Ficlets

You ready to rent books, like DVDs?

BookSwim aims to be the “Netflix of books.” Since 1998, Netflix has become the king of online DVD services by renting batches of DVDs via the mail for a fixed monthly fee, and letting subscribers keep the movies as long as they like.

That’s how BookSwim is meant to work. For $15 to $20 per month, the company will send your top five book choices. Return three books in a prepaid envelope, and your next three choices will be mailed to you.

I find this an interesting model, and one reason I see it working is that I think some folks in the world – i.e., the yuppie types – have completely forgotten that there are these free repositories of books call libraries, from which one can rent books for no fee, and even if the library doesn’t have the book in question, it can usually be gotten via interlibrary loan. These folks will pay for the convenience of not actually having to set foot in a library and mingling with hoi polloi, and you know what? Bless their little half-caf latte hearts for it.

I wish these guys luck, but don’t imagine I’ll be a Bookswim renter myself; I like owning books, and I like my local library. How about you?