The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want for good stuff to listen to. There are sermons online (does anyone else like to listen to sermons in their free time?), Librivox for free audio books in the public domain, conference CDs, audio books from the library…
But! I discovered a new source and I am delighting in it! I just drove three hours to pick up my friend at the airport and realized at the last minute that I didn’t have an audio book available. In with my bills to pay was a handbill for Library2Go (an Oregon system) from our library’s circulation desk. Library2Go uses the services of OverDrive. I include this link because you may be able to find your library within the system. Click on Find Free Downloads button and search for your library by country or by state.
Without leaving your home, you can download professionally read audio books for a ten-day checkout period. If a book isn’t available at the moment, you can place a hold on that book, and receive an email when it is available.
I downloaded The Small House at Allington
by Anthony Trollope, burned it to CDs and have been happily caught up in the drama of Lily Dale and Johnny Eames while driving, deep-cleaning my bedroom, making meals, etc.
Pros: Large selection of books and videos, professionally done. I love Librivox, the free-ness of it, and have my favorite readers, KayRay being one; however, some readers are more difficult to listen to and detract from the text. Convenient to browse and download. No books to return to library.
Cons: Not all titles on the site are immediately available. Like books in the library, if someone else in your library system has checked it out, you must wait in line. Sadly, OverDrive does not support iPod/Mac users. Ten days is ample for small books, but a squeeze for longer books. (Small House took 20 CDs, but I could have listened straight from my computer.) The tracks are long tracks, divided by chapters, usually about 20 minutes.
It’s a wonderful opportunity that is probably available to most of you.
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I have a deep-cleaning question for you.
What do you intend to do with obsolete media?
I’m speaking, of course, of VHS videos and cassette tapes. I (uh) am (er) thinking of (clearing throat) pitching, as in throwing away, all the boxes of tapes I have. (gasp) A shelf in our closet is occupied with boxes of cassettes: sermons, conferences, homeschooling. Stuff we listened to once or twice, appreciated it, but doubt we will go back to again. The medium does make a difference. All the minimum, we will cull our collection. Perhaps offer it tapes for free at a garage sale.
What about you? What will you do?