Since writing about my search for the perfect audiobook on Monday, I have discovered my new favorite toy at the Nashville Public Library: Playaway. I’d heard about the device, but I finally decided to give it a try.
Playaway is an audio player pre-loaded with an audiobook. You check out the entire player (mine even had a AAA battery included), plug in your earbuds and listen away. In other words, you don’t have to check out the player and check out individual books—if you want five books, you check out five pre-loaded players.
It’s convenient because you can move from the car (I listened with a tape adapter) to the gym to walking around town with ease. Whenever you press “Pause,” the player remembers your spot and will start back up right where you left off. Plus, the thing can’t weigh more than a few ounces—less than a book!—and fits easily in my purse. (I know this sounds like an infomercial, but folks, this thing is handy.)
According to the company’s website, there are more than 10,000 book titles available in this format. So now I am obsessively checking to see which books on my TBR list are available on Playaway at my library branch . . .
My very unscientific research has caused me to wonder how many people know about this technology: Mockingjay in print has 60 holds at my library system (to be expected), and Mockingjay on CD has 13 holds. But Mockingjay on Playaway is available.
Do any readers of The Book Case check out Playaway audiobooks from the library?
I have never heard of this before! I just looked it up on my county’s library website … there are only 16 playaway books listed.
I personally don’t have the attention span needed to listen to an audiobook. Basically, I ‘forget’ to listen and find myself way behind in the story. I work at a public library in the Midwest and we have a very good inventory of Playaways and are getting new ones in each month on standing order. We have them for all ages and the people that seem to like them the best are the older adults. The comment I hear most often is that your place is bookmarked if you have to pause or turn off the player and people love that!
Findaway World is just in the next town over to my library. I purchase Playaways directly from them, through Midwest Tape, and through Recorded Books. They’re quite popular, and they also go out to libraries all around us. Glad you like it! I’ll have to send this post to my rep