You have been staring at the same view from your car window for the past nine hours, and there’s still four more to go. The endless fields of grass and the expanse of the sky merge into one. Beyonce’s album, 4, is on repeat, and you are utterly bored. Sound familiar? But this doesn’t have to be the case on your next road trip if you download the iPad app OverDrive, the new “Netflix of books”.

OverDrive is a digital distributor of audio books and eBooks that’s now available to every Saint Stephen’s student. It is an eBook “rental service” that functions like the Kindle app. Simply install the app, select a book –out of 2,500– and download it.

Ms. Christina Pommer, the Upper School Librarian, introduced major updates and improvements to OverDrive, and is now encouraging students of all divisions to use it.

Junior Sam O’Dell said it was really easy to use and straightforward.

“You don’t have to go through the hassle of ordering books. You can just do it all on your iPad and [all of the books are] in one place,” O’Dell said.

The ability to get books quickly is something Pommer is thrilled about.

“I can get it to [the student] within an hour, which is something I couldn’t do with print books,” she said.

Pommer said a lot of independent schools have banded together to share this one gigantic collection, so she wanted to be a part of that team.

“[Since OverDrive is compiled of] eBook and audio book services for the school, [it] supplements our print collection of books that we have here in the library,” Pommer said.

The students have an account set up either by Ms. Pommer or their advisor, and once the students know their account information, they are able to access OverDrive immediately. Once logged in, they select a book from a colorful display of titles, and it’s in their reading list for 14 days. A couple of OverDrive’s other features include holding and recommending books to others. Additionally, once the student starts reading, OverDrive recognizes the genres the reader picks most often and suggests similar books, which is a popular feature of Netflix.

When asked what the best feature of OverDrive was, Pommer mentioned its mobility and convenience.

“You’re able to take the books with you wherever you go and it all fits on a device that you’re going to carry anyways, [like] an iPad. You don’t have a backpack loaded with books,” Pommer said.