Subscription boxes are having a moment. If you’ve been on YouTube or Instagram in the past two or so years, chances are you’ve seen a subscription box unboxing video. There are lots of options today for all kinds of people, including beauty, skincare, and even clothing. My favorite, though, is one of the OG subscription boxes: Book of the Month. This book subscription service has been hooking people up with great reads since 1926, and it isn’t hard to see why they hold up after nearly a century:
It’s inexpensive and the prices are fixed
Subscription boxes can be expensive. I’ve seen some that cost as much as $50 a month, and frankly, as college students we shouldn’t be dropping that much money on fun items. Book of the Month is fairly inexpensive at $14.99/month, and you can always skip a month and have your credit rollover. So every month you’ll get a fresh new read or two for a lower price than Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
It takes the guesswork out of the question, “what should I read next?”
We live in an age of endless content. As in, there are just so many books to read, movies to watch, TV series to binge and music to listen to that choosing where to put your time and money can be overwhelming. Every month, BOTM curates a list of five new releases for its subscribers to pick from. Of course, you still need to decide which book will go in your box, but choosing from a set of five is a lot easier and a lot less time-consuming than choosing one from the hundreds of books at your local library or bookstore. And if you really can’t choose just one, you can have additional books put in your box for just $9.99 each.
Their selections are diverse and they highlight new authors
If you refuse to commit yourself to one genre (or if you still aren’t sure where your tastes fall), Book of the Month’s selection will impress you. Every month, they offer five books across different genres, including romance, historical fiction, thrillers, nonfiction and more. Regardless of whether you’re in the mood for a fluffy love story or a gory murder mystery, you’re bound to find something that you’ll enjoy. Plus, at least one selection every month is a debut novel, so you may even end up discovering a new favorite author in the process!
Shipping is free
I have a vendetta of sorts against paying for shipping. I will buy things that I don’t really need to reach the “free shipping” threshold. Well, I never need to do this with Book of the Month, because shipping is always free, regardless of whether you get one book or seven. So BOTM is overall straightforward, from its easy selection process to its fixed pricing.