Book clubs, good or bad?
May 01 '01
The Bottom Line If you love the best-sellers and read often, a book club just might be the best bet for you.
Subscription book clubs can be great for you or your child to help build your home library. I've been a member of book clubs in the past and so have my children and there are good things and bad things about them.
Who should join?
If you love to read and always read the best-sellers when they first come out, you could definitely benefit from a subscription book club. They generally run specials where you can get a good deal on a particular best-seller and they also run specials on two for the price of one.
Who shouldn't join?
People who generally don't read a lot probably shouldn't join, you are usually better off looking for sales on the books you want rather than joining a club. Also, if you don't read a lot of the best-sellers and enjoy reading the less popular books, a club wouldn't really benefit you. Everyone has different interests in books and the clubs generally keep with the best-sellers and past best-sellers for their selections.
How do they work?
Generally, you sign up to get a certain amount a books for a certain price. They always seem to run different promotions at different times to get people to join. When I joined my very first book club I got to choose 10 books and pay just shipping and handling and I could choose my first two selections for half price to help start fulfill my obligation. Most clubs offer these type of deals to get you in and if you love reading, it's not a bad deal.
Once you join, there is usually some kind of obligation where you have to buy so many books in a certain amount of time. When I joined, years ago, I had to buy 5 books in 3 years to fulfill the obligation, which I had no problem with. Nowadays, there are clubs where there are no obligations to buy anymore in a certain amount of time, they are just hoping you do.
Depending on how often they send out the mailings, usually about every 4 to 6 weeks, there will be a feature selection that you may want or you can choose from the multitude of other books they offer. If you want the feature selection, you do nothing, it will automatically be sent to you, but if you don't want that one and want a different one, or no book at all, you have to send the card back by a certain date or it will be sent to you anyways.
The Good
If you happen to want the feature selection you don't have to do a thing, no forms to send in. Orders are very easy to fill out and send in and they do offer quite a selection to choose from, if you like the popular books. The books are packed pretty securely, I've never had a damaged book delivered to me.
The Bad
Having to fill out the form and send it in by a certain date so you won't have the feature selection sent to you. I would much rather have it that you send the form in when you want to order. There were times when I sent it and they got it a day late and the feature selection had already been shipped to me and I had to return it. The other bad thing is when you have to return a book. They do offer free return shipping, but there is a catch to that. You see the post office will charge you to return it if it's been opened, even if you tape it back up. I had a couple times where I had to pay to return the book because they sent me the wrong one, so my advice would be if you are sure you didn't order a book, don't open it, just put on the package did not order/return to sender and you won't be charged to ship it back.
Conclusion
All in all, book clubs can be great for some and it can help you build your home library with all the best-sellers you want. When you join, just pay attention to any obligation you have to fulfill and make sure you can and send those forms in on time. I built up my home library when I was with a book club years ago and I also built up a large collection of Dr. Seuss books for my kids. I'm not a member anymore, but that is because of money, now I usually buy paperback books for myself when I find ones that interest me and when they're on sale, but that's just my situation right now.
If you love to read from the best-seller list and read often, a book club just might be the best bet for you.
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