Overdrive for iOS

Overdrive finally came out with a solution for getting library books onto iOS devices. It took them long enough, but apparently not long enough.
At first the app was iPhone only (crazy for an e-book app) and it took a month for them to update it to a universal app. I didn't even bother with it until it was universal. The iPhone screen is great, but it is not my first choice for leisurely reading.
On the iPad it is a passable experience. The text is clear, pages turn using the standard tap on the side motion, and the interface is nice and sparse. Along the bottom you can see how far you are into the current chapter, but this display auto-hides and I found it tricky to bring back up consistently. There along the top there are buttons for getting to the TOC, adjusting text size, adjusting brightness, bookmarking, and getting to the main menu.
I found the text layout flat, but that could have been the e-book. I also found the lack of a dictionary troubling. I guess I've become spoiled by being able to look up words without leaving the book.
Getting books into the app is where it really falls down. To check books out of the library, you must leave the app and go to the library's web site. The app sort of helps you locate the right library, but the mechanics of it are poor. Basically you need to scroll through long lists. The Boston Public Library's site was OK on the iPad, but not great. Searching was terrible.
All in all the app is OK. It is not the one of the more polished e-book apps out there, but it will get library books onto your iPad.

Mr. Peanut

Rare is the book I don't bother finishing. I usually push through even a terrible book hoping that there will be some nugget of goodness or some bit of value in it. Most times there is something.
"Mr. Peanut", however, was a book I could not suffer through. It is one of those fashionable post-modern novels wrapped up in a novel wrapped in a character's head wrapped up in a mystery novels. Novels like this are either clever or terrible. This one is terrible. The prose is dead on the page, the characters are unlikable and unbelievable, and the plot cannot make up it's mind about being a murder mystery or a tale of domestic misery. The misery could have fed the mystery and made it interesting, but in this case the misery is omnipresent and overshadows the mystery.
I'm glad I got this one out of the library and didn't pony up the cash for it.