say, no sort.
About Number of Options in a List:
When lists are large, the list will be broken into smaller groups. You can choose your preferred number of options between 3 and 15 to be given in a group. For example if you chose three and there are nine options available, the list would be broken into three groups of 3.
Please be aware that if a number of options is unable to be separated into equal groups, the remaining options will be listed together. For example if you chose five as your preference, and there are nine options, all nine options will be given at once.
Important
Tutorials, User Guide, and Content lists in audiobooks, will not use your preference for the number of options in a list.
About Experience Level:
Real Books has two experience levels: Beginner and Advanced. The beginner level will help you understand how to use the skill, by suggesting what you can do next, and giving you phrases to try. The advanced level expects that you understand how to use the skill, and provides less advice.
For example if you said an incomplete search, like, books by. On the Beginner level you would hear a response like:
To help me find the book you want, your question must start with books, and include the search field, like title, author, genre, or subject. Try Books titled The Lion King, or Books subject dogs.
On the Advanced level you would hear a response like:
I have not understood your search.
To open your Preference settings, say:
My Preferences
Then, select a preference category by saying the categorys number, or title, for example say:
Select 1, or, Book Reading.
After selecting a category, you will be asked if you want to review your current preferences.
Saying, Yes, will let you check all your current preferences, and choose which ones you want to change.
Saying, No, will skip checking your current preferences and go straight to editing, for this, Real Books will tell you about each setting in the category, and let you choose new preferences.
For both options you will need to answer questions. Real Books will provide advice on how to answer the question.
For example, if you chose to review the current categorys settings, by saying Yes:
You will hear a series of statements, like, The setting for book reading speed is, normal. Followed by the question, Ok or change?
If you want to keep your current preference say:
Okay.
To change your preference, for example, if you want to change the reading speed to, fast, say:
Change.
After reviewing your preferences for the selected category, you will be able to edit all the preferences that you asked to change. To do this Real Books will give you a short statement about the setting, and then ask a question to set your preference. These are the same statements and questions you would be asked if you chose to go straight to editing earlier by saying No. For example:
Reading speed, also known as playback speed controls how slow or fast audiobooks read. This speed setting does not control the rate of speech for your speaker. What reading speed do you want? Choose your answer. 1. extremely slow, 2. very slow, 3. slow, 4. normal, 5. fast, 6. very fast, 7. extremely fast, say a number or words from the options.
You can then say your preference, like:
Fast, or, Number 5.
After answering all the questions you will be asked if you want to review your answers, or, save your settings.
To review your preferences, after answering the questions, say:
Yes
To save your preferences without reviewing, say:
No
When using Real Books for the first time, all settings will be preset to the default preferences. The default preferences are:
2. Jump backward time: 5 seconds
3. Audio Reading Speed: Normal
4. Sleep Timer: 15 minutes
Search Results and Lists preferences:
2. List information: title and author
3. List sort order: by date of addition to the list, most recent first
4. Number of options in a list: 10
General Preferences:
Your preferences can always be returned to the default. You can return a whole category of settings to the default preferences, or, return a single setting to the default preference.
To return a category of settings to the default. Say, my preferences.
Then, select the category you want to change, for example say, Select 1, or, Book Reading.
After the category introduction has been read, say, Apply default. Real Books will confirm that your preferences have been saved. All preferences for that category will now be reset to the default.
To return a single setting to the default. Say, my preferences
Then, select the category you want to change, for example say, Select 1, or, Book Reading.
Now say, Yes, to review the individual settings in that category.
To keep your current preference, say, okay. To select the setting you want to return to the default, say, change.
After you have finished reviewing, Real Books will ask you a question about the setting you wanted to change. You can answer, Use Default, and Real Books will reset that setting to the default preference.
The List of Commands will help you learn how to talk to Real Books. Commands are words and phrases said to Real Books to complete tasks like finding a book to read. For some tasks there are different commands to achieve the same result. These commands are separated by the word, or. To help you find useful commands, the List of Commands has been organized into sections
To start the Real Books Skill on your Amazon Alexa, say, Alexa, open Real Books.
To start talking with Real Books.
First, say: Alexa, open Real Books.
Then say:
Options.
Real Books will then provide a list of commands to try, like List books.
To hear what Real Books said again, try these commands:
First, say: Alexa
Then, say:
Say that again
or
Repeat.
To pause an interaction, try these suspension phrases:
First, say: Alexa
Then, say:
Suspend
or
Later
or
Wait.
To resume from a suspended interaction, try these phrases:
Say:
Alexa, repeat.
To reset an interaction, and start a new conversation, try these phrases:
First, say: Alexa.
Then, say:
Clear dialog
or
Clear conversation.
or
Main Menu.
or
Start over.
or
Finish.
To confirm what type of list Real Books has just read.
First, say: Alexa.
Then, say:
What is being listed?
or
What is this?
To exit Real Books.
First, say: Alexa.
Then, say:
Cancel
or
Exit.
After exiting Real Books, you can resume your last activity. For example returning to your last book search or if you were reading the last position in a book.
First, say: Alexa, open Real Books.
Then say:
Continue
or
Resume
IMPORTANT
To resume your previous activity the commands continue or resume must be the first command you say.
To access the audio user guide.
First, say:
Alexa, open Real Books.
Then, say:
User Guide.
To access the Getting Started Tutorials.
Alexa, open Real Books.
Then, say:
Tutorials
or
Getting Started tutorials
or
Start tutorials
or
What do you have about tutorials.
Alexa, open Real Books.
Then, after searching for a book say :
Options
or
Help with finding a book
or
Help reading a book
or
Help with something else.
To provide feedback, and help improve Real Books. First, say:
Alexa, open Real Books.
Then, say:
Feedback.
Follow the prompts to provide feedback.
To open the book collection, try these phrases:
First, say: Alexa
Then, say:
List books
or
Read Books.
To find out which books are popular.
First, say: Alexa
Then, say:
List Popular books
or
Read popular books.
To find the books that have recently been added to the collection.
First, say: Alexa
Then, say:
List recently added books
or
Recently added books.
Helpful Tip
Say, Options, while browsing the book collection and you will be given a list of more commands to try.
To browse the book collection, try these phrases:
First, say: Alexa , Read Books.
Real Books will then list available books from the collection. To make selecting a book easier Real Books breaks the book list in to groups of options.
To move to the next group of options.
Say: Next
or
Forward.
To move back by one group of items.
Say: Back
or
Go Back.
Helpful Tip.
If you have not moved forward in the list, saying back will take you back to the task you were last doing.
To move forward by a specified number of items in the list, try something like:
Say: Jump forward 20.
To move backward by a specified number of items in the list, say something like:
Jump back 15.
Helpful Tip.
You can say any number of items, but it must be smaller than the total number of books listed. For example if Real Books said, listing first 5 of 35; you can only jump forward by 30 or any number smaller than 30.
To search the results for an item that contains a specific word.
Say a command that includes the word Next containing, like:
Next containing Adventure.
The command next containing, followed by a key word like adventure can be used to refine your search results. The book list will be updated to include the next book or books with the word adventure in the title. Please be aware that your previous search phrase will limit the search result to the next 200 items and may result in no books being found with that key word.
To search the list for an item that starts with a specific letter.
Say a command that includes the phrase Next starting with, like:
Next starting with B.
Real Books will find the next item in the list starting with the letter B, within the next 200 items. To provide relevant results Real Books refines the initial search list up to 200 items. Please be aware that when searching by, Next starting, the results exclude words like, The, or A . So if you said, Next starting with T, books starting with The, will not be included.
Helpful Tip
If you want to hear your choices again say, Repeat or Say that again.
To search for a book, first open Real Books.
