Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Why I Love Wednesdays... Bookish Websites

Reflections of a Bookaholic

I am returning with my new feature... Why I love which takes place on Wednesdays. Today's proclamation of love concerns our Bookish Website

Why I Love...Overdrive

I LOVE LOVE LOVE overdrive!!  What is Overdrive you say?! Overdrive is a site that allows readers to check out ebooks and audiobooks from their library.  This is wonderful on so many levels.  First, it's free!! Second, I get to support my library without leaving my room.  Finally, audiobooks are still a trial experience for me  so I get to try them out without paying ANYTHING!!  Ahhh!!  You just can't beat this.



When I see wonderful reviews for books, I go online and place a hold and they email me when it becomes available.  I'm limited to checking out five books at a time but I'm a little sneak.   I use my husband's library card as well...so that's 10 books for me :)  You don't even have to remember to return them.  The books just return themelves.  As for audiobooks...I can put them on my ipod.  How convenient is that?!  And here's a secret *looking over my shoulder* ... once you put the audiobook on your ipod, it never expires.  You have to delete it yourself BUT the audiobook returns to the elibrary for others to use.  I have no idea why it works that way but...yes, there it is.

So wait.  Let's recap.  I love overdrive because it lets me download books and audiobooks to my reader or ipod for FREE! Um, yes please!!

RUN, don't walk, to see if your library has a partnership with this amazing website today.  I currently live in Austin, but the Austin Public Library doesn't have a digital catalog.  So I got a library card from Houston when I was driving through (because they do have a digital catalog).  Houston only requires a Texas drivers license.  So if your library doesn't have a digital catalog, check around to see if there are other options for you.  I don't have to be in Houston to use this amazing site so there are no downsides to this.  I love love Overdrive and I think many of you will too :)

Which Bookish Website do you love? Feel free to create your own post and link up.  Don't want to create an entire post?  Tell me your favorites in the comments.  Thanks for stopping by for another week of Why I Love Wednesdays!!


If you want to play along, feel free to grab the image (there is a button on the right sidebar now) and link your post in the linky. Here goes.

LINKY INSTRUCTIONS:
When naming your link, please choose the name of your post. Mine would say "Why I Love...Rhett Butler."
Please link directly to your post and not your blog.
Please participate :)





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36 comments:

  1. I don't think I've ever heard an audiobook where the author did the narrating. I'll have to search that out.

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  2. I'm sure this will be even better for him! He'll love it.

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  3. I have Overdrive to but I didn't know about the *whisper* ipod transfer. I am using my mom's library card because my city doesn't have a digital library yet. But they have a great DVD collection.

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  4. The Petite Young BlondeJanuary 26, 2012 at 10:11 AM

    I love audio books! They get me through the morning routine, kitchen work, laundry and my drive to work. I wish more authors would be the audio reader - they know what inflections to use and the mood of the character.

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  5. I haven't used Overdrive yet. Once I get through some of my tbr pile, I'm looking forward to checking out some virtual e-books. I just got my Dad a Kindle for his birthday. He loves the library and reads like a fiend. I can't wait to show him how to check out books via the internet.

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  6. Wow!! I have no idea if it stays on your iPad. It depends on the whether iPad runs a player of some sort to play it. I know nothing about iPads but I'll let you know if I figure it out.

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  7. I've been behind lately due to everything being crazy. I miss being consistent and I miss my schedule :(

    I've been listening to more audiobooks lately because they are great for my busy schedule.

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  8. We have this in Canada as well. I love that I can just download the books right to my iPod. It's so convenient and cheap! Audiobooks are so expensive to buy. My computer with my iTunes keeled over though so I've got to get it in for fixing. Right now I can't download anything else onto my iPod and that makes me sad. Lol. Sorry I've been so bad commenting lately. I've gotten so behind!

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  9. Yes yes yes to everything you said about Overdrive! I use (stalk) it for ebooks all the time, as a matter of fact, I just got Crossed by Ally Condie yesterday from Overdrive, the printed book is not even in the library yet. My husband uses it for audiobooks, do you know if the audio stays on your iPad after it expires? I can't remember him saying that they do....
    NC
    Truly Bookish

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  10. Lol. Someone bought the "GoogleWave for Dummies" book a couple of months ago. I was quite surprised since GoogleWave has been shut down for a while now. Ooopppsey for some of those buys.

