There's a "Netflix" for renting books? who knew? Whadda think?

[dixiegrrrrl]

I had no idea.
There is a book rental site.
You pay so much a month, books you choose are mailed to you, you read them, send them back, postage free.

3 books a month ( or however long you want to keep them) for abut 24.00 a month.

I dunno...good idea? bad idea? Would it work for you?

http://www.bookswim.com/plans.html

x-posting in Books: fiction

[ejpoeta]

1. couldn't you just go to the library? it's free.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. This will sound strange, but the "pressure" of having to finish a book in 2 weeks.....

drives me nutz.
And I worked in libraries for years!

Not that I would pay to rent via this online thing, either.

Large swap sites and cheap used books via Amazon, THAT works real well for me.

[ejpoeta]

13. i know what you mean about the pressure thing. but you can just renew it. i can renew books online

at my library. don't even have to go. of course, i can only do that once (i think) then i have to go do it at the library. but i know what you mean. it used to take me no time to read a book when i was younger with no kids. now it just took me a month to read 'the help' on my ipod. because i can only read for like five minutes at a time. so i get that.

[BNJMN]

17. Library to review (at yr leisure) then on to amazon and / or local bookstore.

But mainly Amazon.

:(

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

20. You have a tough library!

I just checked out a book, I have a month to read it.

Also, I get stuff from ebay books, and older stuff from second-hand stores (salvation army etc).

[GodlessBiker]

2. A library is free.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Before republicans slashed all the funding

we used to have Public Libraries.

[FSogol]

4. I'm lucky enough to live in Fairfax County, VA. Awesome library which

even lets us check out e-books and e-audiobooks.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/

I wouldn't be able to live in an area that didn't have a great library system.

[sharp_stick]

5. Is this satire?

$23/month for three books when the library is free?

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. I think it may have something to do with distance, gas, 110 degree temperatures outside,

lack of transportation, cost of new books being more than 20.00...or all of the above.

Which are some of the factors that make Netflix better than going to a movie.

speed readers will make out like bandits:
#
"Unlimited reading each month.Enjoy as many books as you want for one monthly price"

I might be talking myself into something here...lol.
No books cluttering up the house when you are done reading them...hmmmm.

[Book Lover]

6. I see they offer college textbooks -

this is a good model for getting access to your text, but I have to otherwise agree with the other folks here. If you are well served by your library system (and I know many folks are not), this probably doesn't make sense for you. Besides, the library offers AV materials, ebooks, MP3s, access to computers; some large systems haev toold to check out.

[bananas]

7. And there are inter-library loans, if your local library doesn't have what you want

they can get it for you from another library.

[emcguffie]

8. Our library took that away because of funding cuts.

That was because of Chris Christie. It might have been restored by now, I don't know.

[bananas]

9. Ack. nt

[Book Lover]

12. Excellent point

Again, when available, ILL is great. I once got a book that way from a library several hundred miles away - amazing!

[Not Me]

10. We have the best public library in the country

here in Orlando. Not only do they have a tremendous collection of books, books on CD, movies, CD's and these little ipod like devices called Playaways (pre-loaded with an audiobook), you can go online and find what you are looking for and they deliver it to your home.

And the library assessment on my annual tax bill is $23.

www.ocls.info

[YankeyMCC]

15. Would be good idea for ereaders

only because my library doesn't support kindle format (the one thing I don't like about my kindle, which was a gift i probably never would've bought one on my own) is the proprietary format not supported by the library ebook loaning programs out there.

[SheilaT]

16. I use that place called "The Library."

It's as if you've never heard of it.

Most libraries (including mine here in Santa Fe) allow you to reserve books on-line, even make them tote a book from one branch to your nearest one, renew books on-line. Don't know if they can lend books to e-readers, since I don't have one.

Best of all, this library doesn't charge past due fines. If you do have a book more than 14 days past due, you can't check out new books, so there is some reasonable control. Now that I've figured out the on-line renewal, I almost never have an overdue book anyway. I also like that the reserve listing tells me where I am on the list 17 or 34 holds, for instance. It also means that when I have a book checked out and I'm wanting to renew it, I can first see it's on hold for someone else, in which case I won't be able to renew.

I can also make suggestions for purchases, which they do pay attention to.

And I find that the pressure of a time limit on how long I can have a book actually forces me to get reading and finish the books. The down side is that I own a lot of books that I'm not getting around to reading because I have so many library books checked out all the time.

[erpowers]

18. Bad Idea

This is a really bad idea. The only people who would need this are people who do not live anywhere near a library. Libraries allow people check out an unlimited amount of books for free for about 2-6 weeks at a time. Once the last due date has come all they have to do in bring the book back and then check it out again whenever the book becomes available again.

The only time it costs someone to check out a book from the library is when they pass the due date. Even at that point the cost is still smaller than the cost of the renting service. The normal cost of missing a due date is about 10 to 20 cents a day.

[amyrose2712]

19. Yeah really, I just took out 7 books for 3 weeks and can renew online 4 times.

I think this is a terrible model unless there is no library. I have only just rediscovered my library, having spent so much time in them as a kid.

[SheilaT]

21. I rediscovered the library

when my personal financial situation changed and I could no longer afford to buy very many books. And I'm a lot happier now, because the mix of books at the library is inevitably different from the mix at a bookstore. I still buy the odd book, but only if it's either one I'm pretty sure the library isn't going to stock or I think I'll want to have a copy of the book around.

[tgearfanatic234]

22. Really?

Better check it out

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[iris27]

24. For $24.00 a month, you could BUY 3 mass-market paperbacks outright. Then you could lend

them to others, or sell them, or donate them, or just grow your personal library.

The cost of that site is like paying $60/month for Netflix.