To open Real Books say:
Alexa, open Real Books.
To search by topic use the word, about in your command, like:
Find books about gardening.
or
List books about cooking.
or
Read books about love.
To search by title use the word, title in your command, like:
Read books titled Alice in Wonderland.
or
Find books titled Beloved.
or
Books titled Hidden Valley Road.
Read a book by author Harper Lee.
or
Search for books by Maya Angelou.
List books narrated by Dawn Ursula.
or
Find books read by Bruce Nelson.
To search by genre, use the phrase, of genre, in your question, like:
Search for books of genre history
or
Find books of genre fiction
or
List books of genre non fiction.
List books whose identifier is D B 6 4 2 2 7
or
Read books with code D B 2 3 5 6 8
or
Search by number 9 2 2 4 5
or
Find books whose code is D B 1 0 9 7 5 8
Please be aware, if only the numbers are said, and the letters are excluded the results will be refined to include all books that match that number. For example if you said: List books with code 1 1 5 9 3. You will be given results for books BD 1 1 5 9 3 and DBC 1 1 5 9 3.
To search for a book by classification, use the phrase, classified as, in your question, like:
Find books classified as non fiction.
Find books annotated as thrillers
or
Read books annotated as romance.
To refine your initial book search you can use the word, and in your question; after your initial search, like this:
First, say: Search for books about gardening.
Then, say:
And about trees
or
And genre non fiction.
To search for books using two key terms like a subject and author or genre and topic, try these phrases:
Search for books about French Cooking by Julia Child
or
Books about the Watergate by Bob Woodward
or
List non fiction books about Mars
or
Read books about Asia of genre historical fiction.
Helpful Tip
Spell difficult words, to improve your search results. For example you can say, Books by Tolkien spelled T. O. L. K. I. E. N.
or
Book title spelled N. I. N. E. period, author spelled M. O. R. I. A. R. T. Y.
To filter out your Streaming History, BARD Wishlist or Bookshelves from search results:
First, search for books by saying something like Find books about history.
Then, to filter out books present in your Streaming History from the search results.
Say:
Filter out my Streaming History.
Or, to filter out books present in your BARD Wishlist from the search results.
Say:
Filter out my wishlist.
Or, to filter out books present in your bookshelves.
Say:
Filter out my bookshelf.
To help make choosing a book from your search results easier, Real Books organizes result in to groups of five items. When your search results have more than five items you can try the following commands to move through the list.
First, say a search command, like: Find books about vacations.
To move to the next group of items, when there are more than five items.
Say: Next.
To move back by one group of items; when there are more than five items and you have previously said next.
Say: Back
or
Go Back.
Helpful Tip.
If you have not moved forward in the list, saying back will take you back to the task you were last doing.
To move forward by a specified number of items in the list, try something like:
Say: Jump forward 20.
To move backward by a specified number of items in the list, say something like:
Jump back 15.
Helpful Tip.
You can say any number of items, but it must be smaller than the total number of books listed. For example if Real Books said, listing first 5 of 35; you can only jump forward by 30 or any number smaller than 30.
To search the results for an item that contains a specific word.
Say a command that includes the word Next containing, like:
Next containing Adventure.
The command next containing, followed by a key word like adventure can be used to refine your search results. The book list will be updated to include the next book or books with the word adventure in the title. Please be aware that your previous search phrase will limit the search result to the next 200 items and may result in no books being found with that key word.
To search the list for an item that starts with a specific letter.
Say a command that includes the phrase Next starting with, like:
Next starting with B.
Real Books will find the next item in the list starting with the letter B, within the next 200 items. To provide relevant results Real Books refines the initial search list up to 200 items. Please be aware that when searching by, Next starting, the results exclude words like, The, or A . So if you said, Next starting with T, books starting with The, will not be included.
Helpful Tip
If you want to hear your choices again say, Repeat or Say that again.
To select a book try these phrases:
First, say:
Alexa
Then, say:
Find books.
All available books will be listed.
Helpful Tip.
Check out the Book Search or Book Collection commands for other ways to list books.
To select an item using the item number.
Say:
Number 1
or
Number 5
or
The last one.
or
If your list numbering preference is set to continuous, you can select any number previously listed. For example, if you are currently up to book number 30, you can say, Number 12.
To select an item using the title, say any of the titles that were listed, like:
Little Women
or
Daylight.
To play a book from a list using the item number, try these phrases:
Play number 4.
or
Read number 3.
or
If your list numbering preference is set to continuous, you can play any book previously listed. For example, if you are currently up to book number 30, you can say, Play number 12.
To play a book from a list using the book title, you would say a phrase like this:
Play Romeo and Juliet.
or
Read Hamilton.
To find more information about a particular book try these phrases:
First, select a book.
Then, say:
Describe
or
Details.
Real Books will describe the selected books title, author, narrator, the length of the audio in hours and minutes, the audio book identifier number, annotation and genre. If the book is part of a series that information will also be provided.
To read the books annotation
First, select a book.
Then, say:
Summary
or
Annotation.
Saying summary or annotation, will read the books annotation.
To find out how the book has been structured, and the number of Navigation Levels.
First select and play a book.
Then say: Structure.
Real Books will provide the structure, including the number of levels for navigation. For example a book structured with sections, parts and chapters, would have three levels of navigation.
To find out how the books contents are organized.
First, select and play a book.
Then, say:
Table of Contents.
or
List Contents.
To navigate the table of contents try these phrases:
First, say:
List Contents. Then, say:
Next.
To move to the next item in the contents list
Say:
Back
or
Go Back.
To move to the previous items listed in the contents.
While reading a book you can pause your current position and find out the next or previous chapters, sections or parts.
To hear the previous contents from your current position in the book. First, say:
Alexa , pause.
Then, say:
List Previous
To hear the remaining contents from your current position in the book. First, say:
Alexa, pause.
Then, say: List Next
Helpful Tip
If you want to hear your options again say, Repeat or Say that again.
To play from a particular part of your book.
First, select a book.
Then, start playing the book, by saying, play.
Next, find your current position.
Say:
Alexa, pause.
Then, say:
Where am I?
Now, try these phrases:
Go to Chapter 1.
or
Move to Part 2.
or
Go to beginning of book.
or
Move to the Conclusion.
or
Next chapter.
or
Previous article.
or
Restart the book.
Helpful Tip
The structure of the book determines how you can move. For example if there are chapters, using the word chapter to move will work, like next chapter. To find out how your book is structured say, List Contents or Structure.
To find out how much of a book you have read, and your position, try these phrases:
First, say:
Alexa, stop.
Now say:
Where am I?
or
Position?
To check the title and position of the last book you were reading.
First, say:
Alexa
Then, say: Most recent stream or Most recent book.
To play the book, say:
Play.
Before saying any navigation command, first say: Alexa, Pause.
To move forward in a book try these phrases.
Say:
Jump forward 30 seconds.
or
Skip forward 5 minutes.
or
Jump forward 2 hours.
or
Advance 1 hour.
To move backward in a book try these phrases.
Say:
Jump back 10 seconds
or
Skip back 20 minutes
or
Jump back 3 hours
or
Rewind 2 hours.
Helpful Tip
You can say any time in seconds, minutes or hours. Real Books may be confused if you combine seconds with minutes or minutes with hours. It is best to say 90 seconds, instead of one minute and 30 seconds.
To pause the book you are listening to.
Say:
Alexa, Stop
or
Alexa, Pause
Helpful Tip
In some instances the command Alexa, Stop will cause the speaker to close Real Books. If you find this happens with your speaker we recommend using Alexa, Pause instead. To close the book, and exit Real Books.
Say: Alexa, cancel
or Alexa, exit.
