I just ran across the site booksfree.com, and started hyperventalating. It’s the Netflix business model - for as little as $8 a month, they’ll send you books, you keep them as long as you want, then send them back in prepaid mailers. Free shipping and all that. The only drawback is that they only do paperbacks, for obvious reasons, so they don’t have any real new releases. Still, it sounds great.
Has anyone here used these guys? Any recommendations? Warnings?
How is this better than borrowing books for free from the library?
Well, I just took a look, and I won’t be signing up anytime soon. They seem to only have fiction. I’m not sure what advantage it’s supposed to have over the library, besides the mailbox factor; the library is actually free and has non-fiction.
Also, should your library be lacking in any book you’d like to read, you can still get it for free (or possibly a very small fee, depending) through Interlibrary Loan. Just about any book at all, mind you.
But for those of us with obnoxious toddlers to drag around, $8 a month might be worth it not to have to actually go to the effort of going to the library. Also it is hard to browse the stacks with the kid in tow - so I’ll be taking a look at this site.
Twiddle
Interesting concept … I’m fortunate to have a pretty good library handy, with a website where I can put books on hold, get notified when they’re ready & just make a quick stop at the front desk on my way home. Checkout is usually for a month, with 1 renewal if there’s no holds on it. If they did ILL’s (InterLibrary Loans) online, I’d be in heaven!
You might look into BookCrossing as well - a lot of the people there will pass along the books they have on their list. Some might ask for postage, others don’t. I’m over there with the same username.
I like to write in my books, so to me, it’s worth it to check out Half.com and buy the damn book for 85 cents.
Oh, man, tell me about it! I’ve taken to putting my books on hold at the library website and just picking them up at the desk after spending most of our time in the children’s room. Does your library have an online catalog?
It does actually. I never thought about having the books put on hold and just picking them up!
If you have a Palm/Handheld device you can also just make memos to yourself on your desktop, look the Dewey Decimal numbers up on the card catalog at your local, note them, Hot sync, then when you do have time to get to the physical building you can beeline to the books you want and be out in a jiffy.