Monday, January 12, 2009

BookMeABook.com - the book rental company

Talking to someone who recently read my book review posts asked me where am I sourcing my books from. Whether I'm buying them or renting them? Its then that I realised I'vent written about the book rental company from where I'm sourcing my books from.

In September 2008, I had received an SMS advertising for this site "BookMeABook.com" where they were giving books on rent after you register with them and paid some refundable deposit to people in New Delhi and NCR region.

I have always been fond of reading but somehow always preferred borrowing them rather than buying them to read. Reason being, books need lot of care and lot of space to be maintained. The space was the main constraint why I preferred to borrow them and this company seemed to be just perfect for readers like me.

I went to their website and they had couple of plans on offer depending on how many books would you want in a month. I opted for the easiest plan available i.e. the one where they offered 2 books a month. After browsing through their website for about 5 min, without thinking much I went ahead and got the subscription for it. Then I proceeded to add books to my queue from their catalog which I wanted to read. The same evening I got a call from them and next day my books along with a bookmark were there at my doorstep. (Its another story that the bookmark has been duly chewed away by betu ram from one corner. ) I went WOW with their promptness. And so far they have kept the WOWness intact except that they do no deliver the books in the same sequence as I've specified.

I wrote to them about it and they had their reasons that all the copies were out in circulation and thus the preferred sequence of books cannot be adhered to. To some extent it makes sense but I still can't help feeling a bit disappointed when the book I'm looking forward to doesn't arrive.

So this is how their system works. I've provided a delivery address at the time of registration. I specify the list of books that I would like to read and sequence them. The next step is to click on the button "Order Pickup". For a first time user, it basically means "Send me the books". For a second time and subsequent time user, it means, "I've read the books you had sent and please send me my next lot of books". Once you have submitted your "Order Pickup", a guy will come personally and take the read books from you and give you your next lot. In the envelope that they send the books in, they also send a self addressed envelope for us to keep the books back in before handing them over to the delivery boy.

Its obvious that they had put enough thoughts about the system before implementing it and they have been able to keep up to it. The books I've received have all been in good condition.

They have quite a few books in each genre including for kids although couple of books which I've looked for once in a while I haven't found there. I'm planning to write to the librarian with those book titles so that they can add them to their collection.

So far I'm pretty happy with their service and I hope they keep increasing their collection. I've already figured out the books I want to read for the whole year and am looking forward to read them all.

So any of residing in you Delhi and NCR can make good use of this site if you are fond of reading.

So happy reading everyone!

16 comments:

  1. This is cool. I am going to forward this to friends of mine there...and to some entrepreneurs here...

    :)

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  2. this is a nice concept...wish it had been there when i was in Delhi...i was forced to go all teh way to the british council library to get some reading material for son and me.

    i must forward this to friends of mine in Delhi.

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  3. your page layout is screwed up in Firefox, probably coz of new header image.

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  4. @all: Yes a very good concept for readers like me.

    Stone: I can see it just fine. I guess it has been cached at your end. As when uploading a new pic initially I had uploaded the wrong size but later updated it. So just refresh it and it should work fine.

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  5. thats a wonderful service it seems... lucky Delhi and NCR...

    BIG FLIX movie renting is similar... currently getting movies filled... hope by the time i finish here the book club comes to Indore ~~~!!

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  6. Thats a wondeful info. Need to chk it out.

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  7. wow!!! lovely initiative...thanks for the link...

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  8. sounds nice... i use the same kind of service in blore called easylib... they are such blessings

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  9. oh thats very cool! like a doorstep library! :)

    cheers!

    abha

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  10. Loved the idea,
    wish my city had one too.
    am so so so jealous of you.
    maybe i could start my own company, so i can buy the books as well as earn from them too.

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  11. Interesting. I have been using www.Friendsofbooks.com. Same concept and I almost always get books that I want. Pretty cool website too.

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  12. yeah, fob is also there, but if you compare websites, bookmeabook is much better one..has larger range of books anyway. thanks for this info nm, cos one of my friends, divya, was using friendsofbooks, and has now changed over to bookmeabook after i gave her your link, she says shes happier there, cos she gets the books she wants sooner than from friendsofbooks.

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  13. hey nm,
    i came across this blog post of yours by chance. thank you for the encouragement! enthusiastic people like you keep us going!
    regards,
    Nidhi, from BookMeABook.

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  14. Whatever its written above, I fully agree. Somehow I am happy with their services.

    Service is ok but if you send an email regarding any concern, you will never receive reply whether by phone or email. If you call them on +91 971774390 (may be of Nidhi Verma), you will not get satisfactory answer. If phone disconnects and you call back, it will never be picked up. As per their Contact Us page, "Have we missed a book ? Problem finding your book? Delivery problem? Suggest new Titles, Authors , Categories Mail us at librarian@bookmeabook.com", I am not sure whether I should contact them for any title as as I never got response of my emails. These are few concerns which I faced.

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