Helpful Tip
If you want to return Real Books
Say, Alexa, open Real Books.
After you have paused or stopped a book, try these phrases to resume the book.
Alexa, Resume reading
or
Alexa, Continue
or
Alexa, Resume my last book
or
Alexa, Return to book.
To create a bookmark first say, Alexa, pause, then try these phrases:
Create bookmark
or
Create bookmark, interesting point. Helpful Tip. You can create as many bookmarks as you like. You can give your bookmarks labels like "interesting point" or "great quote".
To list your bookmarks.
First, open the book you created the bookmark in.
Then, say:
Alexa, pause
List bookmarks.
To change the playback speed, while reading a book.
First, say:
Alexa, stop.
Next, try these phrases:
Set playback speed to extremely fast.
or
Play fast.
or
Play faster.
or
Play normally.
or
Play slower.
To change the playback volume of a specific book, while reading it, say:
Alexa, stop.
Then, try these phrases:
Increase playback volume
Decrease playback volume
Minimum playback volume
Maximum playback volume
Normal playback volume
Or, if you want to set the playback volume by level, between 0 and 10, try:
Set playback volume to 7 or Set playback volume to 1
Otherwise, if you want to set the playback volume by percentage, between 0 and 400 percent, try:
Set playback volume to 200 percent or Set playback volume to 400 percent
To access your Streaming History.
First, open Real Books by saying:
Alexa, open Real Books
Then, say: Streaming History.
or
My Streaming History.
or
My history.
or
List Streaming History.
or
My streams.
or
List my history.
To open your BARD Wishlist.
First, open Real Books by saying:
Alexa, open Real Books
Then, say: BARD Wishlist.
or
My BARD Wishlist.
or
Go to my BARD Wishlist.
To refresh your BARD Wishlist, after Real Books has said your BARD Wishlist is downloading.
Say: Alexa, refresh wishlist.
To add a book to your BARD Wishlist from search results or after selecting a book try these phrases:
Add number 1 to my BARD Wishlist.
or
Add to my BARD Wishlist.
or
Add Hamlet to my BARD Wishlist.
After adding a book to your BARD Wishlist from a search result, you can:
Say list again if you would like to hear the group of items again
Or
Say next to move onto the next group of items in the list.
Helpful Tip
The phrase Add to my BARD wishlist, works best when you have already selected a book, or are playing a book.
If you are selecting from a list use the title or item number of the book you want to add for example Add The Great Gatsby to my BARD Wishlist, or Add number 5 to my BARD Wishlist.
To access your bookshelves. First, open Real Books by saying:
Alexa, open Real Books
Then, to open your default Bookshelf, say:
Bookshelf.
or
My Bookshelf, default bookshelf.
or
Go to my Bookshelf.
or
List books in my bookshelf.
To create a custom bookshelf say, Create bookshelf, followed by the bookshelf name of your choice like:
Create bookshelf, College
or
Create bookshelf, Historical Fiction
or
Create bookshelf, Stories for Children.
To open a custom Bookshelf, try these phrases:
List bookshelf Science
or
My bookshelf Cooking
or
List books in my bookshelf Science.
To add a book to your default or custom bookshelves, try phrases like:
Add number 1 to my bookshelf.
or
Add to my bookshelf science.
or
Add Hamlet to my bookshelf college.
After adding an item from a search result to one of your bookshelves, you can:
Say list again if you would like to hear the group of items again
Or
Say next to move onto the next group of items in the list.
Helpful Tip
If you do not have a Science or Cooking bookshelf the phrases are not expected to work.
If you have previously created a custom bookshelf; but can not remember what you named it.
Say: List Bookshelves.
Real Books will now list all your bookshelves.
To add multiple books to your BARD Wishlist or Bookshelves.
Navigate to a list of books. This could be your Streaming History or a book search like Find books about history.
To add the current group of results to your BARD Wishlist or Bookshelves.
Say:
Add this group to my bookshelf or Add this group to my wishlist or Add this group to my bookshelf followed by your custom bookshelf name.
To add all items in the entire list to your BARD Wishlist or Bookshelves.
Say:
Add all to my bookshelf or Add everything to my wishlist or Add all of them to my bookshelf followed by your custom bookshelf name.
Once you have done this large addition of books to you wishlist or bookshelf, you can then:
Say List again, to hear the current group of items again.
Or
Say Next, to hear the next group of items in the list.
Note: only 400 books can be added at one time using this command. If a list contains more than 400 items, the first 400 will be added.
To sort the books listed in your Streaming History, Bookshelves or BARD Wishlist.
First, open your Streaming History, Bookshelf or BARD Wishlist.
To sort books by the authors surname alphabetically from A to Z.
Say:
Sort by author.
To reverse the book list sort order by the authors surname alphabetically from Z to A.
Say:
Reverse by author.
To sort books by title, alphabetically from A to Z.
Say:
Sort by title.
To sort books by title, alphabetically from Z to A.
Say:
Down by title.
To sort books by the date the book was added to your Streaming History, BARD Wishlist and Bookshelves.
Say:
Sort by most recent
or
Sort by most recent first
or
Sort by latest first
or
Sort by oldest
or
Sort by oldest first
To find out how a list has been sorted.
Say: Sort order?
or
What order?
or
Current order?
To return to the default sort order, which is listing the most recently read or added book first.
Say:
No sort
To delete books from your Streaming History, BARD Wishlist or Bookshelves.
First, open your Streaming History, BARD Wishlist or Bookshelf.
Then, to delete a single item from the list use the word Delete or Remove, followed by the item number or title, like:
Say: Delete number 5
or
Say: Remove Alice in Wonderland.
To delete a group of items from a specified point on your list, use the phrase Delete all from, followed by the item number or title, like:
Delete all from 3.
or
Delete all from Beloved.
The phrase delete all from, will delete all the books listed after the item number or title you say.
To delete everything from your book list.
Say: Delete all.
or
Delete everything.
Another way to delete a group of items is to first refine your list using a criteria like author, narrator, title, subject, genre, and book series.
Genre romance
or
Subject dogs
If your refined list has captured the books you are happy to delete you can now say:
Delete all.
or
Delete everything.
Helpful Tip
Importantly, the books you delete will only be removed from your personal list. The books will still be available from the library, so if you make a mistake do not worry! You will be able to find the book again.
To navigate through your Streaming History, BARD Wishlist or Bookshelf.
First, open a book list.
For Streaming History, say:
Streaming History.
For BARD Wishlist say:
My BARD Wishlist.
For your Bookshelf say:
List Bookshelves. And select your desired bookshelf.
Then, to move to the next group of items, when there are more than five items.
Say: Next.
To move back by one group of items; when there are more than five items and you have previously said next.
Say: Back
or
Go Back.
Helpful Tip.
If you have not moved forward in the list, saying back will take you back to the task you were last doing.
To move forward by a specified number of items in the list, try something like:
Say: Jump forward 20.
To move backward by a specified number of items in the list, say something like:
Jump back 15.
Helpful Tip.
You can say any number of items, but it must be smaller than the total number of books listed. For example if Real Books said, listing first 5 of 35; you can only jump forward by 30 or any number smaller than 30.
To search the results for an item that contains a specific word.
Say a command that includes the word Next containing, like:
Next containing Adventure.
The command next containing, followed by a key word like adventure can be used to refine your search results. The book list will be updated to include the next book or books with the word adventure in the title. Please be aware that your previous search phrase will limit the search result to the next 200 items and may result in no books being found with that key word.
To search the list for an item that starts with a specific letter.
Say a command that includes the phrase Next starting with, like:
Next starting with B.
