Tag Archives: Overdrive

One eRead Canada 2026

, , , , , ,
One eRead logo

As we get ever closer to spring in all of it’s glory, you may be looking for a book to read over April. Well, look no further. Once again, VPL is participating in the One eRead Canada program and you can participate!

If this is your first year participating or hearing about it, One eRead Canada was created by the Canadian Urban Libraries Council / Conseil des Bibliothèques Urbaines du Canada (CULC/CBUC). It’s a bilingual, nationwide book club. A book by a Canadian author is selected each year and then made available in English and French as an eBook or eAudiobook without waitlists or holds. It runs all through April, starting right on the first, and it’s a great way to connect readers across Canada.

So, hearing all of that, you may be asking: What’s this year’s title?

Continue reading →

One e-Read Canada: Tatouine

, , , , , , ,
The Cover of Tatouine by Jean-Christophe Réhel

Do you enjoy reading e-books? Yes? That’s the only response I’ll accept 😛 A no just means you haven’t tried it yet or did in the days of the abysmally difficult-to-use Adobe Digital Editions. These days e-books are amazingly easy to use on just about any device, and if you’ve got a Kobo, they can be downloaded directly to your reader without going through extra software. You owe it to yourself/your gas budget/your eyes/your reading addiction1 to try out an e-book. And with One eRead Canada happening, you have no excuse not to try one! Throughout the month of April, Tatouine by Jean-Christophe Réhel is available through Overdrive to everyone who wants to download and read it without waiting. Additionally, the campaign has two national events around the book. An English discussion with the translators on the 19th and a French interview with the author on the 25th.

Tatouine is a poignant and often humorous novel about an unnamed protagonist in his thirties navigating life with cystic fibrosis. Despite the challenges that come with his illness, including bouncing between dead-end jobs and losing his apartment, he remains upbeat and uses humour and daydreams to cope with his day-to-day struggles. These dreams often revolve around escaping to the fictional planet “Tatouine,” similar to but distinct from Tatooine, due to his love of the Star Wars Franchise. On this planet, he’ll make sand angles and play Mario games all day. This is a novel that is not shy to reference real-world media. The protagonist even names his new basement apartment in Repentigny “Dagoba.” And despite its dinginess, the move has an upside – a friendship with the new landlord.

Continue reading →

Top 10 of 2020: Overdrive and Hoopla

, , ,

kindleI know we left 2020 in the dust (not that 2021 is looking all that much better so far), but forget that for a minute—let’s look back at the top titles borrowed from Overdrive and Hoopla in the past year, and see what kinds of trends have emerged in these, dare I say, unprecedented times.  

As the outside world closed up, forcing us all to turn inwards, what sort of activities did you find yourself doing? If you found yourself reading a ton more than normal, you’re in good company (conversely, if you found yourself unable to concentrate on books, you are also in good company). While plenty of people found themselves in a reading rut thanks to the existential crises caused by COVID, the general trend of reading during lockdown actually increased overall. A study out of the UK reported an almost doubled rate in reading, from 3.5 hours a week to a reported six. From the same study, “A third said they read more printed books, 18% consumed more e-books, and 9% listened to more audiobooks”. A third of people reading more paper books in a single year is nothing to sneeze at.  

But stats like this are actually not surprising; there is historical precedence for this kind of thing. An industry analyst for NDP (a market research firm) notes that historically, book sales are resistant to economic downturn; even the Great Recession of 2008 saw a year-over-year increase in book sales. While on the surface this may come as a shock, it makes sense if you consider books for their personal value rather than just their financial cost. When the going gets rough, as it most certainly did in 2020, people often turn to books not just as a form of entertainment, but also for escapism, distraction, and for mental wellbeing.  

Continue reading →