The Libby App

Generally speaking, I figure I am probably the last to learn about most things. This morning’s blog post is going to be one of those situations. I am assuming that all of you have already had experiences with the Libby app, but on the off chance that even one of you has not… I am going to devote a blog post to it. This next part is going to be extremely embarrassing considering that one of my oldest, longest, and “bestest” friends is a Librarian… but I’ve not had an active Library card for a few decades. As much as I love Libraries and as much time as I spent in them growing up… as an adult, they have just not been a huge part of my life. I read so slowly that the constant pressure of feeling like I have a deadline looming over my head means that in most cases I just bought books outright rather than borrowed them. Recently I discovered something called the Libby app and it has changed how I have thought about our wonderful Library system.

For those unfamiliar, it essentially acts as a glue between the physical library presence and digital services. You can log in with your Library card/Account and effectively gain access to all of the digital books and audiobooks that your library has on offer. You can configure it to connect to your Kindle account and download it directly to your e-Reader and then it also facilitates the check-in process when you are finished and removes the book from your devices. All of this honestly seems like magic and it interoperates seamlessly between a Web Client, your dedicated devices, mobile phones, and tablets. You can be consuming the same item on all of those and it will helpfully leap you forward to where you last left off, which admittedly is a huge deal for me because I often start something on my desktop and then continue it on my phone.

What I love the most however is that it grants me access to a large library full of audiobooks. I am not sure what it is exactly about the audiobook experience that I love so much. I can remember as a kid loving story time and listening attentively as teachers read to me in class. My wife cannot handle audiobooks, but she is very much NOT an auditory learner but for me… I love throwing one on while I am doing something else. This week I’ve been listening to Gideon The Ninth while playing Path of Exile because I have more or less committed the game to muscle memory and can devote my processing resources to consuming the book. So I have been shifting back and forth between listening to it while working during the day and listening to it while playing at night, all without the app really missing a beat.

One of the things that are somewhat cool is the fact that you can in theory be connected to multiple library systems at the same time. I am extremely lucky in that the Tulsa City-County Library system is vast and expands out into many of the communities surrounding the greater metro area. However, I noticed that Bartlesville a larger town nearby also supports the Libby app under their digital services, which means, in theory, I could go there and get a library card and then effectively merge the reach of both library systems together. Again I am going to assume that I am the last to know any of this, but like I said at the beginning of the post I figured it was cool enough that I would devote a blog post to talking about it just in case someone else out there was a similar late bloomer. It seems silly but this has very much revitalized how I consume books and made me want to consume more of them.

As far as Gideon the Ninth, I kinda love it so far. I am not even sure how I would describe it to someone else, but a Dune meets a Death Metal Harry Potter sort of sprung to mind. While I would never give a dime to anything that might benefit the horrible Terfmaster general that is J.K. Rowling, I cannot discount how important the Harry Potter series was to me and how it still sorta colors how I view other media at times. Gideon The Ninth is set in this weird timeline where death magic and all of its many forms effectively dictate society. I am sure I will talk about it more at length as I continue down the series but since I missed the boat when it was all the rage among my Twitter friends I am catching up. I had mentally put a pin in the title thinking that I would enjoy it and am now just experiencing it. I tend to consume series more than individual books. For example, I have been absolutely ravenous when a new Dresden novel comes out. Another book that I have pinned in my memory is The Lies of Locke Lamora, which I will probably start on once I have consumed everything in this series available.

Audio books just fit my life more easily than reading does, which makes me a little sad to be honest. I’ve never been one to choose reading over something else. That is my wife and she will happily sit in the living room and consume a stack of books in a single weekend. Me, I tend to pick at them like leftovers slowly and over time… and usually before going to sleep which means I maybe get a chapter read before sleep claims me. Audiobooks however I can easily listen to while playing one of my “forever games” like Path of Exile that does not require a lot of higher level processing from me and is more mechanical reflex and repetition than anything else. My goal for this new year is to consume more books in this manner. Since I know I have a ton of avid readers in among my followers knowing that I am greatly enjoying Gideon The Ninth and that I love Dune, Dresden, the Witcher series, and a lot of 70s/80s science fiction… feel free to give me some more modern suggestions to throw in my list to consume.