NetLibrary

I have been travelling a fair amount for work and have found audio books to be a good way to fill those stretches where I cannot find a radio station that appeals to me. My local library subscribes to a couple providers.

NetLibrary allows you to download the audio books and transfer them to your iPod or other MP3 player. The ebooks are delivered in a single file. This is nice if your MP3 has bookmarking capability. You can mark your spot and return to it later. If your MP3 player doesn't have bookmarking capability this can be a pain.

You will need to remember how far into the book you were and then fast forward to that spot if you listen to anything else or if your MP3 doesn't resume from the spot it was shut off at.

I bought a new MP3 player for a trip I recently made to the Philippines. I bought it because it has a battery life of 24 hours. It charges via the USB port on my computer. I loaded a couple books onto it from NetLibrary and was off. Once in the Philippines I needed to charge it so connected it to my computer.

Here is the problem with NetLibrary. The licencing process needs to validate every time the MP3 connects to your computer. Your computer must be connected to the Internet because the licence is not on the computer but is validated against the NetLibrary website. Needless to say, this was more than a little inconvenient.

Personally, I will not be using NetLibrary again. There must be better options out there. If you have any suggestions, let me know and I will give them a try.