BorrowBox Library

Emma Molloy

1 year ago

I love being able to borrow library books from the comfort of my own home. It is easy to navigate and I have a list of reserves so that I have a few books lined up at a time. Also, if I am not enjoying a book I can return and get a new book within minutes. New releases are understandably under more demand so it can take a while to be able to borrow, unlike in the physical library. Being able to use the app has reignited my love for books!

Eabha Wall

1 year ago

Fantastic free way to enjoy books. I use this exclusively for audiobooks, as the rented ebooks aren't compatible with kindle. Even when you are in a queue to rent a book, it usually arrives in your app earlier than anticipated. I only wish you could listen at different speeds - 1.25 and 1.5 speeds can be too fast. A 1.1 option would be great.

Trish

1 year ago

I've been using Borrowbox for years and the App just keeps getting better! It's so easy to use for borrowing books, extending the loan period (if you need to), placing reservations and the actual listening experience is great. It's easy to navigate to your place in the book - if you fall asleep listening! I find it very useful to be able to listen in bed, to take your mind off anything that's worrying you. Just set the sleep timer and away you go. I listen to audiobooks all day and love it.

R W

1 year ago

Just won't play audiobooks. It used to work fine but now pauses immediately every time you hit play. I tried to send feedback from within the app, but it brought up my contacts list instead, which shows you the quality of the design of this very poor app. Quality is determined often by how helpful something is when it goes wrong. This fails completely.

Lyn the penguin

11 months ago

Pretty good app. Only downside is the search facility. Can take several goes to find the book you want. There is no sort on the search results. Hint: Try searching on reader instead of author. Sometimes helps. Also, the search function is much better on the laptop version to the mobile version. Find & select your books there, then listen to them on your phone.

Sharon Sheady

11 months ago

Love listening to BorrowBox audio books, it helps me relax and unwind. Also perfect for when I am doing housework, it stops me thinking about the chores around the house. There is a great selection of audio books and I never struggle to find a new book. I enjoy listening before I go to sleep as it's ideal having a timer set so I don't need to worry if I fall asleep and forget to turn it off. I also borrow a weekly newspaper so I am up to date with the world. It's my favourite app on my phone.

Sarah

11 months ago

Would probably have given 4 stars but app has become unusable for me. Takes ages for books to load ('counting pages' takes forever). Today suddenly the footer which contains the settings for font, page setup etc. just remains in place and is impossible to move, covering the last few lines of each page. There is no in-app help function, 'Give feedback' just takes you to the 'share' function, and there is no way to contact developers for help. Very disappointing 👎 Edit: Upgraded to 4* - resolved!

Bob Jones

11 months ago

The playback is fantastic, making it a joy to listen to books. While the ebook selection is decent, I find myself reaching for my tablet for the larger screen. My main gripe is the lack of detailed filters when browsing for new titles. Breaking down the categories further would be a big improvement. Additionally, the ability to browse only available titles would be a welcome feature. Overall, BorrowBox is a great app, but some improvements to the browsing experience would make it even better.

Rhiven

10 months ago

Pretty good on the whole and I use it regularly. It still could do with better forward/rewind functionality and the sleep function frequently stops counting down and doesn't turn off at the moment. I'd also like the app to tell me which books I've already borrowed when browsing the categories for a new one.

M Hutchings

11 months ago

Annoyingly cuts off the bottom of every newspaper page, requiring delicate manipulation which inevitably fails. Can this please be fixed? It's bad enough for the text to be too small but please let us place each page into a visible part of the screen. The black page number section at the bottom should automatically hide unless the screen is double tapped.

Lindsey Cox

10 months ago

I too have a problem with the "counting pages" and downloading takes a while. I also find the lack of filters on the search very frustrating. Searching for a specific author seems impossible - every variation on the name is added to the list. Otherwise, it is a great app for taking books anywhere!

daniel brcko

11 months ago

This is a fabulous app for reading and listening to books. However, the newest update has disappointed me - when you lock the screen, the only audiobook menu options are pause, go to the beginning of the track or switch to the next one. The 30 secs backwards and forwards option is gone! And that's the one we audiobook listeners need the most. So now we have to unlock the screen and go inside the book itself to rewind 30 secs. Hopefully this will get restored soon!

M V

11 months ago

7/7/24. Since the update the app is repeating sections of text twice at random intervals Older review: 5☆ Great, provides great choice from our city library. Search by type -fiction/non fiction,book title, topic, genre, author, etc. Tiny bit slow when I first log on, probably due to updates to the large selection of books available. Worth it for the great selection of free books!

Crs Matt

10 months ago

Meh, have only used the audiobook feature, but the chapter bar is really horrible to use. Unable to be precise in fast-forwarding or re-winding. Audible is far superior in that area. Also, sleep option has 2 times now not turned off on selected time chosen and my borrow book had continued running. Very annoying, but i guess you cant complain too much over a free app. I prefer to use Audible, its a monthly cost but app is perfect.

J C

2 years ago

If you've used Kindle, it's like a basic version. When reading books, it does the job, but don't expect much more. The biggest bug-bear though is trying to find new books. The library (both app and website) has New Releases and New to Library categories. But neither correctly sort books - titles from months ago frequently appear at the top of results. "New to old" sorting does not work.

Heather

2 years ago

Would love some more features. Great if I'm using just my phone to listen - BUT I often listen to audiobooks while I'm walking or driving. I would love to be able skip back 15 or 30 seconds by using the functions on my garmin watch or android auto in the car. If I'm listening to a podcast, I can do this, not with a book however - it's very frustrating to be wanting to just go back a little, bit, press the 'back button' and it skips back a whole chapter instead of just 15 or 30 secs. HELP!

Nova Reactor

3 years ago

App works ok. The search function is pretty slow and does not yield the best results. Most annoying is the audio playback speeds. Whoever designed this clearly never listened to an audiobook. There needs to be smaller incrementals. Options start with: 1, 1.25, 1.5, etc. Most of the time 1 (normal speed) could use a bit of an increase but 1.25 is way too fast. On Audible, I usually listen back at 1.10 or 1.15.