Why do we Prefer to Rent Books Online?

When we rent books, we save money without giving up something that is dang near as special to us as our first born child will be... BOOKS!

According to the U.S. Department of Labor the average American spends about $118 per year on books?

Um... I don't know about you, but a single trip to the bookstore each month and Aaron and I would blow that little ditty right out of the water!

Heck, even going to a used bookstore we could do some pretty hefty damage, which is why we decided to weigh the pros and cons of using an online book rental service as an alternative.

What are the Pros and Cons of Renting Books Online?

The Pros

• Rent an unlimited number of books each month (as many as we can handle)



• Save money by paying a small monthly fee instead of buying each book individually

• Books are shipped directly to our home, Netflix style

• No shipping fees to receive or return our book rentals

• Option to rent paperback novels or audiobooks (cd & mp3)

• There are NEVER any late fees

The Cons

• Pay a monthly fee to rent books... something we could do for free at the local library

• Rent books on a first come, first served basis, so we may have to wait for the ones we want

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Would You Benefit from an Online Book Rental Membership?

• If you purchase books more than a couple times each month
• If you often end up with more books than you planned on buying
• If you are too busy to make regular trips the local library
• If you love to read but you're running out of room to store books
• If a want the luxury of reading as much as you want without spending more on books than you do on gas

You would definitely benefit from renting books online. Still not sure if it's right for you? Take it for a test drive and see how it goes.

Our Experience With Online Book Rental

Aaron and I currently rent books through a service provided by Booksfree.com. We've been customers for a little more than a year now, having signed up mid November 2010.

As paying customers, we are more than pleased with the quality of service we receive and the great support staff that they have available to answer questions or straighten out any issues that come up, though we've not really had any significant issues to date.

Why BooksFree?

In comparison to other, similar companies, this one stood out for us because they offer paperback, nonfiction, children's stories and audiobooks for rent in both cd and mp3 format.

Not only that, but their prices are significantly lower than their competitors.

In addition, they have a variety of membership levels ranging from 1 book at a time up to a whopping 15 books at a time, all of which allow you to rent an unlimited number of titles each month.

When we originally signed up, we opted to receive 1 audiobook at a time to test out the service, but have since upgraded to 2, due to the sheer number of books we now go through having unlimited monthly access to tons of audiobooks.

Even receiving 2 books at a time, we are still saving tons of money. Our membership a little more than half what the average audiobook costs and we listen to at least 5-6 per month!

Any Complaints?

Just one. In all this time, it's hard to believe there's only one, and it's not even really a complaint anymore because upgrading to rent 2 at a time took care of the issue.

So, what's the complaint?

The processing and shipping of book orders takes a bit longer than we expected.

When we were getting 1 at a time, we would send the book back on Monday, and if we were lucky, would have another by around Friday or Saturday. Most of the time, it was at least the following Monday before we received another, and in many instances, even longer.

However, like I said, the upgrade to rent 2 books at a time fixed this problem. Now we just stagger the return of the books until we know they've shipped the next. That way, they're always getting one back and sending us a new one before we've finished listening to the book we've still got.

Just remember, if you're planning to rent 1 book at a time, you may have a bit of a wait in between the titles you rent.

Do You Know Someone Who Loves to Read?

A BooksFree membership makes a fantastic gift for any occasion. Share the gift of books with family and friends by giving them a discounted membership to rent books.

Get 20% off all gift memberships at BooksFree.com