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Ars Test Drives the "Netflix For Books"

Posted by timothy on from the ten-dollars-a-month-forever dept.

Ars Technica reviewer Casey Johnston gives a mildly positive review to the Oyster book-rental app (and associated site), which intentionally tries to be for books what Netflix has become for movies: a low-price, subscription-based, data-sifting source of first resort. For $10 a month, users can read any of the books in Oyster's catalog (in the range of 100,000, and growing), and their reading habits are used to suggest new books of interest (with some bum steers, it seems, at present). It's iOS-only for now, with an Android version expected soon. I've only grudgingly moved more and more of my reading to tablets, but now am glad I have; still, I don't like the idea of having my books disappear if I don't pay a continuing subscription.

6 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Looks familiar by fibonacci8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's like a library, but we charge money for it.

    --
    Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
    1. Re:Looks familiar by artor3 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The added value that you're paying for comes from the recommendation system. I haven't tried it, since I don't have any iOS devices, but if it works well it could be worthwhile.

      If you don't want to pay, there are still libraries, not to mention plenty of sites with free ebooks.

    2. Re:Looks familiar by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's like a library, but we charge money for it.

      Yes, but it is also like Netflix, so it will not have any book that you are actually interested in reading.

    3. Re:Looks familiar by LihTox · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If we're talking about a lending library, then they take away your books after 3 weeks, even IF you continue to be a member.

      Our public library has something very similar running already: there are a number of ebooks and audiobooks available for 7 or 21-day loans, for free. It was kind of neat this summer when I was on vacation in another country, and still able to check out a book from the library. :)

  2. Actually sounds attractive, but... by YutakaFrog · · Score: 4, Informative

    I actually think I would enjoy something like this, as I'm really enjoying using Kindle on Android lately. But not to the tune of $10 / month. The thing is for the $15 / mo you pay for Netflix, you could buy one movie. You watch one movie during that month that you otherwise would have bought, and you break even. It takes you one evening, and you still have 29 more days in the month to get more than your money's worth out of it. For the $10 they want per month for this service, you can buy one paperback book. But I know very few people who read more than one book per month right now. Maybe that's just because me and a lot of the people I know are all obsessed with the huge fantasty epics for now... (*cough*BrandonSanderson*cough) But personally, I really don't think I'd sign up for more than $2 or $3 per month. Good luck to them though.

  3. Content? by BenJeremy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Their website is about useless. How about some way I can peruse Oyster's current content offerings?

    I'm a sci-fi fan, and that's what I read... if you aren't offering books in my genre, why would I want to spend money on your service, and if I have no way of knowing that you offer any books in my genre, I'm not gambling just to be disappointed by your selection.

    On second thought, their web site actually makes me a bit angry. Probably because of its seemingly hipsterish pretentiousness.