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By now, most people have heard of Netflix, the video-rental service that allows you to queue up movies so you can have them delivered free to your door, keep them as long as you need, and return them free so you can receive your next bit of entertainment. They do this without individual rental fees or late charges like the local brick-and-mortar video store. Instead, you pay a monthly fee based on how many movies you want to watch.
During the past few years, a similar concept has been chipping away at local bookstores and libraries, too. Dubbing themselves, “The Netflix of books,” BookSwim provides people with free delivery and returns on books in exchange for a monthly fee.
BookSwim offers hardcovers and paperbacks, bestsellers and classics — and has recently started offering textbooks as well. Plans start at $9.95 per month for one book at a time and range as high as $59.95 per month for up to 11 books at a time. (Note the cheapest plan does not include free shipping — BookSwim tacks on a $3.99 shipping and handling fee for each book.) One advantage over Netflix is that BookSwim will let you hang onto one book while you’re waiting for the next one to arrive.
The concept seems pretty solid, and depending on your circumstances, you may find it’s a good deal. Do you have a lot of time to read books? Do you find yourself with less space in your house because you’ve spent your money on books and can’t afford to buy a place with the room to store them? Do you live in a remote location not near a bookstore or a library? Are you a student who is tired of playing the game of textbook roulette? (That’s the game in which you pay exorbitant amounts of money for a book you will use for just a few months and then not be able to sell back because a professor or publisher has decided a new edition is the one needed in class next semester.)
New hardcover books easily sell for $25 or more, and even paperbacks start at around $5 or $6, so I can see the benefits of such a program, although I found $60 a month a bit of a setback when reviewing the plans. I guess I don’t have that much time to read, and I can’t imagine needing 11 books available at once. However, I’m sure there are people who would do that much reading, and maybe $60 a month ends up saving them a lot of money. Sure, they could go to the local library, but as BookSwim points out, libraries don’t always have many copies, and you do have to worry about renewals and late fees. Some people have a hard time getting out to a bookstore or library due to age or mobility issues. BookSwim also touts their “try it before you buy it” concept, where you can buy a book you’ve rented if you decide it’s a keeper.
I couldn’t figure out on their Web site how much a book was going to cost if you decided to keep it, but otherwise, I was impressed with the clean layout of BookSwim. It seems easy to navigate and operate. I went seeking basic information about the service so I could write about it. The information was easy to find, and their services were explained in simple terms. There’s a search box for author, title, subject — even the ISBN number. Once you land on a book you’re interested in, BookSwim offers you ideas for other titles by that author and recommendations for other authors and titles you might enjoy.
There are already a lot of books stacked up in my house from purchases I’ve made — both new and used — so I’m not ready to dive into BookSwim, but I could see where this could work out well for some people. You’d need to calculate what you’re spending now to see if the value is there. By value, calculate money, time, and space — something that buying books the old-fashioned way takes.
Now, if only I had more time to read — hey, maybe if I just stopped blogging so much.