Comments on: Netflix for books

By: Carol Stewart

Carol Stewart — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 04:53:00 +0000

If I lived – as many people do – in an area where I did not have good library services, this would be perfect for me, if a little pricey. For those who seem to be overwhelmed by the idea of reading more than one book at a time – I rarely have less than three going. People read books differently. And for the person who said that listening to audiobooks “wasn’t really reading” – audiobooks allow me to read even more books than I would otherwise. I usually have at least one, sometimes two of those going at any given time as well (one in my house, one in the truck and maybe even a different one on the ipod).
I would never get any use out of netflix because I rarely watch movies – so having this kind of service for someone who reads the way that other people watch movies is fantastic. I already subscribe to audible.com because even though I can get audiobooks for free at my local library, they don’t always have the ones I want. Just like I buy some books – or, in this case, would be willing to rent some books – because my library might not always have what I want when I want it. This sounds like a great service – I hope they do well. And I’m glad to find out about the other swap/exchange book sites as well.

By: BigNerd

BigNerd — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 16:46:11 +0000

One in four people actually finished reading a single book last year.

It appears they have all been here and commented on this post.

My wife and I like going to our local library. However, I think books tend to find her rather than her looking for specific books.

By: Jeri Dansky

Jeri Dansky — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 06:40:45 +0000

Jerry, there are even more services than already noted. My blog post, 10 ways to find new homes for your books, lists nine swapping options: BookMooch and PaperBackswap and seven more. http://jdorganizer.blogspot.com/2007/07/10-ways-to-find-new-homes-for-your.html

By: Adam Snider

Adam Snider — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:03:40 +0000

Unless you live in an area with a poor library system, this is actually a pretty terrible solution, at least in my opinion.

My local library costs about $12 a YEAR for a card, a fee which they will waive if you tell them that you can’t afford it. And, late fees are something like $0.10 a day, so it’s really not a big deal if I’m a few days late.

By: E.D.

E.D. — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:50:40 +0000

Another vote for paperbackswap.com!

By: Pat

Pat — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:35:50 +0000

Here's another way to get rid of books: Donate them http://www.booksforafrica.org/ I'm sure there are lots of other organizations too.

By: Angela

Angela — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:01:39 +0000

I’m amazed at how derogatory some of these comments are but I guess thats part of comments and talking about money and stuff. Anyway, just like Book crossing, paper back swap, books free, and book mooch all work for some people, even if it is a “select few” it still works for someone. I read about 10 books a month if not more. And there are times when I can’t get to the library and I don’t want to build a “library” because its more stuff and I won’t reread most books. And yes, $20 is pricy but really so are movies from NF or BB. Its all about what is important to you. I personally would rather read in my time than watch movies. Each person is different and for me if unclutterer hadn’t talked about it I would never have known about this. Oh, and it makes sense that more of that $20 is going towards postage than anything else. Books are much bigger than dvds and so that price seems good, it will allow them to buy more books than just having the whole amount go towards shipping.

By: Jerry Brito

Jerry Brito — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:27:16 +0000

Jenny, Let me be clear: This is not a sponsored review. I’ve had no contact with Book Swim. Here at Unclutterer we would disclose any tie to a reviewed service/product.

Thanks to everyone else for their suggestions. The BookMooch.com, BookCrossing.com, PaperBackSwap.com, and BooksFree.com suggestions are all awesome! I never knew there were so many of these services.

By: Misa

Misa — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:05:01 +0000

I’d consider paying for a service like this but twenty dollars a month does sound a bit steep. Perhaps if I lived in an area where our library system wasn’t very good, I’d be more willing to do so. As it is, I often get books shipped to me from across the country if my library doesn’t have the one I’m looking for, via inter-library loans. I also live about a block from a Half-Price books, so between that and the library, it’s very rare that I spend twenty a month in books. (I used to, though, when I made more purchases from Borders.) However, when I DO spend that much a month in books, I want it is on books that I want to keep.

Perhaps if the price was lower…

By: Christie

Christie — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:38:20 +0000

Do any of the mentioned services give you book recommendations based on what you’ve read and enjoyed in the past? This is one aspect of Netflix that I really enjoy. I’ve started using goodreads.com to catalogue the books I’ve read and keep a list of the books I plan to read. It allows your “friends” to make book recommendations, but your counting on your “friends” to have the same taste as you do in book selection!

By: Leo

Leo — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:24:40 +0000

I tried booksfree.com awhile back, as the concept was the same (but cheaper). However, it took them like 6 weeks to ship books to me, which is ridiculous. So I canceled.

I now use Bookmooch.com, which I like a lot better.

By: Andamom

Andamom — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:31:18 +0000

Eh… I agree with the earlier posters that the library is always the way to go. In many locations including here in Brooklyn, if your specific branch doesn’t carry a specific book, you can order it to be delivered from another branch. It is free — and there are branches in most neighborhoods — so you are never that far away.

We do order DVDs from Netflix though because we are looking for specific movies — and many that the library carries are scratched.

By: rrr

rrr — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:03:12 +0000

I used booksfree.com for a while. The only problem I had was the books I wanted to read the most were older books that they had few copies of and so they kept sending me things from lower on my “want list.” And, of course, I still haven’t given up hording my books and I hated to send them back.

By: Amanda Himelein

Amanda Himelein — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:14:34 +0000

I think it’s a great idea. I DO read 3 books at a time: I try always to be in the middle of a novel, a non-fiction (history, biography, science, etc), and a personal development book. The library is great in the novel and non-fiction departments, but behind the times in personal development (or, rather, I devote as much time to personal development as I do to the entire rest of the library, and the library can’t keep up.)

$20/mo does strike me as expensive. It worked for Netflix because people’s alternative was Blockbuster, and movies take 2-3 hours to watch. 8 hours/day = 3 movies/day = $6/day at Blockbuster. Netflix was clearly cheaper.

8 hours/day = 1 book every 3-4 days = $2/day at Barnes & Noble. Not quite as good a deal, especially when MANY of the books you want, if not all, are available for free at the library, online, or borrowed from a friend.

If it works out for them, I wish them the best, and will subscribe when I can afford it. If there turns out to be insufficient demand…. I still think the first few posters were unnecessarily sarcastic.

By: T-mag

T-mag — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:53:30 +0000

This service would be great for people like me who go to the bookstore for one book and walk out with 150 bucks worth of books. Also if you have a big family and/or homeschool. Your kids can read all the best books and you can “store” them with the service. (Of course this will only work if the selection is there!) I think it’s worth looking at.