hoopla Digital 12+

Hoopla and Covid

I have been using Hoopla ever since I knew about it and that has been quite a few years. Previously I borrowed books on CD’s. Hoopla is quite simply one of the joys of my life. I am an audio book junkie. I think that I probably have forgotten how to read. I have always been an avid reader. When I was little a neighbor girl ran our block and she had a school in her garage. There were little red chairs and we were required to attend . I learned to read when I was three and I started kindergarten when Zi was four. . When I was able to obtain a library card I checked out the maximum number of books which was four and read them and returned them to get more. Nice librarians would let me do that and the meanies wouldn’t! Much of my adult life I lived in Omaha NE and due to the bad weather they would mail books to one’s home. And have free returns. That was short lived though. I recall being stuck in snow drifts on my way to the library. One time when I was hopelessly stuck, and a huge SUV shot by me as if it were a racetrack. So, I bought an SUV. So, do I like Hoopla. Probably as much as anyone could. My earphones have become a natural appendage. I set my Phone for thirty minutes and go to bed. I doubt if I could get to sleep without them. I can always find my place with thirty minutes if I fall asleep. Now, with Covid, it is a godsend. No need to touch anything. And, with the library closed, it is the only access to books. Thank you Los Angeles Library System!

Very good app

Hoopla is a very useful app and I’ve gotten a lot of books out of it: mostly audiobooks, quite a few ebooks, plus some music and graphic novels. It’s biggest problem is the very limited number of checkouts you have per months; occasionally I’ve run into limits on how many checkouts that my *library* is allowed. Because of this, I use Hoopla after I’ve exhausted all other options because, when ripping through a series of ebooks, it is very frustrating to have to wait for the next month to finish a set. I recall no standout problems with quality (every software can have bad moments) but for some silly reason Hoopla’s audiobook skip-backward function does not work with my vehicle’s sound system controls. It’s a long standing problem and very frustrating when you’ve missed something and, as you’re driving, there is nothing safe or legal to do about it but stop listening. Hoopla is one of five audiobook apps in my phone and it’s the only one with this problem, which suggests it should be a fairly easy fix <hint:>

On the plus side, it has a standout smart Lookup feature. It has the usual dictionaries but also connects into Wikipedia and if it finds a reference it shows a snapshot with pictures right up front. I’ve not noticed whether it’s good at language translations or not but perhaps I’ve not read that type of book yet on Hoopla.

Developer Response ,

The monthly borrow limit is something your library puts in place! Feel free to contact your library to see if they plan to increase their limit in the future. If you ever have any questions please contact us at feedback@hooplaldigital.com

Problems

Originally I liked the Hoopla app. Now not so much. It seems to be having what I consider insurmountable annoyances. It first started with the app freezing right in the middle of a book. I switched from using the app to read a book to just clicking on read now without using the app. That worked for a while but is now doing the same thing. Very frustrating when you have only so much time to read and then it freezes and you can’t. It isn’t my device at fault either since it happens not only on both tablets I use but also on my phone.
I’ve written to them twice with no response about this problem. I was sure they would fix it but no such luck.
Also it doesn’t sync between devices. The other library apps like Overdrive will pick up whatever page you’re on when you change devices. Not Hoopla. I’m sorry to say. This means endless scrolling page by page in order to get to your current page.
Oh and the latest annoyance is after reading maybe 10 pages a banner pops up and you have to click out of the book, it comes up with the download page and you then have to click on resume in order to keep reading. It’s almost enough to quit using this app. The only reason I come back to it occasionally is they have some books that the other services do not..if you want to try an app that works the way it should try Libby. They’ve got their act together.
Merry Christmas one and all. Hope the powers that be read this and fix these basic problems.