Instant access to ebooks & audiobooks

To kick off Book Week Scotland 2020 we are running a fantastic promotion for non-library users offering them free instant access to ebooks and audiobooks on OverDrive without the need for a library card. If you read this blog you are probably already a member of the library, but do you know someone who isn’t, but would love free ebook and audiobook downloads? Please spread the word to your friends, family and work colleagues!

Anyone over 13 years old with an EH postcode home, work or study address can sign up for instant access in seconds. All you need is a mobile phone number and the access code – Library2go. Thousands of best-selling books for adults, teens and children are available through OverDrive’s website or the Libby app. It’s a fantastic resource to access from home and on the go.

This promotion gives you access to OverDrive for three months.  However, its easy for people to keep on using the service for free by joining the library and receiving a permanent membership card.

To find out how to get started go to  www.edinburgh.gov.uk/IDC This access option will be available from 16 November – 16 December 2020.

A fantastical Big Library Read

Join millions of others around the world in reading a fantastic young adult fantasy novel during the Big Library Read, the world’s largest digital book club. From 2-16 November, readers can borrow and read Tim Ryan La Sala’s wildly imaginative ebook or audiobook  Reverie from our OverDrive service. Travel to other worlds with your library card and no waiting lists, with the Libby app or by visiting our OverDrive website. You can even discuss the book online.

Find out what happens when the secret worlds people hide within themselves come to light. All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can’t remember anything since an accident robbed him of his memories a few weeks ago. And the world feels different—reality itself seems different.

So when three of his classmates claim to be his friends and the only people who can tell him what’s truly going on, he doesn’t know what to believe or who he can trust. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere, Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident, and only he can stop their world from unraveling.

The book will be available on the home page of the Libby/OverDrive apps and the OverDrive website from the 2 November and with unlimited downloads is perfect for discussing with your friends and family. Full instructions for using OverDrive can be found on our Your Library website.

Meet the author event: Ambrose Parry

On the 16th October we will be hosting a special author event in the historic Central Library. Come along to the Reference Library to hear Ambrose Parry (Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman), discussing their new novel The Art of Dying. This is the second collaboration from this husband and wife team, following the hugely successful The Way of All Flesh. Their collaboration has created truly addictive historical crime novels, filled with period detail recreating a real feel of Victorian Edinburgh.

Ambrose Parry (AKA Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman)

Chris Brookmyre is the international bestselling and multi-award-winning author of over twenty novels, including Black Widow, winner of both the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. Dr Marisa Haetzman is a consultant anaesthetist of twenty years’ experience, whose research for her Master’s in the History of Medicine uncovered the material upon which this novel was based.

The Art of Dying is set in 1840’s Edinburgh, which was at the forefront of modern medicine, thanks in part to Dr James Simpson’s discovery of chloroform. However, when one of Simpson’s patients is found dead in mysterious circumstances, the medical elite, wary of his growing fame, point to Simpson’s reckless use of chloroform as the cause. With their friend’s reputation in peril, Simpson’s protégé Will Raven and former housemaid Sarah Fisher team up to discover the unthinkable truth behind the dead patient as they try to clear Simpson’s name.

Reference Library

This is a late addition to our Libraries Week programme, the theme of which is “Celebrating libraries in a digital world”. We wanted to feature an author who was hugely popular on our ebook and audiobook platforms and Ambrose Parry fitted the bill perfectly! Their first book The Way of All Flesh is available for unlimited downloads in ebook format through OverDrive and audiobook format on RBdigital and has been downloaded over 400 times by our readers. The Art of Dying is now also available as an ebook on OverDrive and in audio format on BorrowBox.

This free event will run from 7-8.20pm on Wednesday 16th October. Booking is essential. Tickets can be booked at EventBrite and the talk from will be followed by a book signing.

Downloadable travel guides

Are you planning your summer holiday? Why not check out one of our great downloadable ebook travel guides on OverDrive. You’ll find a great range of Lonely Planet, Rough Guides and Fodor’s guides to choose from:

Close to home

 

 

 

 

City Breaks

 

 

 

 

Europe

 

 

 

 

Further afield

 

 

 

 

Trip of a lifetime

 

 

 

 

 

You can use OverDrive on your tablet, phone or computer and just login with your library barcode and PIN. Full user instructions can be found on our Your Library website. Once you’ve decided where you’re going remember and select your books from OverDrive for holiday reading – nothing packs lighter than 10 ebooks or audiobooks!

Just mad about Harry

Harry Potter’s having an amazing year, not only is the first book 20 years old, but the British Library have been joining in the celebration with their Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibition. We’ve got our own display in the Central Library featuring specially designed panels, showing images of rare books, manuscripts and magical objects featured in the British Library’s exhibition, as well as images of material from J.K. Rowling’s own collection. Best part is the selfie opportunities though – its not every day you get to dress up in a robe and get your photo taken with Professor Snape!

 

If you want to find out more about the British Library’s exhibition why not checkout Harry Potter: A History of Magic: The Enhanced eBook of the Exhibition and Harry Potter: A Journey Through a History of Magic. These two ebooks are now available through our OverDrive  service and form part of our extensive collection of Harry Potter ebooks and audiobooks.

All seven Harry Potter books are available on our OverDrive site in both ebook and audiobook format. You’ll also find spin-off titles such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Hogwarts Library Collection and The Hogwarts Collection. So why not re-read these special books or get hooked on Harry for the first time!

