Rent an unlimited number of books online using BookSwim

Posted on December 12, 2007 at 7:35 am

Make sure to read other posts from the Rent Books Online series!

  1. Paperspine – Rent books online just like Netflix
  2. Rent an unlimited number of books online using BookSwim

I have to say that without a doubt, I love Netflix. It’s simply a marvelous system that saves me money, time and gets me exactly the movie I want to watch by allowing me to create a large queue of my favorite movies and forgetting about it! They also have a large range of plans to suite just about anyone, from $5 a month that gets you two movies one at a time all the way up to 8 movies out at a time!

Well, let’s say you’re not a huge movie watcher, but instead like to relax by reading a novel or magazine, etc, then what do you do? Even worse, if you like to read the latest books or biographies, you could be paying several hundred dollars a month on books alone! Wouldn’t it be nice if there was something like Netflix for books?

bookswim

BookSwim is just that! Here’s how it works: you create an online list of books you want to read, BookSwim will ship it to you for free, take as long as you want to read the book, then mail it back for free and get the next one from the list! Easy enough!

book rental

Of course, for the average American, this service is quite useless to put simply. According to a study, only 12% of Americans actually read one or more books per month, which largely restricts BookSwim’s market. However, it seems they are going for the niche market of avid readers who would enjoy not having to browse through libraries or bookstores to find books.

The only downside to BookSwim at this point is the cost. The starting plan is for 2 books out at a time for $14.99 a month. That’s quite a bit! Unless you’re reading more than 3 paperbacks or more than 1 hardcover book a month, it’s not worth the expensive. They have plans going all the way to a whopping 11 books at a time for $35.99! Does anyone actually read that much!? If so, post a comment because that is impressive!

They also state that it’s better than renting from a library because there are no late fees with BookSwim, however, to break even with book swim you need to go through several books within the same time period you are given by the library. Of course, renting books is better for the environment than buying books, so if you’re crazy about the environmental, the extra cost might be worth it.

book rentals

They also have well over 185,000 titles in their collection, including best sellers and new releases, as well as timeless classics and other hits. The genres range from fiction to sci-fi to biographies, etc.

This is a great service for avid readers and for book clubs of book groups that usually go through several books a month. If you’re using it or think it’s a a good idea, post a comment! Enjoy! Source ReadWriteWeb

[tags]rent books, book rental, online book rental, rent books online, bookswim, rental books, online book renting[/tags]

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5 Responses to “Rent an unlimited number of books online using BookSwim”

  1. thomas said on : December 12th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    hi,
    does commenting on blogs improve my website/blog google rankings?
    rgds.


  2. Bryan Stafford said on : December 12th, 2007 at 12:38 pm

    Booksfree.com has been doing this since 2000… for both paperback and audiobooks.


  3. akishore said on : December 12th, 2007 at 2:35 pm

    Hi Bryan, thanks for the heads up, didn’t know there was another site where you could rent books online.

    Thomas, commenting does not help in Google rankings. Sorry!


  4. klein said on : December 13th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

    So, basically the whole part about it being free is not really true.

    Get your facts straight before post a blog.


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  1. Paperspine - Rent books online just like Netflix Says:

    [...] Make sure to read other posts from the Rent Books Online series!Paperspine – Rent books online just like NetflixRent an unlimited number of books online using BookSwim [...]

    January 3rd, 2008 at 8:02 am
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