And lately I’ve expanded from not just “books” but to also graphic novels and comics.

My question for you guys today:

What the last book/comic/graphic novel you’ve read?

I like this question a lot because it’s fun to get ideas of what to snatch up on my next trip to Barnes & Noble.

For myself, I just finishd City of Ember and absolutely loved it. Review coming later today or Monday, but let’s just say it was a wonderful tale and so very unique.

What about you guys?

Okay, first off, I don’t even use Netflix, I use Blockbuster Online, which is the superior service, something perhaps I’ll write about someday soon. Regardless, both services allow you to pay a monthly fee to basically rent movies for as long as you want and as often as you want.

Wouldn’t you know it? Someone thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing, but with BOOKS.

It’s called BookSwim.com. The image above (once you click it and make it all huge and pretty) basically models how it works, which is exactly how Netflix/Blockbuster function:

1. You have a queue, which they call a POOL
2. You put books you want to read into your pool
3. They ship them to you when available
4. You read them as fast or slow as you want.
5. Send them back, postage paid both ways
6. Get more books

As you can see, it’s exactly like Netflix.  Although they have a wider range of plans for the crazy person who loves to read a book a day. I know someone like that. This blog post is almost totally meant for her, but I know others will still want to try Book Swim.

Plans – per month (some of these you can pay annually if you want):

1. 2 books at a time – $14.99
2. 3 books at a time – $19.99
3. 5 books at a time – $23.99
4. 7 books at a time – $27.99
5. 9 books at a time – $31.99
6. 11 books at a time – $35.99

Obviously I haven’t tested much of it out, since I’m not sure I can read fast enough for it. Lately, it’s taken me a month to finish a book. But if you do read a book a week, I have to say, $23.99 for five books out at a time is a lot cheaper than buying all five of them.

It also depends on whether you are a book collector or not. I mostly don’t need to keep books once I’m done, and would rather loan them out to friends anyways.

The only downside I found with the website is the search tool. I put in “The Road” and it finally got to it on the third search page. Cormac McCarthy also didn’t come up in an author search for some reason, but obviously they have The Road and other novels he’s written.

They claim a library of 150,000 books and growing.

So check it out if you want, maybe give it a test ride and let us know what you think!