6 Ways to Read More on a Budget

There comes a time as a reader/book collector when you consider the vast number of books you’ve amassed and realise that you’ve spent an eye-watering sum on (hopefully) artfully arranged sentences. This may do nothing to put a halt to your reading and/or book buying addictions, but unlike those issues, the amount you spend on reading can be controlled. It’s perfectly reasonable to want to read more without spending a fortune, so I want to offer a few tips I’ve picked up along the way on how to read more while spending less.

I’ll start with the obvious ones that allow you to get print books for a lower price:

• Book Swaps – As a reader, you might have other friends who enjoy reading too and if they’re into the same genres as you, you might find it beneficial to ask them to join you in a book swap. Alternatively, you could find some friendly people online who are willing to do a book swap with you and find a new book with a glowing recommendation.
• Second-hand books – Buying pre-loved books is a great way to get print books at a discounted price, often still in great condition. You can get them from second-hand bookstores as well as online. It’s a great way to give an old book a new home and save on buying full-price new books.
• Libraries – You can’t talk about reading on a budget without mentioning libraries. Free books that also don’t have to clutter your home? It’s a great way to save money on reading and avoid cramming your space with books you did not even enjoy. The only obstacle with this one is that some libraries have limited selections and not everyone has a library within reach, however, if you do, they’re always worth a try.

If you’re not afraid to expand your reading horizons:

• eBooks and Audiobooks – Often these come at discounted prices or if they’re public domain, you can get audiobooks on YouTube for free. It’s worth giving them a try if you never have.
• Kindle app – I talk about the Kindle and eBooks far too much, but all you need is a phone or a tablet and you’re able to have any book you want at your fingertips, often at a lower price than print books if you’re willing to give that up. A lot of the time you can get books for between 99p and £4.99. There is also the Amazon First Reads scheme that I’ve written about in a previous post in which you can get one book for free every month as a Prime member.
• Read online – There are a lot of websites online where you can read for free. They range from websites such as Project Gutenberg, which is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks that you can either read online or download to your Kindle. Then there are also sites or apps such as fanfiction.net and Wattpad, on which you can find several good quality stories written by all kinds of authors for free. The stories on these sites can also be quite niche, which might be a good thing if you have a particular genre or world you want to read more about. And you can do so for free. What more could you want?

There are a lot of ways to gain access to new books and read without breaking the bank, it’s just about figuring out what exactly is the right fit for you. Plus, if you save money generally, you’ll be able to afford that special edition or hardback you want without having to worry too much about not being able to eat after splurging for it.

I’d love to know if there are any online reading services you like to use and any recommendations you might have from them. Thanks for reading!