Podcasts

I must say podcasts have never appealed to me, they seem like something you would have time for and enjoy if you were retired. However, I did look at the directories and I must say I enjoyed listening to Carl Bernstein discussing his book "A woman in charge" about Hilary Clinton. I've never heard his voice before so that was interesting. That was on http://authorsontourlive.com/ which I have added to my Bloglines. I was hoping to shortcut my search for library or book related sites by perusing the top 50 podcasts on Podcast Alley - surprise, surpise, none were book related! (apart from the Bible which from memory was about no. 15). But a little searching will find lots of book and storytelling sites under the Arts category.

NetLibrary

I had intended to start this post with the words "Has anybody, anywhere, ever read a book online?", only to be told that one of our interviewees yesterday said she only read e-books. Well, knock me down with a feather. Without wanting to sound like a killjoy again, I just cannot imagine ever doing it. Apart from the discomfort and feeling somewhat alienated from the story, I could find hardly any titles I would want to read. Searching for favourite authors brought up nothing so I searched via Newest Books. There was the odd one - I don't know how "Dishwasher : one man's quest to wash dishes in all 50 states" slipped in among all the business and computing books but it looks a goodie - I've ordered the hard copy!

I did like the way you could add favourites and notes to your NetLibrary account but we have discovered a number of other sites where you could do this anyway - sorry, I'll be staying away from this in the future, which isn't to say I wouldn't recommend it to students or others to whom it may be of benefit. (We have always made use of Cliff's Notes but this has alerted me to the larger range of titles available).