Here’s a business idea for the budding entrepreneur: a computer book version of “DVDS365″:http://www.dvds365.com/, “ScreenSelect”:http://www.screenselect.co.uk/, “Video Island”:http://videoisland.com/ and “Mailbox Movies”:http://www.mailboxmovies.com/ (flat-rate DVD rental sites). There’s enough interesting computer books coming out at present that I’d like to read, but probably wouldn’t want to own a copy of. Computer books also cost way too much to buy on the off-chance.
So, a flat rate monthly subscription, allowing you to keep 3 books out as long as you want sounds ideal. Throw in the option to purchase, and you’ll have a happy audience 
The postage would cost a lot more than DVD’s, which might mean it isn’t as viable, but maybe there’s a way round that.
Oh, and the books I want to read can be found on “my Amazon wishlist”:http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/registry/3v0uy1qfgc97j (purchases gratefully received ;))
13 comments ↓
It takes a lot longer to read a Book than watch a single DVD so you may as well buy the book!
intersting idea I had the same thought today
Just googled the idea of book rental along the same lines as the dvd rental service I get from tesco at the moment, hoping it was out there. Turns out it is : http://www.booksfree.com, but only for the US. Am a bit gutted, and if I was in any way entrepreneurial I would do something about it. But I’ll probably just wait til it reaches this country.
You could try Read it, Swap it (www.readitswapit.co.uk) - just have to pay postage and always room on your bookshelf!
Great idea - Would have saved me a fortune in C++ books over the years! Might even have left room on my bookshelf for other books…
Can’t believe no one is offering this service, just assumed I’d be able to rent books like I do dvds!
A great many people don’t have the time to visit a library, there’s a huge gap in the market for this type of thing.
The best book rental is bookswim.com. For a low monthly price you can rent any book you want and it is shippes to you free!! When done you return the books you rented. No late fees, no shipping fees. To me this is a perfect solution because I read a lot and spend a lot on books. This is convientent and affordable.
Any in the UK? I have looked all around and could only find book swim which is US only, would love one in the UK, lost that I would like to read and I would rather not buy them all!
Kylie: I was talking about this with a friend on MSN (who’d invented another library system) and we realised the public library service in the UK solve this problem far more cheaply than any book rental service could!
Here in Southampton (not the cheapest library service in the country) I can order any book for £2 (less than the postage cost for most computer books) and they’ll source it. Last time I ordered they tried to get the book from a library in the USA because none in the UK had it - buying a copy would have been cheaper for them!
There’s just one problem with relying on the library service - they are not always able to source it quickly. Something a rental service *might* be able to compete on.
Peter - that only works if you have time to go to the libary and a local libary!
I have no idea where my nearest one is and dont drive to get to one, Work full time so when I come out of work they are all shut and I dont get a long enough lunch break to get to one!
I still think there is a pretty big market to do books online, if they can do it in the US why not here?!
The problem is this: how do you manage to get your hands on thousands of books before you can even think about renting them out? It’s a great idea though but I think it would take a lot of money to get it off the ground.
lots of things take money to get off the ground, Im pretty certain love film will have cost a fortune to set up aswell!
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