Real Books will find the next item in the list starting with the letter B, within the next 200 items. To provide relevant results Real Books refines the initial search list up to 200 items. Please be aware that when searching by, Next starting, the results exclude words like, The, or A . So if you said, Next starting with T, books starting with The, will not be included.
Helpful Tip
If you want to hear your choices again say, Repeat or Say that again.
First, open the book list you want.
For Streaming History say:
Streaming History.
For BARD Wishlist say:
My BARD Wishlist.
For your Bookshelf say:
List bookshelves. And select your desired bookshelf. m4_parai Then, to select an item using the item number.
Say:
Number 1
or
Number 5
or
The first one
or
The last one
or
If your list numbering preference is set to continuous, you can select any number previously listed. For example, if you are currently up to book number 30, you can still select Number 12.
To select an item using the title, say any of the titles that were listed, like:
Little Women
or
Daylight.
To play a book from your Streaming History, BARD Wishlist or Bookshelf.
First, open the book list you want.
For Streaming History say:
Streaming History.
For BARD Wishlist say:
My BARD Wishlist.
For your Bookshelf say:
List bookshelves. And select your desired bookshelf.
Next, to play a book from your Streaming History, BARD Wishlist or Bookshelf using the item number.
Say:
Play number 4.
or
Read number 3.
or
If your list numbering preference is set to continuous, you can select any number previously listed. For example, if you are currently up to book number 30, you can say Play 12.
To play a book from your Streaming History, BARD Wishlist or Bookshelf using the book title. Say a phrase like:
Play Romeo and Juliet.
or
Read Hamilton.
To confirm what type of list Real Books has just read.
First, say: Alexa.
Then, say:
What is being listed?
or
What is this?
Sleep timers can only be set up while reading a book.
To set a sleep timer by a length of time.
First, say:
Alexa, pause
Then, say:
Alexa, Go to sleep in five minutes
or
Alexa, Go the sleep in two hours
To set a sleep timer by a position within a book. First, say:
Alexa, pause
Then, say:
Alexa, structure. To find out how the book is organized for instance in chapters or parts.
Now, you can use the name of a part or section like chapters to set the sleep timer.
Say: Alexa, Go to sleep at the end of the chapter.
or
Say: Alexa, Go to sleep at the beginning of the next part.
To cancel a sleep timer.
First, say:
Alexa, pause Then, say:
Alexa, position
Next, say: Alexa, cancel timer.
To delete the timer say, yes. To keep the timer say, no.
Preference Settings allow you to personalize your My Talking Books experience, by answering questions.
To open your Preference Settings.
First, say:
Alexa
Then, say:
Preferences or My Preferences.
Then select a category using the options number or setting name, try:
1 or Book Reading
Now, you will be asked if you want to review the current settings or edit the settings. You will then be asked some questions to help you personalize your My Talking Books experience.
The following commands can be used to directly change a Preference Settings.
To set a default jump forward or back time, to move through audio say:
Set default jump forward to 5 minutes
or
Set default jump backward to 1 minute.
To find out the default time to move through audio, say:
Tell me the default jump backward time.
or
What is my default jump time?
or
Say my default jump time.
To move forward or backward through audio using the default jump times, try:
Forward.
or
Jump forward.
or
Move forward.
or
Backward.
or
Jump backward.
or
Move backward.
Helpful Tip
You can say any time in seconds, minutes or hours. Real Books may be confused if you combine seconds with minutes or minutes with hours. It is best to say 90 seconds, instead of one minute and 30 seconds.
Set playback speed to extremely fast
or
Set global speed to very fast
or
Set playback speed to fast
or
Set global speed to normal
or
Set playback speed to slow
or
Set global speed to very slow
IMPORTANT While reading, if the speed is changed from your preference speed setting using a command like Read faster that speed will be saved for that book only. All new books, and the books you have have not adjusted the speed of will be changed by setting a new preference speed.
To set a default sleep timer.First, say:
Alexa, pause
Then, say:
Alexa, Set default sleep timer to five minutes
To use a default sleep timer, say:
Alexa, Go to sleep as usual.
When moving between groups of options in a list you can have the numbers run continuously, like one to one thousand or repeated, starting each new group from 1.
To set book numbering to consecutive try:
Set book numbering consecutive.
or
Set list numbering continuous.
or
Set book number sequence.
To set the list numbering to repeated try:
Set book numbering repeated.
or
Set list numbering simple.
or
Set book number relative.
You can choose an experience level. The beginner level will help you understand how to use the skill, by suggesting what you can do next and phrases to try. The advanced level expects that you understand how to use the skill and provides less advice.
To set the Experience Level to Beginner say:
Set level beginner.
To set the Experience Level to Advanced say:
Set level advanced.
You can use Real Books to browse available books or to search for specific books that you are interested in.
In order to browse the available books, say List books or Read books or just say Books. Real Books will then give you a list of available books which you can skim through until you find something that interests you.
You can select from a list by number. Just say something like, Number 1 or Number 4 . Alternatively if you want to hear the next five books in the list you can say Next. After moving forward in a list you can say, go back, to return to the previous items. Once you have selected a book your speaker will prompt you to say, yes or, play or, prompt you to add the book to one of your bookshelves, and then proceed to read you a description of the book. If you missed the description of the book, or want to listen to it again, you can also say Describe at this point.
Once Real Books has given you a list you can also ask it to jump to items within the list. For example, you could say next starting with B and Real Books will jump to the next item in the list starting with the letter B ,within the next 200 entries, You could also say something like next containing ocean.The command next containing, followed by a key word like ocean can be used to refine your search results. The book list will be updated to include the next book or books with the word ocean in the title. Please be aware that your previous search phrase will limit the search result to the next 200 items, and may result in no books being found with that key word.
It is important to note that when searching for the next book starting with a letter, Real Books will ignore articles and prepositions like the words The or A. For example if you asked for next starting with B Real Books may return a list including results such as The blind mechanic. Or alternatively if you asked for next starting with T your speaker will not list books which begin with the, instead it will list books where the main word in the title begins with T, such as Treasure island.
You can search for specific books using their title, saying something like Find books with title Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix or, List books titled Little Women. It is important to note that the command containing is also used to search for a book title, for example you could say List books containing The Hobbit to find books with the title The Hobbit.
Additionally you do not need to remember the full title of a book to search for it, instead you can just use key words from the title, for example you could say Find books titled dogs or List books containing dogs and Real Books will return a list of books which contain the word dogs in the title.
You can also search for books by author, topic, genre, series, or narrator, by saying things such as Find books by John Green or, Search for books about aliens or, Find books of genre science fiction or, Find books in series Harry Potter or, Find books read by Stephen Fry or alternatively, Find books narrated by Stephen Fry.
It should also be noted that if you search for a book with a specific title, such as old man and the sea, and there are multiple copies of that book available with different narrators. Real Books will provide you with the list of available books, first listing the title, then listing the narrator.
You can additionally search for books using annotations. Searching by annotations looks for certain words in a book description. For example you could say Find books annotated as powerful magic, and Real Books should give you a list of books which will have the words powerful magic somewhere in their description.
If you are currently listening to one book, and want to find and switch to another, you can do this by first stopping the playback by saying stop, and then searching in the same way as described earlier, using phrases like Find books with title Dune. You can then select a new book to listen to from the list of books provided.
Every book in the NLS Talking Book Collection has a unique identifier. The identifier is a combination of letters and numbers like DB 64227.
To search for a book using the NLS identifier or id number. First say: Alexa, Then say:
List books whose identifier is D B 6 4 2 2 7
Read books with code D B 2 3 5 6 8
Search by number 1 2 3 4 5 6
Find books whose code is D B 1 0 9 7 5 8
Please be aware, if only the numbers are said, and the letters are excluded the results will be refined to include all books that match that number. For example if you said: List books with code 1 1 5 9 3. You will be given results for books BD 1 1 5 9 3 and DBC 1 1 5 9 3.
