“If I have a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes” – Erasmus
For some of us we may have the luxury to live like this, but for those with a wife and children food and clothes probably takes priority over buying more books, therefore we must find ways to read more for less money. Here are some tips I have on how one can do this.
1. Ask for Books on Christmas and your birthday as well as any other time you may receive a gift. Several online book sellers will allow you to make wish list as well. (Wtsbooks, Amazon, CVBBS)
2. Go to your public library for books that you don’t want to own and will probably not read again or reference. This will allow you to save your money for books that you will want to have for your children and grandchildren to read. You can also check out audio books which will allow you to read (listen) while in the car.
3. Check to see if your public library or local college library ever gives away books or has book sales. The Lexington KY public library once a year has a huge book sale with thousands of books $1 for hardbacks and $0.25 for paperbacks. I walked through Eastern Kentucky University’s library several times when they had carts of books for free, even if you don’t want those books you can pick up and sell to half price books if you have one in the area.
4. Used book stores often have some real jewels hidden within, while this can be time consuming searching through a lot of junk books, what book lover doesn’t enjoy spending time searching through them. Half Price books has some pretty good deals but the first thing I do is go straight to the back where there are books often around $1. These books are ones that they have a lot of or have been on shelf for a long time, you may see them out in the store for a higher price just because it has been on the shelf a shorter amount of time. I recently found 6 of Richard Belcher’s theological novels for a dollar a piece.
5. Some online book sellers will offer slightly damaged products at reduced rates and by slightly damaged it often only means a bent corner of a book or something that will probably happen as you read and use it anyways, the copies are readable. Check out wtsbooks “imperfect books”
6.If you are a college student you are eligible for 1 year of Amazon Prime which gets you free 2 day shipping on all products that qualify, this can make books more affordable if you get the good online price and have free shipping. I believe there is a similar program for moms.
7. Ligionier Ministries offers a number of books and other resources every friday from their website for $5. These are often new books published in the past couple of years and are always good books. On Fridays you will see the link under the store tab for $5 fridays.
8. Enter contest to win free books, nearly every Friday Tim Challies has a giveaway for a noteworthy book or three. Watch other blogs and look for contest they may be having.
9. Blogger review programs allow you to read and keep copies of books for free so long as you write a couple of reviews on the book, check out these programs here, here, here, and here
10. The last way I will mention, because in my personal opinion I prefer reading a hard copy of a book. But you can read quite a bit of good material online for free and if you have an e-reading device you can expand even broader. Desiring God ministries offers several books for free download, that ought to keep you busy for awhile. Check other sites as well, CCEL, Amazon Kindle, Monergism, and others you may find.
Tolle lege: Take up and read!
Leave comments with other ways to read more for less.
Along the same line as having a CBD or Amazon wishlist, I thought I would recommend something I did (as a seminary student). I made a CBD registry, which functions just like a wedding registry. This way, most of what I need (more or less) are in one place, and all I have to do is email the registry out. Once a book is purchased, it shows as ‘purchased’ on the list. Pretty cool.