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 ;))
19 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!
This is an old post now I know, but I was wondering if any of you guys had considered Safari Books Online as an alternative, or if you were even aware of it?
I think there’s a reason why nobody’s had success with computer book rental - it’s not economically viable, especially when you compare it to something like Safari which has no postage costs, and none of the ‘trust’ and depreciation issues associated with lending your expensive computer books to customers and hoping they return them and do so in good condition!
I’ve been using Safari for several years and would reccommend it to other developers. If it seems a bit pricey for the amount that you would use it then consider sharing the account with a few trustworthy colleagues?
Hi Sev,
I stopped being notified of new comments (just sorting that out now…) so apologies for the delay.
I did know of Safari but had tow objections to it. One was the price, which as you say can be addressed by sharing the account. The other is reading books on screen is never pleasurable
I like a paper copy to flick back and forth, to sit in a comfortable posture and read from something that isn’t glaring at me.
I know there’s ebook readers around now, but the ones I’ve seen are more suited to novels than technical manuals.
I have been searching for somethign like this for ages now - there seem to be quite a few in the US but nothing here. Lovefilm is such a good idea, why is no-one doing it for books? by the time I get home from work my local library is shut!
Still cant catch it…. very cool post tho
Do you think the iea of having a website that allowed us people in the UK to rent their books would have been a good idea?
I don’t think copyright laws in the UK allow this. You cannot rent out books unlike in the USA. The libraries in the UK work under ‘Fair Dealing’ terms, hence they can rent out books for educational purposes.
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