Spelling search terms can be helpful as some words can be difficult for your speaker to understand. After a search criteria like author, title, genre, narrator, annotation, book series, ID number you can say the word spelled or phrase spelled as then start spelling the word using the letters names or the NATO phonetic alphabet. To end spelling, say period or end. Try,
Books about spelled Echo, November, India, Golf, Mike, Alpha.
or
Book title spelled as N.I.N.E period, author spelled M.O.R.I.A.R.T.Y
or
Books by spelled G. Y. A. S. I. end titled kingdom. For your reference the NATO phonetic alphabet is:
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.
When you are searching for books you can give extra information to help find the book you want. This extra information can be about topic, narrator, genre and more.
For example you could say Find books by Wells which may result in a large list of books. You could listen to the first few books Real Books provides, and if the book you want to listen to is not in this list, you could then say something like And about Aliens to help narrow down your search.
Asking for books about a topic is another instance which may result in a large list of books. To narrow down the possibilities you could try refining your search by genre. For example say Find books about the moon, listen to the first few books provided by Real Books, and then say genre science fiction.
You can also narrow down your search using series, or annotations, as criteria. For example, you could say Find books by J K Rowling and once Real Books has given you a list of books, say In series Harry Potter. Alternatively you could say Find books by J K Rowling and refine the search by then saying Annotated as powerful magic.
You can combine multiple search queries into an advance search. For example instead of saying Find books by Dr.Seuss and then, And about cats, you can say Books by Dr.Seuss about cats. Other example searches could include List books by Tolkien titled Ring or Read books about robots of genre science fiction.
Once you have found a book in a list that you want to listen to, you can select the book either using its position in the list, or using words from the title. For example, you could say number 1 or The fellowship of the ring. Additionally, if your list numbering preference is set to continuous, you can select any option number that has previously been listed, for example when you are up to option 30 you can say number 12. Once you have selected a book, your speaker will give you a brief description about it, which will normally include, the title, name of the author, and the play time.
From here, you can choose to play the book by saying yes or play, or add the book to your bookshelf or BARD wishlist by saying add to bookshelf or add to BARD wishlist respectively.
For more information about a book you can say describe or details, which will provide the selected books title, author, narrator, the length of the audio in hours and minutes, the audio book identifier number, annotation, genre and if the book is part of a series.
To read the annotation say, summary or annotation. For information about how the book is structured say, structure, this provides the number of level of navigation. For example a book structured with sections, parts and chapters, may have three levels of navigation.
When searching for a book, you may notice that some of the listed items are given the label Audio Not Yet Available. This label is given to items that have recently be added to the NLS Talking Book Collection and are still being processed. Importantly, these books will be made available for you to play on your Real Books as soon as possible.
Books with the Audio Not Yet Available label can be selected from a list to read the book description.
To access the book description:
First, select the book from the list, like saying: Select 3. Real Books will confirm your selection, then to hear the full description say: describe or details.
To keep informed about the status of audio you can add the book to your Streaming History- Unavailable Book List. When a book is ready to be played the title will be updated with the label Audio Now Available. To add the book to your Streaming History. First, say Play 3. Real Books will advise that the audio is not yet available. Now, open your Streaming History. Say, My Streaming History. Real Books will list the books that you have recently played. The books with label Audio Not Yet Available are not expected to be listed until the audio is ready to play. To check that the book is being monitored by your Streaming History for a status update, now, say, Unavailable Books. Real Books will now list any books you have tried to play with the Audio Not Yet Available label. When the audio is available the book will then be listed on your Streaming History list.
The Book Collection includes the NLS Talking Book Collection, your Streaming History, Bookshelves and BARD Wishlist. The following articles provide an overview of how to access and organize your reading material with Real Books!
The NLS Talking Book Collection has over 120000 books. You can access books from the NLS Talking Book Collection by saying, List books or Books to start browsing now.
For more information about searching and browsing for books, please read the Searching for books, section of this user guide.
Real Books remembers any books you have read, and saves them in your Streaming History. You can access your Streaming History list by saying Streaming History or My History. When you do this, a list of your previously read books will be provided. Real Books saves your last position within a book. This means that when you select a book from your Streaming History, the book will resume reading from where you left.
You can resume reading the last book you read after starting Real Books. To open Real Books, first, say: Alexa, open Real Books. Then, immediately say: play or resume reading. Please be aware that this will only work with the last book you have read. If you want to read another recently read book you need to say: List Streaming History.
When you are browsing through your Streaming History, you can choose to remove books from this list by saying, for example, delete number 3 to delete the third item from the list. To delete all the books from your Streaming History, say delete everything. Real Books will ask you to confirm that you want to delete the books, say yes to confirm.
You can delete books after filtering your Streaming History list. Filtering narrows down and refines your list using criteria like author, title, narrator, subject, genre and book series. After asking Streaming History, you can say any refinement that applies to your Streaming History like, say, genre non-fiction. You can say another criteria to narrow the list further like, say subject American history, if you had American history books in your list. Once your list has narrowed down to the books you want to delete say, delete all and only the books in the current list will be deleted.
Real Books lets you manage and create bookshelves, allowing you to better organize your book collection.
Real Books will always have a default bookshelf ready for you, you can access this bookshelf by saying list books in my bookshelf.
You can also create custom bookshelves, which you can access by saying List bookshelves or List all bookshelves. Creating custom bookshelves can be useful for organizing your book collection, for example, you may create a bookshelf called Fiction and another called Non-fiction, and add books to these bookshelves accordingly.
You can create any number of custom bookshelves, which you can then add books to, delete books from, or you can even choose to delete the bookshelves entirely. More detailed information on how to create and manage custom bookshelves is available in the Managing your bookshelves section of the user guide.
To add books to your bookshelves, when provided with a list of books say something like add 1 to bookshelf, to add the first book in the list to your default bookshelf. Alternatively, use the title by saying something like Add The Way of Kings to my bookshelf fiction, this would add this book to your custom bookshelf named Fiction. If you ask to add a book which already exists on your chosen bookshelf, Real Books will alert you to this.
You can also add multiple books to your bookshelves at once. When browsing a list of books you can say Add this group to my bookshelf to add the current group of books to your bookshelf. Alternatively, you can say add all to my bookshelf or Add everything to my bookshelf fiction to add all books from the entire list into your chosen bookshelf. Please note that only 400 books can be added at one time, so if the list has more than 400 items, only the first 400 will be added.
After adding books from a list to your bookshelves, you will be prompted to either say list again to hear the current group of items again, or, say next to hear the next group of items in the list.
In addition to the NLS Talking Book Collection, Streaming History, and your bookshelves, you also have access to your BARD wishlist. Using the BARD wishlist you can keep track of books that you want to read. To access your BARD wishlist say BARD wishlist or, Wishlist.
To add books to your BARD wishlist, when provided with a list of books, you can use the position of the book in the list, and say something like Add number 1 to my BARD wishlist. Alternatively, once Real Books has introduced the book to you, you can say Add to BARD wishlist. If you ask to add a book which already exists on your BARD wishlist, Real Books will let you know it is already there.
You can also add multiple books to your wishlist at once. When browsing a list of books you can say Add this group to my wishlist to add the current group of books to your bookshelf. Alternatively, you can say add all to my wishlist to add all books from the entire list into your wishlist. Please note that only 400 books can be added at one time, so if the list has more than 400 items, only the first 400 will be added.
After adding books from a list to your BARD wishlist, you will be prompted to either say list again to hear the current group of items again, or, say next to hear the next group of items in the list.
