What an Idea!

So the other day I was at Border's standing in line and I heard a conversation between two people about Netflix. Since I am basically obsessed with Netflix and had nothing else to do while I waited in the sea of people returning stuff and/or using gift cards, I listened in. Here's how it went:

Lady 1: Yeah I just love Netflix.
Lady 2: [Looking at the pile of books she was purchasing] Wouldn't it be awesome if there was a Netflix for books? Where you could rent them out and return them and get a new one? I would totally pay $15 a month for that.
Lady 1: Totally! You could make a ton of money with that idea.

Me (thinking to myself, of course): HELLO! A place where you can "rent out" books? It's not a brilliant idea, it's called a LIBRARY and they've had them for years. Aaaand you don't have to pay for books, they're free.

Wow. Too bad the line was up to the cashier by then or else I might have said that out loud.

I looked into it a little more to see if anyone else thought they came up with this brilliant idea and guess what? There are actually a few websites out there that are basically Netflix for books. One is Booksfree.com (which, ironically enough, is definitely NOT free but costs $10-$40 per month depending on your plan) and others include Paperspine and Bookswim.

I guess getting free books from the library just isn't convenient enough for these people. Personally, I'm gonna stick with Des Moines Public Library.