(Besides, y'know, the Slap Chop.)
I was just lounging in the tub contemplating the universe and my pedicure, which btw is still looking not-so-bad, and I had a brilliant yet untenable idea. What I would really like would be a service like Netflix, but with books. A fabulous middle ground in-between using the library and buying your reading material. Let me explain.
The problem with the library, for me, is that it is convenient neither in terms of location or hours, but more importantly, that there's a time limit on how long you are supposed to keep what you borrow. I know the penalty for late return is extremely minimal, but in moral terms, if you promise to return something in two weeks and you keep it for two months, that's just Not Nice. And sometimes I just want to keep something for two months and digest it slowly (or quickly, but just when I'm in exactly the right mood for it.)
The problem with buying your books, either in the local bookstore or on amazon, is *not* for me, the actual paying for it. Being a writer myself (ha!) I have no problem with authors making at least a pittance for their artistic labors. I in fact heartily support it. My problem with buying books is that then you have them. You can try giving them away to your friends, but all too often they wanna give them back when they're done because they don't have room for them either. You can try to donate them to charity, but that's surprisingly difficult and inconvenient too. You can ::gasp:: toss them, but that's just wrong.
So a Netflix-like service where they conveniently deliver the book you want to your door for a fee, you keep it as long as you damn well please without guilt, and then you send it back, would be perfect. But it would never work. First of all, nobody reads anymore. At least, far far fewer people read books than rent DVDs. Secondly, books are far heavier and more expensive to mail than DVDs, so that would hugely drive up the rental cost, plus, since the postal service won't let you just drop them in a mailbox, every time you wanted to return one you'd have to go to the post office. At which point, convenience-wise, you might as well be going to the library.
Ah, well.
xoxo
3 comments:
Shangri-Lowell being the answer to all of life's sub-optimalities, I will mention that my building has arranged a useful little rotating collection into which you can donate all your read books, and help yourself to those of others.
I think the answer has already arrived: the Kindle.
It's even better than NetFlix. You get to keep all the books forever since you never need to return them. They take don't take up any physical space. Instant gratification: no waiting for days by your mailbox: get the books you want immediately via the cellular network. And, although each book costs $9.95, they'll take a lot longer to read than two hours (plus you can keep them forever so can use them again) so probably no more expensive per hour of entertainment/enjoyment than a subscription to NetFlix.
You know, I was almost going to mention the Kindle in my original post, but I'll just say it now: the problem with that is that it's not a freakin book. I don't want to read an entire book off a device. (Just as I do not, at this point, want the internet in my pants.) I know that in 20 years I'll probably more or less have to, unless I'm dead by then, which I may well be, and I suppose if I have to, I'll get used to it. Like I'm slowly getting used to the idea of all mp3s and no CDs (but whither the fuckin' album art I ask you?). But until the day I am forced, no.
In the meantime I will just have to go with Plan B and dump my unwanted books on Mr Barma's neighbors at every opportunity.
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