Besides reading books, my passion also includes listening to them. I listen in the car, while cleaning the house, walking the dog, mowing the lawn and any other monotonous opportunity that comes my way.

At the library, opportunities abound for listening to books: books on tape, books on CD, books on Playaway (the digital all-in-one player), and my personal favorite, books downloaded from the wonderful Overdrive system. Anyone with Internet access can peruse thousands of titles, check out up to six at a time and choose from three ways of listening. You can listen straight from your computer, burn it to CD (some restrictions apply), or transfer to an MP3 player or iPod. (The book will disappear from your computer when the loan time expires.)

Are you confused by these newfangled digital devices? Don’t panic. Overdrive has done the homework for you and included a large list of devices that are compatible with their software. And as electronics do, the devices have come down in price so you can pick up a perfectly good one for under $30 now. Get the most you can afford; a 4 GB is great and holds several books at once but you could make do with less.

In addition, they’ve got step-by-step instructions for us more computer-challenged folk. If you have trouble with anything, Overdrive provides an excellent “help” section with many options, and if all else fails, you can always call us at the library.

You can access this system through the WRLS or La Crosse Public Library Web sites or you can type in http://dbooks.wpls.info.

I have been using Overdrive since WRLS first offered it (about 3 years now). The following are some recent titles available on Overdrive I’ve listened to and would recommend, especially if you are new to the listening-to-books thing. The readers of these books are true masters of their craft and their expressiveness gives such great voice to the author’s story: “The Terrorist” by John Updike, narrated by Christopher Lane; “The Anansi Boys” by Neil Gaiman, narrated by Lenny Henry; “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, narrated by five stellar readers; “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life,” written and read by Barbara Kingsolver; and finally, any of the Janet Evanovich books in the Stephanie Plum series read by C.J. Critt.

My final word of advice to newbie audio book listeners would be to be a discerning listener. Not all audio books are created equally. If you are listening and you just can’t get into the book or the reader’s voice is giving you a headache, look around to see if it’s read by a different reader, which isn’t uncommon. And then again, some books just need to be read.

Dain Frisby-Dart is a La Crosse County Library System staff member at the Holmen branch.