CLEVELAND, Ohio – Thank heaven for libraries.

So far this year, I’ve read 76 books. I’ve bought a handful – by authors I particularly want to support. The rest I’ve borrowed from the library, most of them without physically entering the building.

An app called Libby, developed by the Garfield Heights-based company OverDrive, lets me and millions of other library users request and borrow books to read on our phones, Kindles and iPads – for free.

Well, I guess not exactly free. The service, like the scads of community programs libraries provide, is supported by tax dollars. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

The shelves of my Libby account are full of ebooks and audiobooks, fiction and nonfiction. I devour novels by propping up my iPad while I pedal the elliptical at the gym, eat lunch

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