Just Life| Hooray for Audio books

I love audiobooks. My very favorite audio books are the Harry Potter series read by the talented Jim Dale. When you listen to these audiobooks, you are right in Hogwarts with Harry going from one unbelievable adventure to the next.  

So, this new year, let's not overlook audio books. They can be wonderfully entertaining and educational.

Imagine learning a new language on your morning commute. Yes, that is feasible. 

If your eyes aren't what they used to be, you can still enjoy your favorite books by just listening to them.

If your child doesn't like reading that much, an audio book can make writing that dreaded book report easier.

Library audiobooks come in different formats:

• Books on CD
• Books on Playaway 
• Downloadable audio books via Overdrive or Access 360

We even have a few books on cassettes for the folks that can't let go. So, this new year, give the audio book a chance to delight you.

Here are a couple of my favorites audiobooks:

Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone [compact disc] 

Paris Wife [ compact disk] 

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha

Life & Style | Short Cuts For Reluctant Readers

I confess.

I haven't read " A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. I just listened to it. I couldn't see myself reading such a long book. It was too tedious to read.

Here are my alternatives to reading:

Audio books:

I love books but some books are too boring to read. Books on CD are great alternatives. Just call us or check our Catalog to see if we carry that book on Audio.

My favorite audio books are: Paris Wife, Reading Lolita in Tehran, The road and the Harry potter series (Jim Dale the person who reads the Harry Potter series is a genius.)

We also have Playaways. Playaways are basically these stand alone players that you attach a headphone to and listen to it. Each Playaway contains one book.

These are our titles on Playaway.

You can check out books on CD or books on Playaway for three weeks.

You can also download audio books via our Overdrive site. Just make sure to have your library card number and your library pin number handy.

Get a family member to read you the book

I miss my childhood days when my parents read to me. Nowadays, story time in my household mostly consists of me reading one page to my daughter and my daughter reading the next page to me. Sometimes I trick my daughter and mis-pronounce so many words while reading that my daughter feels sorry for me and just grabs the book and continues reading it outloud for both of us. (That is how I got around not doing the laundry in my house. I wrinkled too many of my husbands' shirts that he decided to take on the task.)

These days we are reading biographies by Mike Venezia. He is a great writer and his books are full of funny illustrations.

Popular magazines

I love reading magazines. I love articles that are short and informative. I usually checkout a few and read them at home or during my lunch breaks. To be honest, sometimes, the only reading that I do is during my lunch breaks.

So if you don't like reading that much, magazines are a great alternative for staying informed about the world around you.

We have countless magazines in our libraries. You can check out up to 25 magazines and keep them for three weeks.

Watching the Movie instead of reading the book 

It works sometimes. For example, I couldn't read more than few pages of " The Host" by Stephenie Meyer but I am definitely going to watch the movie. 

I should tell you that I believe that books are always better than the movies.  

I might go and watch "World War Z" and skip reading the book as well. 

Since I am the bravest girl in our entire library system, I might take a pillow to the movie theater in order to cover my eyes whenever things get really scary on the screen.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha