Book Rentals

I’m curious to know if anyone has tried Booksfree.com. It seems like it would work really great so I tried it last year. It’s supposed to be like Netflix but with books. You put books that you want to read into a queue and they ship you three at a time (or how every many depending on what you sign up for). They include a free shipping envelope and you can return them whenever you are done reading for more books. This is a great concept but not so great of a deal depending on where you live.

The catch is that books are sent by USPS Media Mail. This is a special type of shipping for books that is less expensive. The drawback is that depending on where a package is going it can take up to 21 days! Books Free is located in Virginia which means for me that they have to travel cross county to California and usually takes 3 weeks. However, if you’re lucky enough to live in a state neighboring Virginia, you could have your books in two days. This sucks for me because the way you get your money’s worth is to read quickly (and I do) but I have to wait such a long time for the books that I don’t get to read as many as I want to.

So, the bottom line for me is that until these guys get either a better shipping option or a closer distribution center I’m not interested. If you live in the eastern half of the US it might be worth checking out. It’s certainly cheaper than buying all your books, plus you can save some trees. I’d love to know if you’ve tried Booksfree.com and what you think of it. Also I’d be interested if you have any suggestions for other book rental services by mail.

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