Playaway Books at our Library!

I llike to think I keep a pretty good watch on recent innovations at our local branch library. The item that caught my eye today was a display advertising "Playaway - now available for 3 week loan." The outside box has the look and feel of a VHS tape and inside is a special purpose MP3 player. As you can see from the picture above, the cover artwork is repeated on the outside case and inside cupboard.

The MP3 player is a special purpose unit that is preloaded with the audio book described on the cover. In my case it is "Lies My Teacher Told Me". The player has no opening for inserting or removing a memory card. In fact, except for the buttons and the opening for changing the battery (standard size AAA) there are no movable parts on this unit.

The actual player is about 2" by 3.4" by 0.5", small enough to fit into a shirt pocket or small purse but large enough that it shouldn't be that easy to lose. It appears to cost between $30 and $40 which is more than the hardcover edition of these books but probably not that different from the audio version. In addition to the standard stop, start, fast forward, reverse, and on/off there is a button for selecting preset amplification setups and a button for speeding up or slowing down the narrative. It doesn't change the pitch, just the speed.

Besides looking for them at your local library, you can also purchase theme from major bookstores such as Borders and Barnes & Noble. You can turn them back in at anytime for a 50% discount on your next Playaway book. So far I'm very impressed with this new gadget.