Big Library Read – digital book club

What Happened to Lizzie Lovett?  That’s the mystery that you can unravel by participating in the world’s largest digital reading club Big Library Read! The book this time is Chelsea Sedoti’s young adult debut novel, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, and unlimited people will be able to read it from our OverDrive site at the same time from 12th till 26th October. Not only will the ebook be available, but also the audiobook so you can choose whatever format you fancy.

Told with a unique voice that is both hilarious and heart-wrenching, Sedoti challenges readers to distinguish the line between reality and fiction. Popular girl Lizzie Lovett’s disappearance is the one fascinating mystery her sleepy town has ever had. Classmate and teenage misfit, Hawthorn Creely has her own theory for Lizzie’s disappearance. And what better way to collect evidence than to immerse herself in Lizzie’s life? Like getting a job at the diner where Lizzie worked and hanging out with Lizzie’s boyfriend. After all, it’s not as if he killed her-or did he?

Author Chelsea Sedoti says “The protagonist of The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett is no stranger to reading; she knows all about using books as an escape. Seventeen-year-old misfit Hawthorn Creely is dissatisfied with the real world. She’d rather lose herself in fiction, where everything is bigger, better, and more magical. But when Hawthorn applies this mindset to the disappearance of her former classmate, Lizzie Lovett, life goes awry.”

Readers can join an online conversation about the book at BigLibraryRead.com. All you need is library membership so you can login with your library card and PIN. Full instructions for using OverDrive can be found on our Your Library website.

 

Listen up!

Love audiobooks? Whats not to love! – they are ideal for the morning commute, the gym or while you’re doing the cooking, housework and DIY. Edinburgh Libraries has a fantastic selection of audiobooks for you to enjoy. Did you know you could download hundreds for free at home from Edinburgh Libraries? We have four different downloadable audiobook suppliers so we can give you the widest choice possible of authors and publishers.

Check these out today –

OverDrive – checkout over 1500 adult, teen and child audiobooks with OverDrive. You can borrow up to 10 at a time and either stream over the internet or download on your mobile device or computer.

RBdigital – has a great range of bestselling British authors such as Peter May, Cecelia Ahern, Val McDermid, Peter James, David Walliams and Santa Montefiore. Borrow another 5 titles here with automatic returns and no fines. 1500 titles to choose from including children’s, teen and adult titles.

Borrowbox – has a super easy to use app and a growing collection of over 400 adult audiobooks. Some fantastic titles including The Muse by Jessie Burton, The Widow by Fiona Barton and My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith.

uLIBRARY – our newest service with a growing choice of British authors including Ann Cleeves, Quintin Jardine, Paula Hawkins, M.J.Arlidge & Katie Fforde

 

Happy Birthday Harry Potter!

It’s hard to believe, but its 20 years since the first Harry Potter book was published. On 26 June 2017 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone celebrates its 20th anniversary, having sold over 450 million copies worldwide in 79 languages. We would like you to join us in celebrating this special occasion!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone eBook will be available for unlimited access through our OverDrive ebook service between 26 June and 9 July. Everyone will be able to borrow the title simultaneously during this period with no reservations required.

All seven Harry Potter books are available on our OverDrive site in both ebook and audiobook format. You’ll also find spin-off titles such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and The Hogwarts Collection. So why not re-read these special books or get hooked on Harry for the first time!

And the winner is….

As part of our Digital Reading Week we ran a competition for BorrowBox users to win a iPad Mini and we are pleased to announce that our winner was Mrs Mary Oliver! Mary popped into the Central Library to collect her prize and stayed for a wee chat and a glamorous photo shoot! It was great to find out that Mary has been using our OverDrive and OneClickdigital services for the last couple of years and had recently started using BorrowBox too – “I find BorrowBox the easiest of the apps to use, within a couple of clicks you are listening to an audiobook”.

Mary told us that she likes to use all of our downloadable audiobook services to get as wide a range of titles as possible – “Romances are my favourites. I listen to audiobooks in bed at night, saves me disturbing my husband with rustling pages and the light on!!”. She is also a fan of ebooks too, preferring to read these during the day, and especially enjoying titles by Maeve Binchy. It turned out that Mary was a familiar face as she had used our Tuesday afternoon drop-in sessions in the Central Library for help when she was having problems downloading books and this was also where she’d been introduced to BorrowBox.

BorrowBox is our newest downloadable audiobook service and has a growing collection of bestsellers including titles by James Patterson, David Baldacci, Alexander McCall Smith and Kate Aitkinson. It does have the easiest the use app ever and you can always renew your book even if someone else has has put a hold on it.

Thanks again to Mary for coming in and having her photo taken – we hope she’ll have lots of fun downloading ebooks and audiobooks with her new iPad!

“The English Monster”: Free audiobook download

Non-spoiler alert! There is a dark twist – a spot of black-magical realism, if you like – about halfway through Lloyd Shepherd’s first novel that this reviewer has no desire to ruin for readers.

In fact, so delicious and unexpected is this turn of events that it moves a book that is already part detective fiction, part historical novel and part pirate adventure into entirely new territory, adding themes of natural philosophy and moral turpitude to a story as rich in ideas as it is in intrigue.

INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

London, 1811. The twisting streets of Wapping hold many an untold sin. Bounded by the Ratcliffe Highway to the north and the Dock to the south, shameful secrets are largely hidden by the noise of Trade. But two families have fallen victim to foul murder, and a terrified populace calls for justice.

Intrigued? Of course you are. Use your library membership to download the whole book – free – with Oneclickdigital.