To delete books from your BARD wishlist you must access your BARD wishlist by saying BARD wishlist, then, you can remove a book by using its position in the list, by saying something like Remove 5. You can also ask the speaker to do things like Remove all from 3 which will cause it to remove all books from your BARD wishlist starting from the third book in the list. You can delete all your BARD wishlist books by saying Delete all of them or delete everything.
You can delete books after filtering your BARD Wishlist. Filtering narrows down and refines your list using criteria like author, title, narrator, subject, genre and book series. After asking BARD Wishlist, you can say any refinement that applies to your BARD Wishlist like, say, author Amy Tan, if you had books by Amy Tan. You can say another criteria to narrow the list further like, say genre fiction. Once your list has narrowed down to the books you want to delete say, delete all and only the books in the current list will be deleted.
Another handy thing you can ask your speaker to do is delete all read books from BARD wishlist, which will cause your speaker to delete all books which you have already read, or that you are currently reading, from the BARD wishlist.
You can also choose to play a book from your BARD wishlist, either by using its position in the list, or using the title, by saying something like Play number one or Play Of Mice and Men. It is important to note that when you play books directly from your BARD wishlist, they will automatically be added to your default bookshelf.
If your BARD Wishlist is very large and exceeds 5000 items, the first time you open your BARD Wishlist you will be listed the most recent 100 items, and the total number of enteries available for you to access. To access items beyond your first 5000 you can say, my BARD wishlist from an item number like my BARD wishlist from 5500 or my BARD wishlist from 8000. Please be aware that because of the high volume of items being processed there may be a slight delay from Real Books before the items are listed.
The NLS library regularly adds new audio books to their NLS Talking Book Collection. To access the books that have recently been added to the collection. say List recently added books. Real Books will list the recently added book titles, and the commands you can say to make a selection, add a book to your BARD wishlist or bookshelves.
Real Books may tell you that data is downloading, after you have asked, recently added books. This can happen when new books have been added to the library. When this happens, please wait a few seconds. Then, say, List recently added books.
The NLS Talking Book Collection has a most popular collection, which contains book titles that are trending amongst readers. To access the most popular book collection say List most popular books. Real Books will list the popular book titles, and the commands you can say to make a selection, add a book to your BARD wishlist or bookshelves.
Real Books may tell you that data is downloading, after you have asked to read popular books. This can happen when new books have been added to the library. When this happens, please wait a few seconds. Then, say, List most popular books.
When browsing a list of books, your can filter out those that exist on your personal lists. Your personal lists include your streaming history, BARD wishlist, and bookshelves.
For example, if you are hoping to listen to a book which you have not read before, you could say something like List books, wait for Real Books to respond, and then say Filter out my streaming history. This would leave you with a list of books that does not include any of your previously read books.
Similarly you can use the command Filter out with your other personal lists. Saying Filter out my wishlist will remove all books that are on your BARD wishlist from the current list, and saying Filter out my bookshelf will remove all books that are in your bookshelves from the current list.
You can change the order your books are listed, in your Streaming History list, BARD Wishlist, and Bookshelves; by sorting the books by title, by the authors last name or by the date they were added to your list.
To sort books by the authors surname, alphabetically from A to Z. Say: Sort by author. To reverse the book sort order by the authors surname, alphabetically from Z to A. Say, Reverse by author. To sort books by title, alphabetically from A to Z. Say, Sort by title. To sort books by title, alphabetically from Z to A. Say, Down by title. To sort books by recently added. Say, sort by most recent first. To sort books by oldest added. Say, sort by oldest. To find out how a list has been sorted. Say: Sort order? or What order? or Current order? or Which order?
To return to the default sort order, which is listing the most recently read or added book first. Say: No sort
The following advice will help you to navigate through books with ease. You will learn how to play, pause, resume, change position, and save your position with a bookmark.
When listening to a book, you can pause the reading at any time by saying, Alexa, pause.
To continue listening to a book you can say, Alexa, continue or, Alexa, resume or, Alexa, play.
To stop listening to a book you can say, stop. When you stop listening to a book your speaker will remember where you are up to, and the next time you listen to the book, Real Books will continue from this point. If you want to know where you have just stopped in the book you can say, Where am I? or, Position.
You can commence reading from any part of a book.
To move to the start of the book.
First, say:
Alexa, pause Then, say: Go to the start
or
Go to the beginning.
To move to the end of the book.
First, say:
Alexa
Then, say:
Move to the conclusion.
To hear the annotations.
First, say:
Alexa
Then, say: Annotations.
To move to a certain part of a book, you must first identify how the book is structured. To do this first, pause the book by saying, Alexa, stop.
Then, say: List contents.
If the book is structured in Chapters you can say, Go to chapter 1. For books with Parts you can say Go to Part 3. If the book is organized by Sections you can say, Go to Section 2. If the book has Articles you can ask for the article by the title, like; Go to article, Best places to eat in Washington DC.
A very handy feature to learn is the jump feature.
While listening to an audiobook you can jump backward and forward. For example, to jump back by ten minutes, first say stop then say, jump back ten minutes. Or to jump forward 30 seconds, say, jump forward 30 seconds. After jumping, Real Books will tell you how far into the book you have progressed, as well as how much longer the book has to go.
You can also just say: Forward or Jump forward or Move forward , which will move you forward by the the amount of time you say, like, move forward 6 minutes or by the default jump forward time.
Similarly you can say: Backward or Jump backward or Move backward , which will move you backwards by the the amount of time you say, like, move backward 20 seconds or by the default jump back time.
To find out the default jump forward or backward time, say, What is my default jump time or Tell me the default jump time. If you would like to change the amount of time that Real Books will jump by when you say, Jump forward or Jump backward, you can say, Set default jump forward to 5 minutes or Set default for jumping backwards to 30 seconds, or whatever other time period you would like the speaker to jump by.
It is also possible to move back to the beginning of a book, or in other words, restart a book.
To do this, while listening to a book say, stop. Then, say, , restart book. Real Books should then begin playing the book from the beginning.
You can change the speed at which individual books are read to you. To do this you will need to play a book, while listening to the book stop playback by saying, Alexa, stop . Once the book has stopped playing say, set the play speed to, followed by the speed you want the book to play at. The speed options available are slow, normal, fast, very fast, and extremely fast. To set the play speed say a command like, set the play speed to very fast. Real Books should then tell you that the play speed for the book has been changed, and then continue reading the book to you at the selected speed.
While listening to a book you can also change the reading speed in increments by first stopping playback , then saying, Increase playback speed or, Decrease playback speed, or alternatively Play faster or Play slower, or you can say, Speed up playback or Slow down playback. You can also say, Maximum playback speed or Minimum playback speed, to change the reading speed to the maximum or minimum setting. Any change in reading speed will be saved for that book, so the next time you come back to the book it should be read at the same speed.
You can also set a default speed for ALL books to be read at, to do this say, Set default play speed to very fast or Set default play speed to slow, or to whichever speed you prefer.
When listening to books you may notice that some recordings are much quieter or louder than others, as such, you might want change the playback volume of a book to a level that suits you.
To do this, start playing a book. Once the book has started playing, stop playback by saying Alexa, stop.
Once you have stopped playback you can choose to change the volume, incrementally, to set levels, by level from 0 to 10, or by percentage from 0 to 400.
To change the volume incrementally say Increase playback volume or Decrease playback volume.
To change the volume to set levels you can say Minimum playback volume, or Normal playback volume, or Maximum playback volume.
To change the volume by level from 0 to 10, say Set playback volume to followed by a number between 0 and 10. For example, Set playback volume to 7.
To change the volume by percentage, say Set playback volume to followed by a percentage from 0 to 400. For example, Set playback volume to 300 percent.
