Good things do come in small packages!
August 10, 2007 by fairfielder
In an multi-tasking effort to get some exercise, enjoy the outdoors, and catch up on some reading I have taken to a new format available from our library - the playaway. The playaway is the smallest of recorded books. All you need is a pair of earbuds and you are on you way to enjoying this convenient technology. It is a small device with the content of one book on it. It weighs very little and fits into a small purse, a pocket or can hang around your neck comfortably. One read of the instructions and you know how to turn it on, adjust the volume, speed up the pace of the speech, pause it, and stop it. When I do get the guilty urge to go for a jog and read something at the same time the playaway is perfect. I have listened to Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower in a week of jogs. I am now listening to James Joyce’s the Dubliners. Somehow I found being told these stories more palatable than slogging through the printed word. And I am starting to consider what great listen will accompany me on my late summer vacation. New playaways are available right now for you. Here are the newest titles: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautifiul Basics of Science (Angier); Dubliners (Joyce); First Things First (Covey); Founding Fathers: Architects of a Nation (Encyclopedia Britannica); Gone (Kellerman); Halsey’s Typhoon (Drury); Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri); The Number (Eisenberg): Open House (Berg); The Photograph (Lively); Purpose Driven Life (Warren); Suite Francaise (Nemirovsky); and The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Difference (Gladwell). Just access the library’s online catalog here and select your next great listen.
Playaways are the best. The entire book is on one little MP3 that is so easy to use. Ialso agree with you. Some books are much easier to understand when someone reads them to you and plus this way you get to read and walk and read and drive and read and cook. Usually I have one book going that I’m listening to and another that I’m reading. My sister likes copies to read and copies to listen to of the same book. That way, she finishes a book much faster.
Wonderful to hear from an avid reader and listener! I really hope they keep producing more titles in the playaway format. Anyone can use them anywhere, anytime! They are perfect for a quick foreign language lesson too. I have picked up some spanish words while jogging along. Now for mandarin chinese - that would take some serious concentration.
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