How To Read More While Saving Money

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I do not know about you but as an avid reader, one of my biggest struggles is to find books for relatively cheap. I know that I can’t be the only one to spend way too much money on books and thus today, I have decided to share with you the ways I do save money when it comes to buying books. Depending on your country, you may also look for the cheapest books but in France (as in many other countries), books are considered a “cultural good” and thus, their price is set in stone. That means that one bookseller can’t sell a book cheaper than his neighbour, in the limit of a discount of 5% (nonetheless, the problem remains when it comes to eBooks). Are you ready?

Going to the library

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Being a librarian myself, I could not avoid this non-negotiable. I know the pleasure of owning your own books but when it comes to saving money, your local library is your best-friend. Even though the subscription may look expensive (depending on your city, it really may), make sure that it is not free for you. For instance, at the library I work at, the subscription is free for many different people such as students, teachers, people looking for a job &c. Moreover, even though the subscription can seem expensive:

1. It will always be cheaper that buying all of your books.
2. In France at least, reading in the library is free. The subscription allows you to take the books with you and read them at home but entering the library is totally free, which means that you can definitely read in here. This can be good to know so if you are not sure, ask a librarian and I am sure they will be happy to talk to you.

You may also like : 5 Ways To Read A Book In A Foreign Language For The First Time ♡ Learn A New Language.

Browsing second-hand books at your local bookshop

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Lots of bookshops also sell second-hand books. Some shops are specialized in those books but others just aren’t and have a little part of the store dedicated to second-hand books. Usually, the second-hand books (except for those which are considered “rare books”) are super cheap and for them, the law stating that all book should be sold at the same price everywhere does not apply.

You may think that you will only find used and old books, but a lot of them are actually in really good condition (are your books looking that terrible at home?) and a lot of people hate keeping books and just sell them after they read them. Thus, you may find almost new books in these bookshops: just keep your eyes open!

Buying second-hand online

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If you do not have a bookshop selling second-hand books in your town, do not panic: I’ve got you covered! I have that type of bookshop in my town but I have another problem: they do not sell books written in English! I mean, I live in France so obviously, that is not the type of thing you find so easily. Thus, I have found websites that sell second-hand books and here are the links:

• Momox
• BetterWorldBooks
• Book Depository

There are obviously other websites (and if you know some, I would be happy to read about them in the comments!) but those are the three I have personally ordered from. The books were all in excellent condition, even though I would say that Momox is my least favorite one.

You may also like : 5 Ways To Read A Book In A Foreign Language For The First Time ♡ Learn A New Language.

Reading books on Project Gutenberg

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I know that many people love physical books but if you are not against a great eBook, you may love that tip. When I was studying English literature for my bachelor’s degree, I remember using this one a lot! It is called Project Gutenberg and it is one of the first online libraries ever created. You can find thousands of books available for free that you can read either directly on the website, or on an eReader whenever you want (I personally read these books on my Kindle in a Pdf. format).

You will find mostly classics, but there are also a lot of other books, the authors of which have sold their rights before the legal limit. You must also know that many libraries offer digitized books on their online libraries, you can for instance browse the collections if the British Library for free!

You may also like : 5 Ways To Read A Book In A Foreign Language For The First Time ♡ Learn A New Language.

Buying eBooks

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You can also buy your eBooks. Obviously, you will have to pay but usually (I say “usually” because you need to be careful: that is not always to case), the digital format is cheaper than the physical one. You can read an eBook on your computer but I would advise buying an eReader as it will do less damage to your eyes. Obviously, paying for an eReader may sound like a terrible idea if you want to save money but if you read many books, it will end up being worth it in the long run as you will pay far less for each book. You can find readers under $100 that work wonders, just have a look at them.

Making book swaps with friend

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For those of you who still prefer physical books, maybe do book swaps with friends. If your friends are bookworms just like you are, you could curate a shared reading list and whenever one of you buys one of the books on that list, they can lend that book to the other after reading it. That is a great way to share the amount of money invested into books, even though that implies having reading tastes similar to your friend’s.

Subscribing to Scribd

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This is absolutely not sponsored whatsoever but if you read a lot of books every month, subscribing to a platform like Scribd may be a good idea. You will be able to read and listen to many books every month for less that $10 a month, which is super cheap (even though more expensive than most libraries). You can click here to have access to my comparison between Scibd and Audible.

I really hope that today’s post was somehow useful to you. I know how hard it can be to find books without spending hundreds of dollars on them every month so really, let’s hope these tips can help you save money just like I do. If you have any other tip, feel free to share it with us in the comments!