Short on time to read? Stuck at home, and avoiding public places? Don’t want to lug around heavy hardcovers? Need an easy-on-the-eyes night reading background? Give ebooks a try!
Today is Read An Ebook Day, and it’s a great opportunity to check out these tiny wonders for the first time, or get reacquainted with the joy of digital reading.
User-friendly, convenient and super-portable, ebooks let you take your favorite reads wherever you go. Not only that, but you can customize your reading experience by selecting large fonts, dyslexic fonts, sepia or night mode backgrounds. eAudiobooks can be downloaded directly to your digital device for easy, hands-free listening anywhere.
AAPLD ‘s digital collections can be accessed through computers, tablets and smartphones. Overdrive and Libby connects AAPLD cardholders to the North Suburban Digital Consortium, where you can access thousands of ebooks, and eAudiobooks. Check out and download up to 15 titles at a time. Titles circulate for 14 days and may be renewed if no one is waiting. If the book you want is already checked out, place a hold, and you will be notified when it is available to checkout.
Hoopla allows you to check out ebooks and aAudiobooks immediately with no holds. The collection changes periodically, but includes today’s top authors, bestsellers and classics. Hoopla also has a wide selection of comics, trade paperbacks, and graphic novels from well known publishers such as Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse. Additionally, several all-ages friendly titles are available including Big Nate, Garfield, and Minecraft.
Our library also offers digital reading experiences for kids, through our Bookflix and Tumble Book Library services.
AAPLD cardholders can download apps for all of our digital collections. Find more information here.
Once you’re set up for digital reading, consider being part of the fall Libraries Transform nationwide read, sponsored by The American Library Association. The program connects readers across the United States through the shared 
experience of reading and discussing the same book. Digital copies of the book are made available for immediate check-out through Overdrive and Libby for patrons of participating libraries, including AAPLD.
The fall Libraries Transform Book Pick is Book of the Little Axe, by Lauren Francis-Sharma.
This sweeping historical novel is set in Trinidad and the Crow Nation of the Great Plains, between 1796 and 1830. The protagonist, Rosa Rendon, fights against gender and racial constraints, in her quest to run her family’s farm, and later, in her marriage to a Crow chief. When her son comes of age, she takes him on a journey that retraces her life, and reveals long-kept secrets.
Booklist reviewer Vanessa Bush calls Book of the Little Axe, “a compelling saga of family bonds, ambitions, and desires, all subject to the vagaries of powerful historical forces.” Click here to read an interview with author Lauren Francis-Sharma.
Book of Little Axe is available for immediate download from September 14 through 28. (Patrons who download the book at the end of the open period will have the normal check-out time to read it.) If you’re a book club member, consider this book for your next read, and download group discussion questions here.
If you’re reading on your own, share your thoughts on social media using #LTBookPick hashtag. Share what you love about ebooks with the #EBOOKLOVE hashtag.
Have fun and happy reading!