CCLaP: Obsession of the moment: BookSwim.com

August 27, 2007

Obsession of the moment: BookSwim.com

BookSwim.com

Thanks to Lifehacker for originally pointing this out...

As someone now regularly writing book reviews, I am of course trying to tear through as many novels as possible these days; and since there are not a lot of publicists yet who regularly send me free advance reader copies of these books, I am forced most of the time to rely on Chicago's excellent public library system instead. And while this is great when it comes to a lot of books out there I want to read, there are certain popular ones for which it's simply lousy; I've been waiting three freaking months and counting, for example, to get my hands on either Cormac McCarthy's The Road or Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You, with still no end in sight.

I could really use a service, then, like the new BookSwim.com, which simply bills itself as "Netflix for books;" that is, you pay a flat fee each month to BookSwim, and are then allowed to "check out" a certain amount of books from their warehouse, and to hold on to them for as long as you want. The basic plan, for example, costs US$20 a month (10 pounds, 15 euros), and lets you have three books out at any given moment; they're shipped to you for free in a padded envelope, just like Netflix DVDs, and contain a pre-stamped envelope for sending the book back, just like Netflix DVDs. As soon as you send a book back, you're eligible to have another one sent, which you pick from their interactive database at their main website; as of the day I'm writing this (late August 2007), the company has 150,000 titles available for rental, including nice big heaps in both "literary" and "science-fiction," two categories of specific interest to CCLaP readers.

I could see such a thing being a great supplement to any person out there like me, with a great love for reading but not much disposable income; a way to augment the more obscure books picked up at the library, the few "must-haves" that are out-and-out purchased, the loans from friends and the like. Of course, I've never actually used BookSwim, so I'll leave it up to readers to give us more info about the company itself, and if they're worth the price they're charging. Have you had a particularly good or bad experience with BookSwim? Or are you from BookSwim and want to point out something I might have missed? By all means, in all these cases please leave a comment, which don't forget are moderated to make sure they aren't breaking CCLaP's ethical guidelines.

Filed by Jason Pettus at 8:15 AM, August 27, 2007. Filed under: Arts news | Literature | Profiles |

Comments

this is pretty old but i am putting in my 2 cents anyway. the service must have improved a lot since the previous poster gave his review. i live in ct and the books travel to new jersey. i mailed back 2 books wednesday and friday they received them. i have been receiving books near if not at the top of my queue with the only delays happening if they have to special order the book. they have ordered every book that i requested that the didnt carry. i read an average of 10 books a month and so far its been worth it. my local library moved farther away and reduced their hours so i am happy i joined this service!

Posted by lynn | June 20, 2008 9:17 PM

At first I thought this was a great idea but after I gave it some thought I thought, "What about the authors?" These people spent months, even years of their lives writing a book. I think giving them a little of my money in exchange for knowledge, it doesn't feeling like a huge price to pay. Borrowing a book is one thing, but giving someone else money to read a book feels a little dirty to me.

Posted by Eric Moritz | December 9, 2007 3:11 AM

Have you tried it yet? I have been using since they started and there are many things wrong with the service, but most notably the incredible amount of time it takes to get books. It takes somewhere near 2 weeks for them to "receive" your books, and they don't send out new books until they receive your old, so turn around time is somewhere near a month. The search engine is horrific (even though they upgraded it already, it basically didn't function at all before). The queue you set up basically means nothing as far as what you note your preferred order. You always tend to get things near the end of your list. If you keep only enough things in your list so you get what you want, you wait even longer to get your books as they just wait until someone returns that one book before they send out to you. Don't sign up for anything more than the 3 at a time because it's impossible to get more than a shipment a month.
The one plus, the people are nice. And it's a great idea, just not functioning well at all. I wish they could fix it because I love the idea but am at my wits end with it.

Posted by A Zaner | November 27, 2007 11:25 AM