I consider myself to be a pretty avid reader. My imagination practically makes the words disappear from the page and I'm so absorbed by the reading that I don't realize I'm reading anymore; it's like I'm watching a movie, except I could do it for hours without getting scolded at by peers and family members. Anyways, so I was looking at Apps and things when I got my iPhone a few days ago and I found something called Booktrack. It's a special soundtrack designed for selected books and it plays music and sound effects that pertain to what's happening on the page. You can adjust your reading speed and even change the settings of how loud you want the music or the sound effects. You can see a demonstration below:So, naturally, when I saw this, I was crazy excited. I bought the book Power of Six since it's the second book after I Am Number Four and I wanted to read it anyway, and how cool would it be to have epic music playing in the background of the scene with the respective sound effects?
After reading for two hours, I decided to give it a 4/5 rating. After wasting a few chapters adjusting my speeding level, it went pretty smoothly for a little bit, but sometimes I'd get ahead of the music and sometimes it would beat me. Then I discovered a little arrow that slides down the page and helps you track what line the music is playing in accordance to. I knew I was going a good pace with the music when, as I was reading, the arrow appeared to look like it was hopping as I skimmed the lines, rather than steadily descending down the page. Still though, for some scenes I'd speed up considerably because it was so action packed and I'd get excited and read faster, and the music wouldn't catch up to me, but it somehow works out in the end.
Booktrack has a lot of options for getting the music where you want it and it's only a matter of working through those steps. I read for two hours, so probably the first 45 minutes of reading was me working out the basics and adjusting my speed. After that though, it was probably one of the best reading experiences I've ever had. I heard a lot of people calling it a cross between a book and a movie, and it really is just that. You're reading while your imagination runs wild with music that makes it not unlike a movie. It's a very unique reading experience that I look forward to doing again and again.
