Playaway by Barbara Quinn

Today I’m grateful for my local library’s ability to embrace new technology. I love to read and thanks to the library I have always read voraciously for free. The library has also always been a source of movies and music providing a great way to be able to sample new artists. Whether it’s the classics or best sellers you can find it on their shelves.

And now my library has a new gadget available that has books on tiny players the size of a thick credit card. The players are called Playaways. Have you seen them? What a dream come true!

I took out a couple this week, and tucked one in my purse. Each player holds one book. Now I always have a book with me since it’s easy to carry and the thing only weighs about 1 ounce. Five hours of listening pleasure in a one ounce device. I’m engrossed already in Ian McEwan’s Black Dogs. All you need is a set of earbuds and you can listen anywhere. I took mine to the gym and to the doctor’s office. You can purchase a car adapter if you’d rather listen while driving without the earpieces. It has a speed adjustment so you can make the reader go faster or slower. And it picks up right where you left off when you turn it back on. You can move forward or back too. Best of all is there is no downloading and no software to contend with. You switch the thing on and it works. This is my type of digital book.

I have seen the future of audio books and I am here to tell you, it is promising! Thank you Suffern Free Library for being willing to offer Playaway devices to your patrons.