[JZL003]

I'm a really heavy overdrive user, and I wouldn't trust the waiting time. Join multiple libraries as well - the limiting factor is if the library has bought the book not the waiting time. Their prediction algorithm seems to assume everyone keeps it for the full 14/21 and many people don't. Also most libraries have multiple copies which speeds things up a ton

Because the best secret tip is that overdrive doesn't encrypt their mp3's. They even admit it at [1]. I don't know about iOS but on android it's just stored plaintext in the android system. So you just get on hold for books and whenever they come in, download then, and don't have to worry about loans. I try to be nice about this and buy the book for author's books I've enjoyed because I want to support artists. But it's nice to not have the limitations of 21 days, especially for longer books

Overdrive is trying to go to libby where they obfuscate the mp3s but they might not push it through

Also don't discount text to speech. It's not as nice as a real narrator but I also walk 5+ hours on weekends and it's nice to be able to listen to arbitrary text. Google's TTS is pretty readable and has a generous free tier

[1] https://help.overdrive.com/en-us/0004.html