ElevenReader Review: Why I Love It for Solo Adventures
There’s quite a lot of downtime involved in going on solo adventures.
That probably sounds strange when most of my photos involve mountains, hiking boots and dramatic views, but there are also evenings tucked up in a tent, nights sleeping in the car, long drives to the Lake District and those quieter hours when the walking is done and there’s absolutely nowhere I need to be.
And I’ve realised that audio has become quite a big part of that.
I listen to podcasts and audiobooks a lot, both at home and when I’m away. Sometimes it’s simply entertainment. Sometimes it makes a long drive disappear remarkably quickly. And sometimes, particularly when I’m out hiking alone and my anxiety decides to make an unwelcome appearance, listening to something familiar or interesting gives my brain something else to focus on.
So when I was offered the chance to conduct an ElevenReader review, I was genuinely interested.
And after using it, I think it fits solo travel, hiking, and camping particularly well.
AD | Affiliate links. ElevenReader gave me access to ElevenReader Ultra to try. This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you sign up through my link, at no additional cost to you. As always, everything here is based on my own experience.
What is ElevenReader?
At first glance, ElevenReader looks like an audiobook app.
And it is. The platform now offers more than 200,000 premium audiobooks and eBooks.
But that isn’t what interested me most.
ElevenReader can also read other written content aloud, including:
PDFs
eBooks and EPUB files
Word documents
articles and webpages
Google Docs
pasted text
scanned pages
You can essentially take something you would normally have to sit down and read and turn it into something you can listen to instead.
That immediately makes it much more useful to me than an app I would use purely for audiobooks.
Why audio has become part of my solo adventures
One thing I’ve learned from spending so much time outdoors alone is that being comfortable with your own company doesn't necessarily mean spending every minute in complete silence.
Sometimes I love that silence.
There is very little better than sitting outside with a coffee first thing in the morning when everybody else on the campsite appears to be asleep. But other times I want company without actually wanting company.
That is where audiobooks and podcasts are brilliant. I can be walking for hours and disappear into a story. I can cook dinner outside the tent while listening to something. I can get into my sleeping bag at night, put my headphones on and listen for half an hour before going to sleep. And then there are the times when anxiety creeps in.
Solo hiking has actually helped my confidence enormously, but that doesn't mean I've somehow eliminated anxiety from my life. Occasionally my brain still starts looking for things to worry about.
I've found that putting an audiobook on can help me interrupt that train of thought. I'm still completely aware of my surroundings, and I wouldn't use headphones where doing so could compromise my safety, but giving my mind something engaging to listen to can help me settle back into what I'm doing. For me, audio has become another tool in my solo-adventure kit. Not quite as essential as waterproofs. But considerably more entertaining.
So, what do I actually like about ElevenReader?
1. There is a huge audiobook library
This was probably my first surprise.
ElevenReader currently advertises a library of 200,000+ premium audiobooks and eBooks, so this isn't simply an AI voice reading public-domain books you've never heard of.
There are fiction and non-fiction titles, bestsellers and plenty of books I would genuinely choose to read anyway.
For somebody like me who gets through quite a lot of audio content, having a large library to browse is a big part of the appeal.
2. I can turn things I mean to read into things I actually listen to
This might eventually become my favourite feature. My phone is full of articles I've saved to read later. We all know where those usually go. Into the digital graveyard of good intentions.
With ElevenReader, you can paste a webpage link into the app and have the article read aloud instead. You can also import PDFs and documents. For me, that opens up loads of possibilities. A long article I want to read? I can listen while driving. Something I've downloaded as a PDF? I can listen while pottering around camp. A piece of research or a lengthy blog post? Same thing. It turns time when I couldn't realistically sit and read into reading time.
3. The voices are surprisingly good
AI narration would be far less appealing if it sounded like my sat-nav had decided to read me a novel.
Thankfully, it doesn't. ElevenReader has more than 1,000 voices available, and the technology behind the app is designed to produce much more natural pacing and expression than traditional text-to-speech.
You can choose different voices depending on what you're listening to, which is particularly useful when you're importing your own content rather than listening to a traditionally narrated audiobook. You can even pick Michael Caine!
4. It works particularly well with the way I travel
This is probably why I've taken to it so quickly.
I spend quite a lot of time:
driving to the mountains,
walking,
camping,
car camping,
cooking outside,
and generally being somewhere where sitting down with a physical book isn't especially practical.
Audio fits into all of those spaces.
And on Ultra, ElevenReader also offers offline listening, which is important when your idea of a good weekend involves deliberately disappearing into parts of the country where mobile signal becomes more of a rumour than a utility.
ElevenReader vs Audible: which do I prefer?
I've used Audible, and I don't think this needs to become an Audible-bashing exercise because they're slightly different products.
At the time of writing, Audible Premium's standard UK membership costs £8.99 per month and gives you one credit each month, which you can exchange for an audiobook you keep. Members also get unlimited listening to titles within Audible's separate Plus Catalogue.
That model works brilliantly if you know which book you want each month and you particularly like owning your audiobook.
My listening habits are slightly different.
I like browsing. I like trying things. I can get through a lot of audio, and I also want to listen to things that aren't audiobooks.
That's where ElevenReader makes more sense for me.
The current Ultra plan includes access to its premium audiobook library for up to 20 hours a month, alongside unlimited text-to-audio for your own imported content. The free plan also includes 10 hours of text-to-audio each month.
So rather than thinking of it simply as:
Audible versus ElevenReader
I think the better distinction is:
Do you mainly want to buy and keep audiobooks, or do you want one place where you can listen to books AND turn your own reading material into audio?
I'm increasingly in the second camp.
The feature I think I'll use more and more
Interestingly, I originally thought the audiobook library would be the main reason I'd use ElevenReader.
I'm not sure it will be.
I think importing my own content might eventually be what keeps it on my phone.
There is so much that I want to read and never quite find the time for. Articles, blogs, longer features, PDFs and all those things I save thinking I'll come back to them.
Being able to turn some of those into audio means I can listen while I'm driving to the Lakes, packing the car, making dinner at camp, or even doing jobs around the house.
It isn't necessarily replacing reading.
It's creating reading time that didn't previously exist.
And I rather like that.
ElevenReader Review: Would I recommend it?
If you only listen to one audiobook every couple of months, you probably don't need another subscription in your life.
But if, like me, you consume a lot of audio, regularly save things you never quite get around to reading, or spend hours travelling, hiking or camping, ElevenReader is definitely worth exploring.
In this ElevenReader review, I’ve found it particularly well suited to solo adventures because it gives me entertainment during the quieter moments, something interesting to listen to on long journeys and, occasionally, a useful distraction when my anxious brain gets a little too noisy.
That's exactly the kind of technology I like taking outdoors.
Something that quietly improves the experience without getting in the way.
If you use my link to try ElevenReader, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting She’s Going Solo.
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