Any change you make to the playback volume of a book will be saved for that book, so the next time you come back to it, the book should be read at the same volume.
While you are listening to a book, you can add a bookmark by saying, Alexa, stop, then say, Where am I? and once Real Books has told you your position in the book, say, Create bookmark. Alternatively, you can also name the bookmark when you create it. So, instead of saying, Create bookmark say, Add bookmark followed by the name you want to give it, for example Add bookmark interesting point 1. Real Books will then confirm that you have created a bookmark, and will tell you what section of the book it has been created in. It is important to note that when adding bookmarks you can say, Add bookmark or create bookmark or insert bookmark.
While listening to a book, you will be able to access all the bookmarks you have made in that book by saying, List bookmarks. This will cause Real Books to list all the bookmarks which you have made for the given book, as well as the section the bookmark is in.
To navigate using your bookmarks, first say, List bookmarks, from here you can select one of the bookmarks in the list, either using position and saying, something like number 2, or, using the name by saying something like, interesting point 1. This will cause Real Books to continue reading the book from that bookmark. Alternatively, if you know the name of the bookmark you want to jump to, while reading a book you can say, stop, then where am I? and then Go to, followed by the name of the bookmark.
You can also delete bookmarks that you have made, to do this first say, List bookmarks. From here, you can choose to delete a specific bookmark in the list, using its position, or using its name, for example you could say, delete 2 or delete interesting point 1. You can also say, things like delete from 2 to delete all items in the list, starting from the second.
A Book Description provides important information about the reading material. The Book Description includes:
How to hear a book description from the book collection:
First, select a book from a search list, your Streaming History, Bookshelves or BARD wishlist by saying the items number or the title.
Then say, describe or details.
How to hear a book description, while reading a book:
First say, Alexa, stop.
Then say, describe or details.
Here is an example of a book description for, The Great Gatsby.
The great Gatsby. By F Scott Fitzgerald,Matthew Joseph Bruccoli. Read by, David Hartley-Margolin. 6 hours 34 minutes. Identifier, D B 5 5 7 1 4. Annotation, Against the glitter and recklessness of the Jazz Age, Jay Gatsby makes a desperate attempt to recapture the past and, along with it, the love of Daisy Buchanan. Amid extravagant parties at Gatsbys palatial estate, his neighbor narrates the story of his obsession with the American dream. This critical edition draws on Fitzgeralds original manuscript. 1925. Genre,fiction,romance fiction. 5 subjects. Available on BARD since March 17, 2015.
Helpful Tip
To hear the Book Description again. Say: Repeat or Say that again.
The NLS Talking Book Collection classifies every item by genre and subject. Genre refers to the style and category of writing for example fiction or poetry. Subject refers to featured topics, like planets or famous people. Classifications are summarized in the book description. From the book description a comprehensive list of classifications can be obtain.
You can use genre and subject to search, and refine a returned book list like Popular BARD books, Recently added BARD books, your BARD Wishlist, Streaming History and Bookshelves.
Find Classifications
First, open Real Books on your speaker. Then find and select a book, in this example we are conducting a book search first, but you could choose a book from your bookshelf or BARD Wishlist.
Then, say: Alexa, popular books. Real Books will provide a list of BARDs most popular books. Now, to select a book use the title or item number for example say: Alexa, select 3.
Real Books will provide a brief summary of the book. To access the book description, say: Alexa, describe or Alexa, details. Real Books will then read the description, towards the end of the description a summary of the books genres will be given followed by a number and subjects like 12 subjects, this number indicates how many classifications the book has. For a full list of classifications, now, say:
Alexa, subjects.
Real Books will provide a full list of book classification for both genre and subjects.
Helpful Tip
A book description can be obtain while playing a book. First say: Alexa, pause.Then, say:Alexa, describe. For a full list of classifications then say: Alexa, subjects.
An annotation is a short description about the book. The annotation summarizes what the book is about, which can help you determine if you want to read the book.
How to hear the annotation from the book collection:
First select a book from a search list, your Streaming History, Bookshelves or BARD wishlist by saying the items number or the title.
Then say, annotation or summary.
How to hear the annotation while reading a book:
First say, Alexa, stop.
Then say, annotation or summary.
Here is an example of an annotation for cooking book, Giadas family dinners.
Annotation, Host of televisions Everyday Italian presents a collection of down-home dinner recipes that can be prepared for many or just a few. She includes soups and sandwiches; salads and sides; meals to grill; and family-style entrees, pasta, and desserts. Offers suggested menus for various family events. 2006.
Helpful Tip.
To hear the Annotation again.
Say: Repeat or Say that again.
The book structure describes how the writing has been organized. Book structure varies widely based on the authors writing style. Common book structures include, parts, sections, subsections, chapters, and topics.
The structure of a book is helpful to understand and can help you quickly select the part of a book you want to read.
How to find the structure of a book:
First, select a book from a search list, your Streaming History, bookshelves or BARD wishlist by saying the items number or the title.
Then, say, Alexa, stop.
Next, say, structure.
Real Books will reply with the structure sorted by levels of navigation. For example the cooking book, Giadas family dinners is, structured on 3 levels. At level 1, there are 5 preliminary sections, 8 chapters, 2 other, 1 concluding section. At level 2, there are 127 recipes, At level 3, there are 135 steps.
Navigation levels group writing structures into levels. Some books only have one navigation level, other books can have three or more navigation levels.
You can choose a Navigation Level, to move through a book in your preferred structure. For example if you selected navigation level 1; Sections and Chapter, when you say, next or previous, you will be moved to the next or previous chapter. If you chose level 2; Recipes, when you say, next you would move to the next recipe.
To change the Navigation Level while reading a book:
First say, stop.
Then say, move to level 1
or
set level to 2.
Helpful Tip
The navigation levels change based on the book. This means Level 1 will not always be sections and chapters, it depends on how the book has been written. Always ask, structure to determine the navigation level before changing the level.
You can also navigate directly through the book by using the table of contents, to do this, while listening to a book, first ask your speaker to stop and then say, contents or table of contents. Your speaker will list the contents of the book, you can then decide if you would like to play the book starting from one of the sections listed, or, if you would like to explore one of these sections further, by getting a list of any subsections it contains.
For example a simple table of contents may say:
In this example you could choose to start listening from the beginning of part one by saying, play number one. Alternatively you could listen to the breakdown of part one by just saying, number one, your speaker will then list any chapters or other subsections part one contains. You can continue navigating through the table of contents in this way, going down into more specific sections of the book each time. At any point in time during this navigation, you can choose to start listening to a listed section by saying, play followed by its position in the list. When you reach the lowest level of the book your speaker will say, no further breakdown for this part and will take you back to the list of subsections you just heard.
Additionally, if you have previously listened to the table of contents, and know the name of a specific part of a book that you want to jump to. While listening to a book, you can ask your speaker to stop, then , say something like go to chapter 1 or move to part 3, or whatever the part you want to move to is called.
When using Real Books, you will always have one bookshelf which cannot be deleted, this is the Default bookshelf. You can access the Default bookshelf by saying, My bookshelf, Default bookshelf or List books in my bookshelf.
To add books to this bookshelf, you will first need to browse or search for books. Once Real Books provides you with a list of books, you can select which ones you want to add to the Default bookshelf. You can do this using the position in the list, for example by saying, Add number 3 to bookshelf, or you can use the book title by saying something like, Add Little Women to my Default bookshelf. If you ask to add a book which already exists in your bookshelf Real Books will let you know that the book already exists there.
You can also add multiple books to your default bookshelf at once. When listing browsing a list of books you can say Add this group to my bookshelf to add the current group of books to your bookshelf. Alternatively, you can say Add all to my bookshelf to add all books from the entire list into your default bookshelf. Note, only 400 books can be added at one time, so if the list has more than 400 items, only the first 400 will be added.
