Back in late March, I wrote a post about searching for an Austen audiobook I needed to read for a book club discussion. At the end of that post, I promised a followup post on watching a movie using Hoopla and Google Chromecast. I did search diligently for a movie to watch via Hoopla, one that I hadn’t already seen and that was even remotely appealing. I watched two movies from Hoopla: The Girl on the Train and Drive Hard. I wasn’t overly impressed with either of them. I searched and searched and determined that Hoopla’s catalog is just not for me, at least for movies.
I’m my own worst enemy though. I’ve been a Netflix subscriber for years, both Blu-Rays and streaming. I’m a snob when it comes to video quality as well. For example, I rarely watch anything provided by my Dish Network subscription because they compress their “HD” to such a point that it might as well be “SD” quality. If it’s not at least Blu-Ray quality, I’d rather not watch it. So anything worth seeing, I’ve either gotten the Blu-Ray from Netflix or I’ve bought it through Google Play.
So Hoopla’s movie and television catalog is dated or full of not-so-highly rated offerings. i could say similar things for Netflix streaming, but at least there are occasional gems to be had and the television shows available on Netflix are only about a year behind, except for their own flagship shows of course.
But Hoopla has more than just movies and shows. It has music (and ebooks and audiobooks and comics and … well a whole lot more). This will become significant in a moment.
Today’s conundrum brings us to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Next month, my Local Library’s adult book group will be reading and discussing this classic. My preferred format for reading these days is to listen to audiobooks from my smartphone through my Bluetooth headset while commuting to work. My two hour daily commute would otherwise be wasted time when I could have been reading!