Digital
media can be your 24-hour library
It's time to pack for your summer vacation and you're trying
to travel light. The problem is, this is the one time during the year when you
have all the time in the world to catch up on your reading, but the four tomes
you planned on devouring at the beach weigh more than your children.
What to do?
Wallkill Public Library might have just the solution you need
- digital media.
Digital eBooks are the digital version of a published
physical book. They can be transferred to a portable device like a Sony Reader
Digital Book or Smartphone, where they're stored until you're ready to read
them.
And eBooks aren't the only digital media at your disposal -
digital audio books, music, and videos are all downloadable versions of the
items you might normally take out of the library. Digital media is also
automatically returned, so there are never late fees or trips to the library!
Depending on the type of device and operating system you're
using, digital media can be used on a variety of machines. Through the digital
library site, you can get free software for supported PCs, laptops, and PDAs.
Digital audio books, music, and videos are available for the OverDrive Media
Console, which relies on
Windows Media Player technology. eBooks are available in the
PDF formate for Adobe Reader and PRC formate for Mobipocket Reader.
Don't be intimidated - this may sound like you'll be on the
phone with Geek Squad trying to get this stuff up and running, but you'll
actually be able to enjoy your digital media after following three easy steps:
· Download
and install the software: It's free and available from the digital library Web
site, but needs to be installed on the computer(s) on which you want to use
your digital media.
· Activate
your free software: You only need to do this once, and no personal information
is required.
·
Check out and enjoy: Add a title to your digital cart and check it out.
Once that's done, you're ready to download the parts of the digital media. Once
you've done that, you can close your Internet connection and enjoy your book
offline. At the end of the loan period, your title will expire and be
automatically 'returned' to the library. You can then delete the expired file
from your computer.
You might
be thinking that digital media isn't for you, and it might not be something you
necessarily want to use all the time. But for those who for whatever reason
can't get to the library to take out items, for those who travel a lot, or for
those who already have a Pocket PC or PDA, digital media can make your life a
lot easier.
Book of the Month
The Strain, by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
It's
been awhile since I've read a good vampire book. To most people's incredulity,
I didn't care for Twilight. I'm not into dashing vampires. Truth be
told, I prefer them scary and repulsive. We are, after all, talking about
corpses, for all intents and purposes. I don't really care to think of someone
who's been dead for hundreds of years as a hottie. The problem with a lot of vampire stories -
and horror literature in general - is that they're very rarely well written.
Even when someone comes up with a fairly original take on Bram Stoker's
creation (as Bentley Little did with The Summoning), the story line
tends to be, well, stupid. The characters are either shallow or the dialogue
stinks or the plot's unoriginal or the vampires are vapid and unscary. Not
so The Strain. I have to be honest, I'm a huge Guillermo Del Toro fan.
Yes, he's the creator of Hellboy,
but I'll forgive him that because he also made Pan's Labyrinth and The
Orphanage, and is remaking the classic Don't
be Afraid of the Dark, which terrified me when I saw it on TV as a kid,
though I've been unable to get a hold of it since. So when I read a blurb in Newsweek that said he and Hogan had
written a cross (if you'll excuse the pun) between Salem's Lot and I
Am Legend, I put down my magazine, buckled my son into his booster seat,
and sped off to Barnes & Noble. I've reacted as rashly
before when I've heard or read about a book I just had to have, and I've been
rewarded for my need for immediate gratification with some real $25.99
stinkers. But I'm happy to report that The Strain wasn't one of them. Whoever did describe it as a blend of King
and Matheson (and I know it was
another writer, but who exactly escapes me) hit the nail on the head. The
Strain combines science with the supernatural, and the result is both
grotesque and delightfully creepy. The good news is this is book one of a
trilogy. The bad news is that book two isn't due out until next year. So read
slowly - during the light of day, if you scare easily - and maybe I'll see you
at the book store in 2010.
New Releases
The
following are either on the shelves or coming soon:
Fiction
·
Child's Play,
by
Carmen Posadas
·
Truth
About Love, by Josephine Hart
·
Vanished, by Joseph Finder
·
Abyss, by Troy Denning
·
That Old
Cape Magic, by Richard Russo
·
After
You, by
Julie Buxbaum
·
Dreamfever, by Karen Marie Moning
·
South of
Broad,
by Pat Conroy
·
Rapture, by Liz Jensen
·
I Can
See You,
by Karen Rose
·
This is
Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper
·
Homeland, by Barbara Hambly
·
Surrendered
Heart,
by Tracie Peterson
·
Sacred
Hearts,
by Sarah Dunant
·
While
I'm Falling, by Laura Moriarty
·
Hell's
Gate,
by Stephen W. Frey
·
Riesling
Retribution: A Wine Country Mystery, by Ellen Crosby
· Inherent Vice, by Thomas Pynchon
Nonfiction
·
Ray
Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation, by Ray Bradbury
·
Words
that Ring Through Time: The Fifty Most Important Speeches in History and How
They Changed Our World, by Terry Golway
· Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World
Transformed, by Judy Shepard
Biography
· Strength in What
Remains,
by Tracy Kidder
Audiobooks
·
Dying
for Mercy, by Mary Jane Behrends Clark
·
Guilty
Pleasures, by Laurell K. Hamilton
·
Magicians, by Lev Grossman
·
South of
Broad,
by Pat Conroy
· 92 Pacific Boulevard, by Debbie Macomber
DVDs
·
Knowing
·
Color of
Magic
·
He's
Just Not That Into You
· Mr. Troop Mom
New York Times bestsellers
1.
The
Defector, by Daniel Silva
2.
Best
Friends Forever, by Jennifer Weiner
3.
Swimsuit, by James Patterson
and Maxine Paetro
4.
Twenties
Girl,
by Sophie Kinsella
5.
The
Help,
by Kathryn Stockett
1. Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
2. Liberty and Tyranny, by Mark R. Levin
3. Unmasked, by Ian Halperin
4. Catastrophe, by Dick Morris and
Eileen McGann
5. Bobby and Jackie, by C. David Heymann
1.
The Time
Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
2.
The
Shack,
by William P. Young
3.
The Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
4.
The
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
5.
The
Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
Wallkill Public Library
P.O.
Box C
7
Bona Ventura Ave.
Wallkill,
NY 12589
(845)-895-3707
http://www.wallkillpubliclibrary.org/
E-mail:
wak@rcls.org