    I use my husband's card mostly for strategic holds. I can't possibly read 10 books in two weeks :) I think the ipod things is pretty safe since the it doesn't go directly to your library, people can't copy it. I think it is a nice thing that publishers do. Very convenient.

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  11. Sorry :( It's been funky while I've been trying to get my comments transferred over. I tried to do it before having it go live but it was taking days.

    It is such an amazing find! So convenient too!

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  12. Blog Her sounds familiar. I need to check that out to remind myself of what it is.

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  13. It's pretty awesome and they have a better selection than I do :) Well I don't have a selection so I guess it isn't hard.

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  14. Awesome! Hahaha... We have to keep that secret secret :)

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  15. I do too but I love it for newer books that I don't have but I'm not willing to pay the Hardcover price.

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  16. I know!! I'm a procrastinator as well. I like the ipod thing because audiobooks don't expire on me but I always delete them when I'm done.

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  17. The library I work at got Overdrive just over a month ago, and it looks like people are enjoying it. Though I do wonder who decided to buy the bundle of the Game of Thrones series instead of the individual books if you can only check them out for two weeks...

    (Pssst: we know people use their spouse's/sibling's/child's/friend's cards - you're fooling no one :P. Also, we know about the transferring to iPod stuff (at least at mine). We have no idea why it works that way either, though I believe it's up to the publishers to decide if that's possible.)

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  18. Ahhh, finally! I've been fighting with Disqus since yesterday! Mean thing keeping me from commeting...

    But I definitely get why you love it! I JUST found out our library has an e-library as well and was both shocked and excited. Not that we have any English titles, but we do have some interesting Swedish read that I now can get my hands on easily for a try. It's so easy and I love it!

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  19. I'll have to check out Overdrive. Hadn't heard of it, so glad to know now. My favorite bookish website is Book Blog and Blogher just to name a couple.

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  20. Dooooooooooooooood! I'm gonna call my library right now to see if they have overdrive. I'd love to check out more audiobooks. :)

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  21. I haven't checked into this yet at my locak library. They just built a big new shiny building, so I hope they're lso up to date as far as technology and such. But I have so many in my tbr as is that right now it's not even necessary to get anything from the library.

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  22. My library now has Overdrive. I love it.

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  23. Oh, I heard of OverDrive before, and it seems awesome. It doesn't work in my country though. and that's sad.

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  24. I think it does work on external devices like phones. When looking at each individual audiobooks, they give the download options. Ipod is the basic but many of them have extended privileges and device options.

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  25. My library back home no longer works for me. I've literally read everything there. But I've always been big on finding the best library for me :) I can't help it. I don't have enough money for my reading habit.

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  26. Yes!! You have to be a sneak sometimes!! But clearly, that's an awesome idea. I hope they have a great selection.

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  27. I love Goodreads too! Just think...I only discovered Goodreads after starting the blog and hearing about it on other blogs. Wow...where had I been?!

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  28. This sounds amazing! I'm definitely going to check and see if they have this at any libraries in my area. It would make getting audiobooks so easy!

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  29. Juju at Tales of Whimsy.comJanuary 26, 2012 at 10:12 AM

    I just recently heard about Overdrive but have yet to try it. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE your secret. I wonder if it would work on external devices like phones too. You're brilliant. Thanks for sharing.

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  30. reading rendezvous reviewzJanuary 26, 2012 at 10:12 AM

    My library is the pits. They really don't have a lot of novels by authors I most enjoy reading. I have heard others also enjoying the use of the library services online for books. I'm going to try audio books as a challenge for 2012.

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  31. You are a genius! I haven't been big into audiobooks - but there are a few very popular (hard cover) selections I've been waiting on at my library for weeks. I have a library card for another county (I used to live in) and it's much bigger - so I don't know why I didn't think to check out their audio selections and put in my request there!

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  32. I really should check out what I can borrow from my library, I know they got audiobooks online too :)

    But I love Goodreads, love it!

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  33. I love OverDrive, too! You are so sneaky with the whole 2 library cards... Haha! I don't have an Ipod so I have had audiobooks expire on me, but I do love the automatic checking back in of library materials - even if I'm not done. I'm a procrastinator and library fine racker-upper. ;)

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I absolutely LOVE all comments! So please feel free to chime in with your thoughts, questions, opinions, or whatever else you have to say.

Don't forget to check back as I reply to comments. Dialogue is good right?

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