After adding books from a list to your bookshelves, you will be prompted to either say list again to hear the current group of items again, or, say next to hear the next group of items in the list.
Using Real Books you can create different custom bookshelves and add books to them, allowing you to better organize your book collection. To access your bookshelves, say, List all bookshelves or List my bookshelves. If you have created bookshelves in the past you will be able to select a bookshelf, and browse the books which you have added to it, and from there you can choose to play, remove, or add, a selected book to another bookshelf.
If you have never made a custom bookshelf before, you can create one by saying, Create bookshelf followed by the name you want to give the bookshelf. For instance, you could say, Create bookshelf fantasy or Create bookshelf science fiction. You can create multiple bookshelves to help organize the books you are interested in listening to.
Once you have created a bookshelf you can start adding books to it. To do this you will first need to browse or search for books. Once Real Books provides you with a list of books, you can select those that you want to add to your bookshelves. You can do this using their position in the list, for example by saying, Add number 3 to science fiction, or you can use the book title by saying something like, Add The Way of Kings to fantasy. It is important to note that you must specify which custom bookshelf you want to add the book to. If you ask to add a book which already exists in your chosen bookshelf Real Books will let you know that the book is already there.
You can also add multiple books at a time to your custom bookshelves. When listing browsing a list of books you can say Add this group to my bookshelf Science Fiction to add the current group of books to your bookshelf. Alternatively, you can say Add all to my bookshelf Fantasy to add all books from the entire list into your custom bookshelf fantasy. Note, only 400 books can be added at one time, so if the list has more than 400 items, only the first 400 will be added.
Additionally if you have previously created a custom bookshelf, you can access it more quickly by saying, list bookshelf followed by the name of the bookshelf. Using the previous example, you could say, List bookshelf fantasy to directly access this bookshelf.
To remove books from your bookshelves. Firstly access your bookshelves by saying, List my bookshelves. Then select a bookshelf and listen to the list of books it contains. Once you hear the book which you want to remove, you can delete it using the position in the list, or using the title, by saying something like, delete 4 or delete The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Real Books should then ask you to confirm you want to delete this book.
When browsing one of your bookshelves, you can also remove multiple books at a time. For example you could say, Delete from number 3 to delete all books in the list from the third item, this means the third item, and anything after it in the list, will be deleted. Real Books will ask you to confirm that you want to delete these books, say, yes to confirm and no to cancel.
You can delete all the books in your bookshelf by saying, Delete All or Delete Everything. Real Books will ask you to confirm that you want to delete these books, say, yes to confirm and no to cancel.
You can delete books after filtering your bookshelf. Filtering narrows down and refines your list using criteria like author, title, narrator, subject, genre and book series. After accessing your Bookshelf you can say any refinement that applies to your Bookshelf like, Books in series The Lord of the Rings if you had the book series Lord of the Rings on your bookshelf. You can say another criteria to narrow the list further like, say titled Fellowship . Once your list has narrowed down to the books you want to delete, say delete all and only the books in the current list will be deleted.
Real Books can sort books within your bookshelves by recently added, authors surname or book title. Typically , books in your bookshelves are sorted according to how recently they were added , listing the most recent first. To find out how the books have been sorted in your bookshelf say, What order? or say, Sort order?
To sort books in your bookshelf, open one of your bookshelves by saying, My bookshelves , then choose the bookshelf you want. You can then ask Real Books to Sort by author, which will cause Real Books to sort your books alphabetically by the surname of the first author. Alternatively you can say, Sort by title, and Real Books will sort your books alphabetically by title. Real Books will remember how your bookshelves are sorted for the next time you access them. If you want to reverse how your books are sorted, in other words sort backwards alphabetically, you can say, reverse by author or reverse by title. You can also clear any sorting by saying, No sort or Do not sort.
You can delete entire bookshelves, to do this say, List my bookshelves, then using the position in the list, choose which bookshelf you want to delete, and say something like, Delete number 2. Real Books will ask you to confirm you want to delete your bookshelf, say, yes to confirm and no to cancel.
It is important to note that you cannot delete the Default bookshelf.
When Using Real Books, you can set a sleep timer which will make Real Books turn off after a certain amount of time.
There are two ways you can set a sleep timer, while reading a book. You can set a sleep timer by specifying an amount of time, or by asking your speaker to stop at a certain part of the book.
To set a sleep timer using an amount of time, while listening to a book say, Alexa, stop. Then once the book has stopped playing say, , Go to sleep in 5 minutes or another amount of time you would like Real Books to stop playing after. Real Books will confirm that it will go to sleep after the set time, and ask you to say, resume reading to continue reading your book.
To set a sleep timer corresponding to a section in a book; you will first need to understand the book structure, and your Navigation level. For more information on these topics please refer to the Navigating within books section of the user guide.
To explain how to set sleep timers in this way, we will use an example book. This example book is structured on two levels, with Level 1 corresponding to stories, and Level 2, corresponding to chapters.
One way to set a sleep timer according to the structure of the book involves your Navigation level. You can choose a Navigation level by; First, stopping the book. Then, say, set level to 1 or set level to 2. Once you know what your Navigation level is set to, and have begun listening to the book again, you can ask your speaker to stop the book playback. Then, say, Go to sleep at the end of this part or Go to sleep at the beginning of the next part. If your Navigation level is set to 1, your speaker will go to sleep at the beginning of the next Story relative to your current position; or if your Navigation level is set to 2, Real Books will go to sleep at the start of the next Chapter, relative to your current position.
Additionally, if you know the name of a certain section, you can ask Real Books to go to sleep using that, regardless of your Navigation level. For example, if your Navigation level was set to 1, which corresponds to stories, you could say, Go to sleep at the end of the chapter or Go to sleep before next chapter, despite the fact that chapters are on Navigation level 2.
If you set a sleep timer which is longer than the remainder of the book, for example if there is 4 hours of audio remaining, and you set a 5 hour sleep timer. Upon resuming playback of your book Real Books will tell you that, Reading will terminate before the sleep time you set. In this situation you may want to cancel and make a shorter sleep timer, or, if you are happy to reach the end of the book you can leave the timer as is.
Importantly, sleep timers can only be set during book reading. If you ask for a sleep timer to be set before you start reading a book; Real Books will advise you to start playing the book first, then set a sleep timer.
To cancel a sleep timer while you are listening to a book, you will first need to stop the book you are reading by saying, stop, next say, cancel timer.
When you ask to cancel a timer Real Books will tell you how much time is left on the sleep timer, and then ask you to confirm, that the sleep timer should be cancelled. To delete the timer say, yes. To keep the timer say no.
You can set a default sleep timer. When talking to Real Books, say, Set the default sleep timer to 5 minutes or whatever length of time you prefer. When next listening to a book you will be able to use this default timer, to do this you will first need to stop the book, and then, say, go to sleep as usual. Real Books should tell you it will go to sleep after the amount of time, that you set the default sleep timer to.
Suspending an interaction is helpful for when life gets busy! Like being interrupted by a phone call when you are using Real Books. Suspending an interaction allows you to save your current position, within a search result or conversation with Real Books.
What is an interaction?
An interaction is a conversation you are having with Real Books. When you open Real Books on your speaker, and then ask a question or give a command, you start an interaction.
To suspend an interaction, say Suspend or Later or Wait.
When you are ready to use Real Books again say, Alexa, repeat.
Real Books will repeat the last interaction you had. If you were selecting a book before you suspended the interaction you would hear something like You were selecting a book.
If you would like to confirm what type of list Real Books read, you can say, What is being listed? or What is this?
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