One of the benefits of living in the densely populated urban setting that we have called home for almost 13 years now is the access to a gigantic supply of books thanks to a vast public library system. But I can remember the small house that functioned as my rural hometown’s library as clearly as I can recall the frustration I regularly experienced at the lack of current titles, tiny circulation and limited hours of operation. I simply couldn’t imagine trying to fulfill my reading desires under those circumstances if I still called that small town my home.
And then I heard about BookSwim. The most simple and accessible explanation of BookSwim’s services is to call it the Netflix of books. A variety of leveled plans exist for membership, determining the number of books that you may have checked out at a time with differing costs. For all but the lowest plan level, shipping the books both ways is also free. The complete details for their plans can be found here.
I was offered a free trial membership with BookSwim for three months, and I was happy to use it to supplement my usual reading supply of review copy books with several of the novels that have been on my “someday” reading list for a while. Since their offerings also include children’s books, I put a few picture books in our queue as well.
On the positive side, I appreciated their extensive list of titles, especially fulfilling my primary reading choice of contemporary fiction. Their collection is easy to browse online, and I was happy to quickly be set to receive really popular titles like The Help, The Almost Moon, The Book Thief, and Shanghai Girls (which I happily reviewed here). For some of those titles, the wait list at our large library system is actually pretty high, so I was impressed with their availability.
On the down side, though, I found the shipping and returning time frame longer than I expected. Part of the issue was that the return packages couldn’t be dropped in the pickup boxes on my street, but rather brought to the post office because of regulations on package weights. For some people this may not be an issue, but for our situation, it made the turnover time for me longer than I had anticipated. Also, near the end of my membership time, a new distribution site was opened that was closer than the one that I was originally assigned, so this may have eventually shortened my shipping time, as well.
Overall though, if I were still living in a setting in which access to borrowing books was limited, I would most definitely consider BookSwim as a viable option for its selection, reasonable pricing, and availability of popular titles. And for avid readers like me, the real bottom line is simply having books in my hand and on my shelf for the wondrous moments that life allows me to lose myself in a story.
Dawn has no plans to leave her urban home setting any time soon, but she always likes having options for book acquisition available to her. Books (and children and laughs) play a major role on her blog, my thoughts exactly.
What an interesting concept!
I just read a post from a blogger talking about her library and how she had to pay to use it. I totally get that — especially in smaller towns — and can see how this would be a great alternative.
I too LOVE my well-funded New England library, but love this idea as well.
I love using the library, but this is a great alternative/supplement. Do you know if they have audio available? Unfortunately, I often need to multi task.