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Is it time to rent a book?
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Recently, I've read about several options for renting books. Given the high cost of books for college classes, textbook rental seems to be a logical choice. Now, we're seeing companies hoping to make a go of renting popular non-fiction, as well as fiction and textbooks.
I haven't jumped on the bandwagon and tried these services yet, so to give you an idea of how book rental works, here are a couple of current stories:
- The Wall Street Journal: A Textbook Case of Renting Books by Peter King-- "To see how the process works, we ordered textbooks from three rental companies: Book Renter, Campus Book Rentals and Chegg; and one textbook seller, Textbooks.com, which doesn't rent books, but offers guaranteed buybacks on some texts, making those books a quasi-rental." Read more …
- CNET News, Speeds and Feeds: BookSwim: Netflix for books? by Peter Glaskowsky -- " A new Web-based rental service called BookSwim describes itself as Netflix for books. After checking it out, that seems to be a fair enough summary." Note that in comments to this article, Booksfree.com and Paperspine.com. Read more …
Renting books will never be considered by some readers, while others will totally embrace the idea. It won't work for those who like to mark and highlight as they read or readers who get emotionally attached to their books and tend to read them over and over. I like to have my favorites right at hand so I can go back and pick up a page or a chapter whenever the notion strikes.
That said, if it becomes economically viable for both readers and companies, the convenience of renting books just might catch on.
What do you think?
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