I love to read but one thing I hate is the price of books these days. The average price of a paperback is $20 in Australia and hardcovers cost between $35 and $45; it’s actually cheaper to buy books direct from the US. With living costs rising it makes reading very difficult, particularly when you think that a book falls to pieces after a couple of reads.
Like most people I love my local library but it rarely has all of the books I want. So what to do then? Well, I found this article earlier about several book rental sites and it sounds like a good idea. There’s one in Australia and several in the US for anyone interested; there might be others in other countries as well.
The best one in the US is Book Swim, which has over 200,000 titles and plans starting at $14.99 a month. Another is Books Free with over 140,000 titles and plans at $9.99 a month. Both feature unlimited rentals and prepaid postage and you can purchase the book for a discount if you want to keep it.
The Australian site is Slim Ink and is similar, although doesn’t have quite as many books. They have most new releases (like the new Tim Winton) and the plans are about the same as in the US. I was quite impressed and it seems like a good way of getting new books without having to pay a fortune for them.
Would you consider renting books? I know some people won’t like the idea but personally I don’t mind it; it’s not that different to a library and you’re only limited by your reading habits. One of the reasons reading is dying is because people can’t justify buying books when they need to put food on the table; anything that makes reading affordable and fun again seems like it’s worth trying.
I’m not sure if it’s for me as much – I buy most books secondhand anyway – but I’ll be interested to see how it goes.
in malaysia, book rental was the rage, and we still have some book rental stores around here. it was my main source for literature (think sweet valley, fear street and archie comics) as a kid, and thankfully my dad saw that as long as i was reading, it didn’t matter if they were trashy ones.
i would borrow 7 books every week from the store, and i’d have finished reading them in 2 or 3 days. the rental was cheap, about half the price of a paperback novel (‘cos i was borrowing children’s books). the last time i borrowed a book there, a typical bestseller book would have a rental fee of about rm7 to rm10 – the same book would cost about rm35 at the bookstore.
so, i definitely recommend book rental. if you ended up not liking a book after you finished it or feel indifferent towards it, at least you spent a lot less discovering that! as for finding a book you thoroughly enjoyed after renting it, well i’m sure you wouldn’t mind forking out a few more bucks for a copy for yourself.
and oh yeah, you have the option of not returning rented books if you don’t want to, since you have to pay a deposit to cover the full price of a book. very good for books you can’t find at the bookstore or secondhand bookshops!
CJ: So book rental has been around in Malaysia for a while? Interesting! I wonder why we’re only seeing it now in Aus? I’ve never heard of it before. It makes a lot of sense, though; who has the money to buy all the books they want? Kind of makes me wish I’d thought of it first.
You must be a fast reader if you could get through 7 books in a couple of days! Usually I can finish about two books a week if I have time. Fear Street brings back a lot of memories, btw. I must have read all of them in the mid 90s. I used to read Christopher Pike too. His books were really creepy.
I think my main worry about this kind of rental is the post. Our post service is quite bad for losing things and I’d be much more comfortable if there were a local store but there’s probably not enough money in it for that. Oh well, I’ll just have to try it at some stage. And as you said, it’d definitely be good for books I can’t find anywhere else!
Nice blog you have here.
I’ve never heard of book rental, what a good additional option! I am very fortunate that my local library is really excellent. What my branch doesn’t have, they are happy to get for me from another branch. Additionally we have several monster used book stores in my area, which are almost like lending libraries, because once I’ve finished reading a book I can usually sell it back to them, or get store credit—even better! more books!
CJ: Thanks, Muse! It seems very me, doesn’t it?
So you hadn’t heard of rentals either; it’s completely new to me too, so I’ll be interested to see how it goes. I might try it at some stage, though I think I’d still prefer “owning” books. Guess old habits die hard.
Your library sounds great. You have a system in the US where you can order books from other libraries as long as they’re in the same state, don’t you? Our system’s a bit different here; we have three branches locally which swap books but anything else you have to pay a fee for the branch to purchase it… even if a library just twenty minutes away has it, they still can’t get it, which drives me crazy. At the moment I’m paying to get books in anyway, so I can see where renting might be good.
I love used book stores too. There’s one three minutes from where I live and they tend to have all the books I want, so I’m in there a lot; you can never have too many books, eh?
Magazine Rentals are very popular in India. Same concept – Since people can’t afford to buy all the magazines, they become members of a “Circulating” library. You need to pick out the Weeklies/Monthlies you’d like to read – they are delivered at your doorstep.
I’m a member of a book lending library – though its very similar to a regular library. The main difference is, as you say, you could purchase the book if you want, after reading it. But, this library specializes in old books.
Haven’t seen a renting library where brand new books are available. I’m sure there must be a few. I have to check.
CJ: Magazine rental sounds like an interesting idea. Magazines are largely disposable; you read them once or twice and then don’t have any more use for them, so I can see a system like this making a lot of sense. I’ll have to see if they have one in Sydney; I wonder how they’d compare in price to something like Slim Ink.
Something I thought of earlier is that many libraries, at least over here, have started selling books. They sell off old copies but also donations, even if they’re brand new; I’ve donated books in good faith only to see them on the sales rack a few days later. Libraries are becoming more businesslike, so perhaps there is a market for rentals. I still prefer second-hand bookshops but anything that gets people reading again is a good thing.
You’d think there’d be a few renting libraries in India. I still think the reason they haven’t caught on here is our population size; they seem fairly well known overseas. I’ll have to try Slim Ink at some stage… maybe in a few months. I’ve got an order coming from Amazon that will keep me going for now.