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Swimming Upstream in a World of Books
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Stephen King has a new book out, and you want it.
There's a new Janet Evanovich coming out next summer, and you want it, too. And the newest Omar Tyree, and the latest Eric Jerome Dickey, and this really cool business book you heard Malcolm Gladwell wrote, the Willie Nelson western, the new Nicholas Sparks, that new Zane book (hoo wee!) and about three dozen other books that you're dying to read.
But at $20 to $30 bucks a crack to buy them and a waiting list a block long at the library, you know it's going to be awhile before you get read to any of those books.
Sigh.
Yeah, I'm there, too. So many books, so little time, right? Which is why I was interested when I got an email from this new service called BookSwim.
You know how Netflix works, right? Pay a fee, order a movie, get it, watch it, send it back, get another. BookSwim works along those same lines.
I checked out the website (www.BookSwim.com). If you're a slower, casual reader, you can get 3 books at a time for $9.95 a month, which is less than half the price of the average hard-cover book, even with the discount card that the Big Chains want you to carry. If you consider that you get three books for that price, it's a HUGE savings. Even more, if you get six books (three at a time, twice) a month.
The programs (and prices) go up from there. Romance readers and oater lovers who can whip through a book in a day can get more books at a time for a higher fee, and the books will come to your door.
Advantage #1: as with those movie rental websites, you can keep a book as long as you want. There's no "due date" (like at the library), and nobody asking for their books back (like, when you borrow from friends). If you can't bear to part with the book, you can buy it (presumably, at a discount) and keep it forever and ever.
Which leads me to advantage #2: you don't have to keep books forever and ever. If you're a big reader, you know how much hassle it can be to get rid of that which you've finished reading, particularly paperbacks that are past their prime. You know how hard it is to store books. With BookSwim.com, all you do it drop them in the mail when you're done reading them. And the postage is free, both ways.
Although I didn't sign up myself, this looks promising, especially for voracious, hungry readers with slim budgets. Many recent best-sellers are on the website, which should mean they'll be getting brand-new books as they come out. It is to hope that they'll have enough copies to go around when a book is wildly popular ("Twilight", anyone?) My only complaint right now is that there is a lack of the off-beat in their choices, but as the site gets popular, that's bound to change.
I'm optimistic about BookSwim. I like the idea. It's a great way to try new authors, risk-free; an excellent Earth-friendly way of getting books you want to read without killing another tree; a good way to become uber-literate on a budget; and at a price that's not all wet.
