Something new to share with you all today: Oyster, AKA Netflix for bibliophiles.
You know how much I enjoy reading, far more than any other leisure activity (unless eating ice cream is considered a leisure activity). When I heard about Oyster, I was totally impressed and excited. For $10 per month, users can download unlimited books from their library of 100,000+ titles. Similarly to Netflix, they won't have the uber-new available, since licensing takes a bit to sort out.
Although my initial reaction is positive, I'm growing a bit more suspicious, probably in cohesion with how close I get to pulling out my credit card and setting up an account. Isn't Oyster pretty much a library? Yes, there is no waiting for titles, but you can only read one book at a time anyway, so putting novels I'd like to read on hold doesn't bother me. I can see it being an excellent decision for someone in a book club, because you need to read a specific book at a specific time, and would quite possibly have to buy it for $10 anyway.
I'm going to give their free one-month trial a shot anyway, most likely over the holidays. I want to get the most bang for my buck, what with all the travel time and relaxing by the fire with a good book...or 100,000 of them.
ooh, let us know how it works out!
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