Thursday, June 5, 2008

10,000 Public Librarians Pull Their Hair

Get Rich Slowly points out this question that someone submitted to an online forum (as far as I know, it is legit, but can't vouch for it):

"book rental service?
was just thinking. my sister does -alot- of reading, and spends like $1000 a year on just books alone. most of them she reads once then never looks at again. is there any kind of like…video rental store but for books? would make things alot cheaper, plus once one person had read one the next person can get enjoyment from it etc"

If you're not using your public library as a primary source of read-once fiction, you are throwing away money. Even with late fees (which are usually tiny), it beats buying the book, which you then have to store forever or take somewhere to get rid of anyway; you may as well return it to the same place you got it from.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The person who answered the question was very kind. The rest of us are saying "duh".

Anonymous said...

We may be saying "duh" but doesn't it make you wonder... would there be enough people who would prefer to pay for a book rental experience than go to the public library to make a viable business opportunity? Or are those people already the ones who just read the book at the Borders cafe?