After listening to an interview with Forrest Fenn and Douglas Preston, I wanted to read The Codex (Preston’s novel loosely based on Forrest’s treasure hunt). I borrowed a set of cds from my local library to listen to in the car. I soon discovered my car’s cd player is horrible; the cds kept stuttering and skipping. So instead I downloaded the same title from Hoopla.

This is my first experience with Hoopla Digital. I was surprised to hear a different voice reading it (and even more surprised that they don’t tell you who the narrator is). I would have thought there’s a single audio version that exists in different formats; download or cd, etc.

Since I enjoyed the cd narrator better (Scott Brick), I started listening to it on my pc. No more skips. But…after repeating what I had already heard from Hoopla, I discovered an entire section missing from the Hoopla version.

If you know the book, Sally and Tom steal a boat near the beginning of their journey.

In the Hoopla version: as soon as they pull away from the dock, they’re alone on the river.

In the cd version: The police run to the dock and start shooting at them.

What’s up with that? There are other chunks that are missing from the Hoopla book, both from the streamed and the downloaded version.

I went back to the Hoopla book page to make sure it wasn’t marked as abridged. Nope!

So it looks like Hoopla has big pieces missing without telling anyone. I reported it but haven’t gotten any reply.

This is something most people wouldn’t notice unless they listen to cds alongside their digital books, which most wouldn’t do.

It still surprised me. I guess since Hoopla is free, you get what you pay for. (The library is free too, but in a different way). Personally, I won’t use Hoopla again. If I get a book, I want the full thing the way the author intended.