Why hasn't somebody done something similar to Netflix, but for books instead? I am an avid reader, and enjoy reading a variety of different things, but hate wasting money buying a book that I'm most likely going to read once and never again. The local library is merely "okay" with its selection - it is easy to quickly exhaust what they have available, and they rarely have those more unusual titles that I'm interested in reading. I am more than willing to buy sci-fi novels and the like - it is items like biographies, true-life stories, current event topics, etc. that I really don't like paying $20 - $25 for a hardcover book (they rarely come out in paperback) that I'm likely to read once (or try to read - not all of them are good) and then toss into a box forever.
I would love to have a service where I could pay $x per month and have a list of books that they would just send me as I finished another - I could very quickly compile a huge list of books that I'd love to read, ones that I hear about and then pass over because I can't justify the price for something I only have a passing interest in. The only hangup is they would probably need to have a selection (of newer books) on par with Amazon - just a few "best sellers" wouldn't cut it for me.
Posted by Mark at April 30, 2003 01:29 PM | TrackBackIt's been done. Check out www.booksfree.com.
Posted by: Dan Lauer at July 14, 2003 07:16 PMA great service for this is www.simplyaudiobooks.com
Posted by: John at December 2, 2004 09:07 AMAnother audiobook rental site is www.kitabe.com for MP3 audiobooks.
Posted by: at January 26, 2005 10:21 PMKitabe.com has the lowest starting price of all audiobook rentals and best of all, the entire audiobook comes in one shipment. All their collection has Unanbridged titles only. Cool site.
Posted by: Adrian at August 24, 2005 10:52 PM