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Free library books are good. A free app to read and listen to them with is even better. Good news: you get all of that with Libby.
With Libby you can borrow thousands of ebooks and audiobooks from your local library and its partner libraries.
OverDrive, the developer of Libby, is the digital distributor for over 43,000 libraries worldwide. There’s a pretty good chance your library is one of them.
Libby also has a wonderful ebook reader that’s as good or better than others I’ve used. The reader has all of the features you’d expect: white, sepia and dark page options, different fonts, reading timeline, full screen mode and more.
The audiobook player is beautiful, taking on the colors of your book’s cover. It’s a little thing, but I like it. The player has a sleep timer, listening speed options, bookmarking and an easy to use timeline that lets you drag your place in an audiobook forward and backward.
For my reading habits, Libby is easier to use than other reading and audiobook apps. I can’t tell you why, exactly. But the little things add up to a better experience for me.
Libby has all the features you’d expect in a world-class book app.
Sample any book with a tap — nothing to download or delete.
Download books and audiobooks for offline reading, or stream them to save space.
All your loans and holds are on a single shelf.
Positions, bookmarks, and notes sync across your devices.
Libby can send your library books to the Kindle app with a few taps, if you prefer reading with it.
You can even try Libby before downloading it on the Libby website. Click the “Try” button on the image of the phone.
Download the Libby app for iOS and Android
What reading app do you recommend?
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Keith Monaghan writes the One Useful Thing newsletter and is a researcher who works with creative teams on projects for companies like Nike, The CW Network and Upworthy. Just reply to this email to get in touch or follow him on Twitter @keithmonaghan