My local newspaper carried a story this week about a start up company called -- BookSwim -- which has been nicknamed the "Netflix of Books" (www.bookswim.com)
BookSwim's business model calls for monthly subscriber fees of $15 to $20 for the company to send readers their "top five book choices" (they prefer/hope you select paperback books which are much easier for shipping costs and inventory challenges). Once readers return three books in a pre-paid envelope the reader's next three choices will then be mailed to them.
This is the classic business strategy of adapting/copying a proven business model for application in a new market -- in this case DVDs (Netflix) to books (BookSwim). Now I realize my mind wanders A LOT at times but when I read this article I was reminded of a tech magazine article I read several years ago about an Internet start up company. One of the founders was reading a book at the time which explained how the ancient Egyptian postal service worked so he could get insights on how best his company could "connect the plumbing of the Internet" to provide services to their clients.
Yet another reason for all of us to read a wide selection of books.
Todd
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