{"id":2650,"date":"2007-08-04T19:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-05T03:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2650"},"modified":"2007-08-04T19:54:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-05T03:54:00","slug":"2650","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2650","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font face=\"Verdana\" size=\"2\">Okay, so most everything that&#8217;s wrong with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookswim.com\/\">Bookswim<\/a> as a concept has already been pointed out in the comments <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingnetflix.com\/2007\/07\/bookswim-netfli.html\">at Hacking Netflix<\/a> (which is where I found out about it), but still:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Netflix model is popular because it eliminates exorbitant late fees and allows the customer to decide how long to keep a movie out.<\/li>\n<li>Books, on the other hand, are freely available at public libraries. And while there are late fees associated with this system, and limits on how long a book can be checked out or how often renewed, the late fees are often not very high, nor are the limits often very short.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Their selection, too, is fairly limited. I tried plugging in a handful of the titles that <i>I<\/i> can&#8217;t find at my local library<sup>1<\/sup>, but none of them came up in my search. Their catalog is a little weird and incomplete<sup>2<\/sup> and feels not at all like Netflix, but more like the selection you&#8217;d see at very small used bookstore, or at a very large garage sale. I suspect that a lot of the books come from their own shelves and donations.<\/p>\n<p>I think Bookswim will appeal primarily, if not exclusively, to people without access to a public library (or even a decent used bookstore). But beyond that?<\/p>\n<p>I give them credit for trying something new, and maybe some people will think it&#8217;s a terrific idea and a valuable service. I just know that I won&#8217;t be signing up anytime soon.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Verdana\" size=\"1\"><sup>1<\/sup> Oh, to have access to a university library again&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><sup>2<\/sup> They have the second, third, and fourth books of Frank Herbert&#8217;s <i>Dune<\/i> series, but not <i>Dune<\/i> itself. Oh, and they have Steve Martin&#8217;s <i>Shopgirl<\/i> listed as science fiction.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, so most everything that&#8217;s wrong with Bookswim as a concept has already been pointed out in the comments at Hacking Netflix (which is where I found out about it), but still: The Netflix model is popular because it eliminates exorbitant late fees and allows the customer to decide how long to keep a movie &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2650\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-2650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}