Me and a Playaway
I was in the library today and the older man in line in front of me at the checkout was telling the girl at the desk that he figured he would eventually have to buy “one of those disk playing things”, because most of the recorded books were not on cassette tapes anymore, but disks. He seemed troubled by the notion.
The librarian pointed to this little display card on the desk and told him they have these brand new recorded books that don’t need a device, that they are self-contained. She pointed out the shelf across the library where they were stored and I actually left the line to check them out myself.
I love recorded books and often listen to them in the car. There are two problems with that setup though:
- Gigi gets beyond bored when she is riding with me and I am listening to a book on CD
- I have twice almost crashed the van while trying to change out the CDs and drive at the same time
So, these self-contained recorded books the library is offering now are called Playaway. I picked up two titles and went back up to the checkout desk. A librarian opened the cases and showed me the little device (about the size of a half-desk of playing cards) and the extra battery. Then he handed me a brand new pair of ear buds (and really nice ones, to boot.) Apparently I am allowed to keep the ear buds.
I had never heard of a Playaway before, but I can tell you that they rock. I kinda’ just tucked the player into my bra and started listening to the book. I’m a fan. I looked at the website and most titles cost between $30-$50, so I am not inclined to purchase any on my own just yet. But, I think I will make my way through most of the titles offered by my library system.
Maybe I’m just way behind the times when it comes to new technology, but this little find just made my day.
Those sound great! Hubby has an aunt who is blind. She used to love to read books. This would be a great thing for her.
I never heard of this before either. Sounds pretty cool.